I needed a diversion. This absolute travesty of a US Navy ship named after someone like her is nauseating.
Posted on 06/12/2015 3:45:01 PM PDT by rktman
What a stupid thing to do.
No need for Gunners Mates as the ship is a GUN FREE ZONE.
“The ship will be called the USS Gabrielle Giffords....”
And it will have no guns so as not to offend our enemies!
May she fire the first volley to cause the start of WWIII, it is war that must be.
What a slap that would be.
Ford was not a fully competent president by the standards of the time, but I give him a break, for those reasons you mentioned.
Most people don’t know much about Ford’s time on the USS Monterey in WWII, particularly his actions during Typhoon Cobra.
He had been on watch during the typhoon, and at the end of his watch at the height of the Typhoon, went below to try to get some rest. As he opened the door to step out of the island onto the flight deck, the ship took a very severe roll of around 45 degrees, and a wave washed over the side. He was swept towards the port side of the flight deck across from the island, and as he was being washed down the slippery deck at that extreme angle in the dark, he clawed, scratched and tried to get something with his heels or toes, to no avail.
As the edge of the flight deck came on him, he was a dead man, going overboard in those seas guaranteed that. But as he slid feet first towards his death, his feet hit the small, metal ledge, about two or three inches up from the flight deck, designed to help stop planes that might be skidding a little in a roll, or something like that.
As his feet hit that ledge, he vaulted in the air, and with the physical skills of the athlete he was (Not the bumbling stooge they portrayed him on SNL as) he twisted in one motion, grabbed for the rail and somehow managed to grab it in mid-air as he hurtled into the void.
He pulled himself back on the flight deck, and crabbing all the way up, holding onto pad-eyes with both hands, made it back to the other side near the island, and made his way down to his rack.
But there would be no real sleep for him there. He drifted in and out, then realized he smelled smoke.
He made his way back up to the bridge, and they were having a conference. While he had been in his rack, planes had broken their tie downs in the hangar bay, and even though they had emptied all the avgas, the tanks of the planes were full of vapors, and when the first plane that had broken loose and plowed into the second one, the sparks turned the empty fuel tanks into bombs.
A chain reaction ensued, and one after another, they turned into huge clumps of flaming wreckage sliding from side to side and fore and aft in the storm. Soon, the entire ship was aflame from stem to stern, and there were huge guts of flame coming from every opening in the hull.
A ship nearby saw the flaming carrier, and said over the TBS (low frequency Talk Between Ships) “There goes the Monterey.” All the ships in the vicinity heard it, including some destroyers that were in imminent danger of going down themselves. That must have been a terrible thing to hear.
On the bridge of the Monterey, they had been told there was no aid or help for them, and they could do as they saw fit. Basically, they were told “Every man for himself, you are on your own”. As they looked at each other in the red glare of the bridge lanterns, the Captain decided they weren’t going to abandon ship, since that was a death sentence. They were going to fight it out with the fire.
Damage control parties were formed, and they opened the hatches and walked into that red hot, flaming inferno that was the hangar bay, with large heaps of burning scrap metal heaps that had once been planes and equipment, tumbling and sliding in every direction with the movement of the ship at the peak of a vicious typhoon.
But they did it. They beat it.
In the excellent book “Halsey’s Typhoon”, they wrote of Ford being part of the damage control parties, but there are other accounts (including his own) where he describes his duty differently.
To me, it doesn’t take anything away from him if he was on the bridge or in the hangar bay. To be in that situation has to impart something to a man, and I think it imparted something on Ford.
He may have been somewhat incompetent, but he wasn’t a wimp.
I still want to see a USS Arnold G. Schwarzenegger!
Amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
“the USS Gabrielle Giffords”
Every time I read about this nonsense, I feel like my head is going to explode...must be the objective.
You’re welcome. For all of his faults, Ford was not a bad man.
A lot of people in that category. (with the exception of serving as VP and Pres..without being elected, YES, that is quite an accomplishment...<: <: <:
Didn’t really mean to lump Ford with the other 2, just citing as an example of more poor choices....IMNSHO...
I needed a diversion. This absolute travesty of a US Navy ship named after someone like her is nauseating.
Holy WOW, what a story!!!
THANK YOU!
Will the ship be unarmed?
USS Massengill or USS Pamprin..
I personally want to see a Ford Class carrier named the USS Ted Nugent.
I highly recommend the book “Halsey’s Typhoon”.
Makes you realize we were a different brand of people back then.
They couldn't find "safer" shells?
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