USS John McCain Gets Underway Two Years After Collision
Damage on left side of USS MCCAIN. (PO2 Joshua Fulton/US Navy)
The USS John McCain went back to sea in order to conduct sea trials. One goal for these trials is to test the repairs and another goal is to test the ship’s ability to conduct operations. This includes navigation, combat information center functions, communications, etc. This process will take months.
Before getting underway, crewmembers conducted in-port training. During the repairing phase, it appeared that workers found the damage to be more extensive than what was originally reported.
From Military Times:
While undergoing repairs in Yokosuka, Japan, these past two years, the McCain’s computer network, antenna systems, radar and berthing were all upgraded as well.
Mending the McCain had been expected to be relatively straightforward compared to the repairs needed to fix sister destroyer Fitzgerald, which suffered its own fatal west Pacific collision in June 2017.
But workers discovered earlier this year that McCain’s port shaft — which runs through the hull and turns one of the vessel’s twin screws — was out of alignment, Defense News reported in July.
The Navy Times article could be read here.
Category: Navy
Here’s to the ship being not only repaired properly, but also adequately crewed and more importantly, Commanded properly.
What became of the crew that was serving before the collision and was there a crew aboard while the repairs were being made?
Excellent question!
So she got an extended availability – GREAT!
Wishing her and her crew fair winds and following seas.
Hopefully the watch standers will be schooled in OLD SCHOOL navigation and not depend on some of these new fangled electronics.I wish them lots of luck. I really shouldn’t have knocked the electronic navigation systems since we did have a couple of collisions back in the late 60’s & 70’s I believe between the Big E and a tin can and an australian carrier and a can if I remember very vaguely.
Think this is one of the ones you’re remembering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne%E2%80%93Evans_collision
Enterprise had a big fire, caused by a rocket of the same type that started the Forrestal fire.
Yep – the collision between the HMAS Melbourne and the USS Frank E. Evans.
During that incident, the USS Evans crossed the path of the HMAS Melbourne and was cut in two on 3 June 1969 during a SEATO exercise; the USS Evans was a total loss (though the rear half did remain afloat; it was later stripped for parts and afterwards used for target practice, during which it was sunk). The HMAS Melbourne‘s bow was damaged, but the ship survived the incident.
The US Navy lost 74 sailors during that collision. Most were believed to have been in the front half of the USS Evans, which sank immediately.
Was it the Enterprise fire rumored to have been caused by a pilot name of McCain accidently firing it off while on deck?
No, that was the Forrestal, and as best I can recall, it was debunked. I believe the truth was that it was McCains plane that was HIT by the Zuni rocket.
Navy says it was the plane next to his (see the article I linked) that was hit by the errant Zuni rocket. McCain claimed in his book, writen maybe 35 years later, that it was his aircraft.
Either way, he was lucky to make it out alive. The pilot of the plane next to him died during the incident – both got out of their aircraft, but the other pilot was killed in the first major explosion. (McCain was wounded by shrapnel in the same explosion, but survived.)
Shack.
John McCain didn’t have anything to do with causing the flight deck fire aboard USS FORRESTAL (CVA-59).
I’m not a big McCain fan, but blaming McCain for causing the fire aboard USS FORRESTAL is a vicious, fabricated lie that just won’t go away.
It’s all absolute bullshit.
‘The Catastrophic Fire On Board USS Forrestal (CVA-59)’
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/disasters-and-phenomena/forrestal-fire.html
‘[…]
Forrestal was the first Atlantic Fleet carrier on Yankee Station, and she had been there only five days. As the ship prepared for its second strike of the day, at 1050, everything changed. The Navy in its definitive report on the event—Manual of the Judge Advocate General Basic Final Investigative Report Concerning the Fire on Board the USS FORRESTAL (CVA-59)—concluded that a stray electrical signal ignited the motor of a Zuni rocket carried by an F-4B Phantom II on the starboard quarter and shot across the deck, striking the external fuel tank of a fully armed A-4E Skyhawk on the port. At least one of the Skyhawk’s M-65 1,000-lb. bombs fell to the deck, cracked open, and was burning with a white-hot ferocity.
[…].’
Fuch him. That POS prematurely ended the career of air force general Gregory Martin w/ bullshit accusations at his confirmation hearing to be commander US Pacific Command.
I can only surmise McCain was desperate to keep PACOM which was his dad’s former command, and always commanded by a navy admiral under navy control. Glad this turd got flushed.
Oh, I figure there’s plenty of reasons to dislike / hate the guy, without bullshit accusations against him as well. No reason to sink to his level..
Well, I’ll sink to his level one day that’s for sure.
No, that was the fire on the USS Forrestal. And that allegation has been determined to be false.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire#Fire_and_explosions
McCain was indeed on the Forrestal’s flight deck at the time, awaiting launch – but it wasn’t his aircraft that launched the rocket that started the disaster.
According to the interwebz, USS Kearsarge CV-33 was nicknamed “Rammin’ Rankin’s Crash Barge” after suffering three collisions over a three-month period in 1953.
There will always be a crew on board the ship whether she is actively serving in the Fleet or the ship is in dry dock. The ship is “brought to life” (IIRC the phrase) at the commissioning by manning the ship and a crew remains with her until decommissioned.
As far as if the crew is the one which was serving before the collision, the ones determined to be culpable will be removed, but the rest of the crew remains in their normal rotation.
Of course, being in drydock the detailers may decide to short tour Sailors, Sailors may try to move on, but for all intents and purposes, Sailors will stay to the end of their tour.
This is a reply to 5th/77th FA’s first comment above.
Tanks MC, that ‘splained a good bit. Figured from some of the articles posted about the UCMJ cases that the deadbeats and ne’er do wells were gone. Being in drydock with repairs underway figured a token crew of some sort. Couldn’t see a real Sailor Man wanting to put up with that kind of duty for too long. Didn’t think about the repair work being done in Japan, guess AAA don’t want to pay for a tow all the way back to what, Mississippi or maybe even a dry dock at Pearl.
Figure too that once the sea trials/workups are done, most of the crew will be post collision troops what with it being close to 3 years since the crash? Personally, I wouldn’t want to serve on certain ships that had certain names. Guess for some jobs, the average Sailor doesn’t have a choice on that.