U.S.S. Miami, SSN-755
Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine.
Posted on 07/24/2012 2:26:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
PORTLAND, Maine — A civilian employee of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard arrested in connection with the May 23 blaze that caused $400 million in damage to the submarine USS Miami made his initial court appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday afternoon.
Casey J. Fury, 24, a Portsmouth resident and Portsmouth High School Class of 2006 graduate, was a civilian employee working aboard the submarine as a painter and sandblaster, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Maine. He was arrested Friday at the shipyard on two counts of arson “within special maritime and territorial jurisdiction,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Thomas Delahanty II.
Fury, who had been held at Cumberland County Jail since his arrest, appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday afternoon. Flanked by U.S. marshals, Fury entered the court room wearing an orange prisoner's uniform with his hands cuffed behind his back.
He did not enter a plea during the hearing in front of Magistrate Judge John H. Rich III, nor did he have bail set. Fury is being detained at the request of the government and will appear in court again Wednesday, Aug. 1, at 9:30 a.m. for a combined preliminary examination (probable cause hearing) and detention hearing, at which bail could be set.
Rich informed Fury that the prosecution had filed a motion suggesting that no set of conditions exist that would ensure Fury's appearance in court and the safety of the community if he is released on bail. The judge said Fury would have to present evidence to the contrary in order to receive bail.
(Excerpt) Read more at seacoastonline.com ...
U.S.S. Miami, SSN-755
Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine.
I was in Brememton in 76 for a new core in the reactor - crew did fire watches and oversaw every civilian on board. Assigned one-on-one when they came aboard to work.
I heard years later they stopped that practice and civilians were used for all work in the yard and went unsupervised except in the “nuc” sections of the boat. At that time Aft of frame 57.
Totally agree. A shipboard fire must be a very scary thing, especially in an encased submarine. I know my worst fear when in tank units was of a fire in a tank.
In this case, I’d like to see “ultra-maroon” meets “ultra-Marine.” I’m sure the Department of The Navy could pick up a phone and make the necessary arrangements.
Not a sub guy, but it doesn’t seem like an issue to me. The only time we banned carrying lighters on surface ships was when we were moving ammo and even that wasn’t really unnecessary with modern ammo. It wasn’t like we were moving bags of black powder.
First of all, he should be thankful he had a good paying job. I am sure it was good paying because anything done on government project must be paid according to the local wage scale set by unions.
Second, $400million this creep is either causing the USN or the contractor or both not to mention the reduced military rediness as the sub will not be ready for quite a bit longer time than planned.
Third, he should be incarcerated for life in one of the ballast tanks.
I guess restitution will be part of the punishment
I was in a Pershing Missile firing battalion, and matches and cigarette lighters were not allowed near missiles “on status”, ready for launch. I’ve worked as a subcontractor in Newport News shipyard, and we weren’t allow to have laser pointers or lighters. (Safety ran the shipyard.)
I really cannot see the down side to banning cigarette lighter in the shipyard.
The Doofus likely doesn’t realize some sailors are trained in ways to spot an arsonist. I’d bet cameras and assignments were looked at as well. When fires which have even a hint of suspicion happen on a ship they get a very intensive investigation. NIS {don’t know what they call it now} investigated suspected arson and all connected with a fire were questioned including the responders. I’m certain they’ll make sure no former sailors or Marines sit on the jury.
What a coinkidink! We were in the yard in Bremerton in 76-77 too. If memory serves we arrived in July or August ‘76. We didn’t get refueled; we did get a sonar refit and lots of other goodies, mostly weapons stuff and fire control. I was a nuke; I stood *plenty* of those fire watches as I had just arrived on the boat and was a “non-qual” at the time. As I recall the yardbirds did a lot of work unsupervised, even back aft — unless you call the fire watch “supervision”. :-) I remember one fire watch I stood *in* the reactor compartment, while the yard guy welded on the pressurizer in a really contorted position (for him). Some of those tig welding specialists were really, really good at what they did.
The fire took out the torpedo room but during a major overhaul, let alone being in dry dock, there is no ammo onboard. Actually if you want to worry about worst case scenarios with munitions, a major overhaul is the “best” time for a vessel to have a fire.
Actually, as of 29 June, the Navy was uncertain as whether it would repair the Miama or scrap it:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120629-NEWS-120629777
From the Wikipedia entry:
“The Navy Department debated on whether to scrap the ship. Both US Senators from Maine advocated to repair it. The United States Navy has asked congress to add $220 million to the operations and maintenance budget for emergent and unfunded ship repairs which will be used to help repair the Miami. In addition The Navy is also seeking options to pay for the additional repair costs once it receives funding in 2013.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_%28SSN-755%29
My first shipboard assignment out of tech school was to a ship that had had an engine room fire. I spent almost 5 months in the dry-dock watching and learning from the Yard-dogs how to remove and rerun armored cables. And yes it was a standard practice to have a crew member with each work party so we could keep an eye on them.
As far as the fire goes... Well I wasn’t on board when it happened but the cat walks and ceiling and floor panels were literally dripping sculptures of metal. It must have been a choice slice of hell for a bit. The only thing that saved the ship was the engine room CO2 bank managed to get tripped in time to put out the fire.
True and a shipyard is a likely place for a fire unfortunately. When we went into the yards we had a T.A.D. Fire Dept. {understandably that's not possible on subs or smaller ships}. The division later became full time even at sea and maintained all fire stations and hatches etc. Our job was to do walk throughs in all accessible spaces looking for hazards etc. We also answered the Fire Bell.
The worse fire I saw in my time onboard ship was in the yards and me and a guy in my shop {both of us were T.A.D. FD also} had discovered it. It was basically a rags and cardboard fire best I recall. The duty team took the fire and we did OBA investigations on surrounding compartments. The fire was off the hanger bay. The heat transfer from it was on the 02 level two decks up. You better believe we had questions to answer after the fire was out. That space was one I reckon nobody had checked due to a pad lock on the hatch.
While in Mayport we Adsep’d a young man on a Friday. On Tuesday morning we caught him coming on the ship with a gaggle of shipyard workers so we sent him packing again. The shipyard assigned him to another Aegis CG and, on his first day there with blueprints he couldn’t understand, sliced through the main SPY-1 cable connecting the forward and aft deckhouses. After that, we never let anyone on our ship without an escort.
Re: I am surprized that he was allowed to take a cigarette lighter on board, especially on a submarine being overhauled. Does this sound right to you?
Cigarette lighters were not allowed on the Hindenburg so why allowed on a sub under maintenance??
Since he was taking medication for depression and something else, should he even have been hired for the job?
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