Posted on 06/18/2017 7:22:25 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
We received an email from a Navy Mother that raises serious questions. We will redact her name, while the rumors (and that’s how they must be categorized for now) reported by her son aboard the Fitzgerald are checked out. Here is what she wrote to us:
*snip*My son is assigned to the USS Fitzgerald. I am unable to share his rate with you.
The information is short and not so sweet. The implications are disturbing.
The ship is registered in the Philippines. We do not know who the owner is. The container ship neither had its running lights or transponder on. That is an action taken willfully. Furthermore, for the container ship to strike with such accuracy is troublesome. Given what some have done with cars in Europe, what a feather in the cap it would be to sink a U.S. Navy warship. Think on that.
My son missed being washed out to sea by the blink of an eye. He was on his way to one of the berthing areas that was rammed.
If there is any substance to this – that the ACX Crystal disabled protective systems and rammed the Fitzgerald at high speed aimed at crtical facilities (evident from the damage) –
PHOTOS
…we have to consider the possibility of an asymmetric warfare attack designed to disable missile defense of a carrier strike group, as North Korea demonstrates the ability to make exactly such attacks on a multibillion dollar warship carrying thousands of sailors.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
>>The USS Fitzgerald, an anti-ballistic missile destroyer that was part of the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, will no longer be ready to defend the carrier and other ships from missile attacks launched from North Korea<<
Does the Navy have no other anti-ballistic missile destroyers in the Pacific? In the fleet? Get one on station quick. Also, issue an order to sink ANY ship that attacks.
ya ,a bunch of U turns by the cargo vessel ,maybe it was looking for the USS Fitzgerald
It is a sad reality, but safety of ship comes first. An immediate action in a collision is to close all watertight doors and hatches. They are only reopened after there is assurance that there is no fire or flooding.
May these sailors rest in peace.
I agree, I’ll go with Islam at the wheel too.
Incompetence? Hacked? Dry run? Corruption?
A vessel the size of that merchant ship wouldn’t have to “ram” per se with a precise site in mind, just make contact. The mass and speed of the cargo ship would do the rest. Especially if, for some reason, the destroyer was a sitting duck.
I had not thought about it but yes, treason is a possibility.
Either that or incompetence. Remember JFK let his PT boat, the fastest thing on the seas, be rammed by a destroyer.
Not on a Naval vessel in restricted waters. There are a large number of people on the bridge, including the navigator, the quartermaster of the watch, the deck officer, the junior officer of the watch, and the navigator. The guy at the helm is an experienced petty officer who only steers according to orders from the officer of the deck / conning officer.
Incompetence, perhaps, but alcohol, virtually impossible.
Collision avoidance systems on airplanes utilize transponder information to generate bright easily monitored depictions of aircraft in vicinity. Still, crews relentlessly scan surrounding airspace for visual signs of traffic. At night, obviously, traffic will disappear if not showing beacons and strobes. It seems plausible that primary radar could miss an incoming vessel with minimum cross section coming straight at you at high speed. No lights no transponder...this was an attack.
Disturbing.
It’s abject incompetence on the part of the US crew to allow themselves to be rammed at sea by any vessel.
There’s no set of circumstances that could absolve this crew.
None.
Qs: Would the destroyer’s radar room receive transponder info from civilian shipping? If so, would a large civilian vessel approaching with its transponder either non-functioning or turned off be reason to consider the possibility of hostile intent?
It was a night, wasn’t it? I could be wrong.
Yes
I am highly skeptical of ‘mothers ‘ report
Makes one wonder if the gal on the bridge might not be an obamite and thought it was worth ruining her career to make the CIC look bag
bag=bad
where’s the edit button?
Agreed. Seven are dead. How many systems had to fail for this to happen?
Bogus story. There have been posts of the transponder track of the cargo ship.
FAKE NEWS!
My opinion on this whole incident is that the cargo ship was outside or on the edge of the shipping lanes because of all the traffic going in the opposite direction. Look at the tracking of the cargo ship.
The Fitzgerald was loitering outside of the shipping lanes and the cargo ship crew was not paying attention.
As far as the Fitz goes, I believe there is to many chains of command to make fast decisions.
Just my humble opinion.
AIS Track showing the course and speed of the ACX Crystal during the time of collision with the USS Fitzgerald Image via MarineTraffic.com. According to this the tracking was on.. When I saw the tracking I also thought it was very interesting maneuvering. When I saw the damage to both ships I thought interesting method of attack on a warship!
http://gcaptain.com/high-resolution-photos-us-navy-destroyer-collision/
How many other ships in that area at the time this happened?
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