I had several fun experiences with that stuff in Greece!
On a more somber note, I would like to see what comes of the investigation, don't care what is being reported right now. It is always easy to be the armchair quarterback. I am going to reach out to some of my Navy people in Japan and see what I can hear.
ETC (SW/AW), USN (1998-2008)
CVN-65, USS Enterprise
There are still good men who are willing to risk it all to come to the aid of their shipmates. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/navy-...200434952.html
Train 2 Win
Fitzgerald: When A Big Ocean Gets Small
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...ean-gets-small
It is a big ocean. Until you have been far into it, it is really hard to appreciate just how big. Bringing a ship back from Japan to Hawaii, I once went ten days without seeing another ship, either by eye or radar. That is a long time to be alone in the world, especially if you are moving in a straight line and at good speed.
On the other hand, you would be surprised at how crowded the ocean can get in certain places. The Strait of Malacca, for instance, divides the island of Sumatra from Malaysia. Not only is Singapore at the southern end—one of the great maritime ports of the world—but most of the shipping moving between Asia and Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, travels through this increasingly narrow, 600 mile-long passage. Every year, 100,000 ships transit this strait. By the way, these confined waters are infested with pirates and literally thousands of fishing boats. While a chart may make the strait seem wide, the passable channel for big ships is only a couple of miles wide.
That was a really interesting article. Very illuminating. For me though, the bottom line was in this observation in the comments section:
I'm sure it was a busy ocean out there, but to read the article you'd think that collisions would be happening left and right. They don't. And this one happened to a US Navy vessel, one of the best-equipped vessel in the world crewed by some of the best trained sailors in the world, and something that I perceive that the world holds to a higher standard. They failed.If you can't see and track a 30,000 ton loaded container ship, that's helpfully transmitting its position via AIS, on a dark clear night, till it plows into your side, how do you propose to fight a surface action against enemy warships, who definitely won't be cooperating, with missiles in the air?
To absolutely no one's surprise...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/17...eved-duty.html
Commanding officer of Navy warship in deadly collision relieved of duty
It's definitely not over yet. Investigators and upper command are looking closely at the whole watch section on duty at the time of the incident.
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