Hmmmmm... a “Wasp Class Amphibious Assault Ship”?
Apparently the Bonhmme Richard has been burning for a couple days now. Knowing what I do about structural steel... this ship is doomed. Can you imagine the courage it takes to be a fire fighter on that ship? It’s gotta be filled with thousands of gallons of av gas and Gawd only knows what munitions must be on board. If I was the admiral of the navy I’d get the men off that tub right now and let Posideon and Davy Jones have it!
Fires on ships are real buggers and no bones about it! I know years back, a Canadian Navy submarine had a similar incident: some fwench pipe-polisher left a hatch open in high seas, an electrical compartment got flooded, the fire started... and the boat was dead in the water.
So - it’s not a regular aircraft carrier I guess; they keep calling it an amphibious assault ship...so I’m guessing the birds are all VTOL? With maybe a few platoons of Marines? I wonder why they don’t just use a regular aircraft carrier? I wish I knew more about naval operations....
Best of luck you guys! Don’t be heroes, and God bless!
It a fire at the dock. The ship was in for maintenance. The Navy is saying there are no munitions aboard. There is fuel, but not in the are that the fire is concentrated in.
ReplyDeleteThese ships are to transport Marines and their equipment, including VTOL aircraft, to missions. Not a true aircraft carrier and with a different mission.
This one will probably be written off.
See the ass end of that thing?.. that opens up so they can drive smaller boats right into it.
ReplyDeleteWell thanks, fellas. I should have been able to figure it out for myselF! ASM - why does that thing look like a rust bucket? I live on the prairies and every time I've seen the USN in pics, those ships look clean, squared away and ready to rip. I keep hearing horror stories about the USN these days... are things actually that bad...? I am surprised the Marines would put up with a ship that looked like a scow... not trying to be a dink... but good heavens...
ReplyDeleteI worked with a guy that served on the USS Blue Ridge in the 70's. Aluminum superstructure. He said they had mere minutes to kill a fire before the aluminum started to burn and melt into the bottom of the ship. Holy Guacamole.... After the John McCain fire in the 60's, every navy man is a firefighter. It's probably too dangerous to have deck apes rig a bosun's chair and chip paint like they did when we had a war department.
ReplyDeleteI was briefly TAD to the fire department on CV 67, the USS John F. Kennedy. Shipboard firefighting isn't lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteAt sea, everything rusts. If you join the Navy knowing nothing about painting, that failure will soon be remedied.
--Tennessee Budd
Marines don't run a Gator Freighter, the Navy does. And, yes, Marines are "in the Navy" but have little if any control over the ships they ride on. That said I promise all of the shooty stabby bangy bits were immaculate.
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