#benson-class destroyer

[ashes-16-al-wallpapers]

[hrodvitnon]

I mean, both USS Laffey’s were ships that decided that death was either optional or has to be awesome. The first Laffey, a Benson-Class Destroyer, went down RIPPING AND TEARING (apologies) through a Japanese fleet solo. The second Laffey, an Allen M. Sumner-Class Destroyer? On a damage-to-ship size/displacement ratio, she is the toughest ship ever, seeing as she, among other things, shrugged off multiple kamikazes and survived two nukes. She’s currently a museum ship. 1/2

Super Tank Boat.

(Never apologize for any usage of RIP AND TEAR, it's an awesome phrase and one should feel awesome using it.)

I mean, you're welcome to share more Ship Trivia, I'm just sorry my "responses" to the trivia is on the minimalist side of things. (I don't know anything about ships beyond some nuggets about the Titanic, but these are some pretty neat factoids, so... yeah.)

[lonestarbattleship]

USS NORTH CAROLINA (BB-55) being screened by USS BENSON (DD-421).

Artwork by Chief Quartermaster Matt Murphey, USN, 1941.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 44713

[casualazurlane]

Here’s my first ship, Laffey, and her Retrofit. She’s been pretty awesome so far ºvº 

USS LAFFEY  [X]

Artist:  かえで

[neskire]

USS Black (DD-666) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy.

Hugh David Black was executive officer of the new destroyer USS Benson in 1940 and 1941. In March 1941, he took command of the destroyer USS Jacob Jones. Lieutenant Commander Black was killed when Jacob Jones was sunk by the German submarine U-578 on 28 February 1942.

USS Black received six battle stars for her World War II service and two battle stars for service off Korea.

[source: Wikipedia]

[casbooks]

Title: Scram!

Authors: Harry Benson

ISBN: 9781409051978

Tags: A-4 Skyhawk, Airborne, Ajax Bay (Falklands), ARA General Belgrano, ARA Guerrico (P-32), ARA Santa Fe, Argentina, Argentine Air Force, Argentine Army, Argentine Naval Aviation, Argentine Navy, Artillery, Ascension Island, Aviation, Avro Vulcan, B.125 Bulldog, Battle of Goat Ridge (Falklands), Battle of Goose Green (Falklands), Battle of Mount Harrier (Falklands), Battle of Mount Longdon (Falklands), Battle of Mount Tumbledown (Falklands), Battle of Mount William (Falklands), Battle of Pebble Island (Falklands), Battle of Two Sisters (Falklands), Battle of Wireless Ridge (Falklands), Blue Beach (Falklands), Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, CASEVAC, CH-47 Chinook, Darwin (Falklands), DHC-1 Chipmunk, Estancia House (Falklands), Falklands War (1982), Fitzroy (Falklands), Fortuna Glacier (Falklands), FS Drummond-class Corvette, Green Beach (Falklands), Gurkha, H-3 Sea King, H-34 Choctaw, Harrier, Helicopter, HRH Prince Andrew - Duke of York, IA 58 Pucara, IAI Dagger, Junglies (UK RN FAA), Lieutenant Alfredo Astiz (ARA), Medevac helicopter, Mirage III, Mount Kent (Falklands), Operation Black Buck (Falklands War), Operation Corporate (Falklands War), Operation Paraquet/Paraquat (Falklands War), Operation Sutton (Falklands War), Port San Carlos (Falklands), Port Stanley (Falklands), Port Stanley Airport (Falklands), Rapier SAM, Red Beach (Falklands), SA.342 Gazelle, San Carlos Bay (Falklands), Sea Harrier, South Georgia (Falklands), South Thule (Falklands), SpecOps, Submarine, Super Etendard, Sussex Mountains (Falklands), UK 2 Para, UK 22 SAS, UK 29 Commando Royal Artillery, UK 3 Commando Brigade, UK 3 Para, UK 5 Infantry Brigade, UK 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles, UK AAC 656 Sqd, UK British Army, UK British Army Air Corps, UK Commando Helicopter Squadron (UK RN FAA), UK HMS Antrim (D18), UK HMS Ardent (F184), UK HMS Arrow (F173), UK HMS Broadsword (F88), UK HMS Conqueror (S48), UK HMS Coventry (D118), UK HMS Endurance, UK HMS Fearless (L10), UK HMS Glamorgan(D19), UK HMS Hermes (R12), UK HMS Intrepid (L11), UK HMS Invincible (R05), UK HMS Plymouth (F126), UK HMS Sheffield (D80), UK MV Norland, UK MV Queen Elizabeth II, UK Paras, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, UK RAF No 101 Sqd, UK RAF No 18 Sqd, UK RAF No 44 Sqd, UK RAF No 50 Sqd, UK RFA Engadine (K08), UK RFA Fort Austin (A386), UK RFA Green Rover (A268), UK RFA Olna (A123), UK RFA Regent (A486), UK RFA Resource (A480), UK RFA Sir Galahad (L3005}, UK RFA Sir Lancelot (L3029), UK RFA Tidepool (A76), UK RFA Tidespring (A75), UK RM 3 CDO Brigade Air Sqd, UK RM 40 Commando, UK RM 42 Commando, UK RM 45 Commando, UK RM Naval Party 8901, UK RN Centaur-class Aircraft Carrier, UK RN Churchill-Class Nuclear Submarine, UK RN County-Class Destroyer, UK RN FAA 737 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 800 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 801 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 820 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 825 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 829 Naval Air Sqd, UK RN FAA 845 Naval Air Sqd (Commando), UK RN FAA 846 Naval Air Sqd (Commando), UK RN FAA 847 Naval Air Sqd (Commando), UK RN FAA 848 Naval Air Sqd (Commando), UK RN Fearless-Class LPD, UK RN Invincible-class Aircraft Carrier, UK RN Rothesay-Class Frigate, UK RN Type 21 Frigate, UK RN Type 22 Frigate, UK RN Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer, UK RNAS Merryfield Airfield, UK RNAS Predannack Airfield, UK RNAS Yeovilton, UK Royal Air Force (RAF), UK Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), UK Royal Marines, UK Royal Navy, UK Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (RN FAA), UK Scots Guards, UK Sgt Ian MacKay (3 Para), UK Sir Rex Masterman Hunt, UK Special Air Service (SAS), UK Special Boat Squadron (SBS), UK SS Atlantic Causeway, UK SS Atlantic Conveyor, UK SS Canberra, UK SS Uganda, UK Welsh Guards, USS Catfish (SS-339), Victoria Cross, Westland AH.1 Scout, Westland Lynx, Westland Wessex, Wideawake Airfield (Ascension Island)

Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Americas.Falklands War

Description: 'Scram! Scram! was all I heard though my coms as I caught sight of two Argentine A-4 Skyhawks blasting through bomb alley toward the anchored British flotilla. In front of me every ship opened up with everything they had as missiles and tracer streaked though the sky to meet the incoming aircraft. All we could do as helicopter pilots caught out in the open was head for the hills. Literally.'

Soon after the Argentine army invaded the Falklands in the early hours of 2 April 1982, it was the Royal Navy commando helicopter pilots, nicknamed junglies, who flew most of the land-based missions in the Falklands in their Sea King and Wessex helicopters. Facing both mortar fire and head-on attacks by Argentine jets, they inserted SAS patrols at night, rescued survivors of Exocet attacks, mounted daring missile raids, as well as supporting the British troops and evacuating casualties, often in appalling weather conditions.

Harry Benson was a twenty-one-year-old junglie Wessex pilot, fresh out of training, when war started. He has interviewed over forty of his former colleagues for this book creating a fast-paced, meticulously researched and compelling account written by someone who was there, in the cockpit of a Wessex helicopter.

Scram!

The thrilling untold story of the young helicopter pilots and aircrew who risked their lives during the brief but ferocious Falklands War.

'Scram', broadcast over the helicopter control radio net during the Falklands War thirty years ago in 1982 meant 'take cover from Argentine fighters'. This call was a regular feature of life down south, especially during the first six days after we landed while the Royal Navy fought and won the Battle of San Carlos Water; arguably the toughest fight by British ships against enemy air since Crete in 1941.

As the Argentine fighter/bombers came barrelling in I would watch heart in mouth as the junglies headed for folds in the ground, remaining burning and turning until the enemy had left.

We went south with far too few helicopters initially. Those we had were flown every hour they could be; often with bullet holes in fuselages, red warning lights on in cockpits. One of the three BAS Scout helicopters had a bullet hole in the tail section patched with the lid from a Kiwi boot polish tin. Today's health and safety nerds would have had an apoplectic fit.

In April 1982 Harry Benson was a 21-year-old Royal Navy commando helicopter pilot, fresh out of training and one of the youngest helicopter pilots to serve in the Falklands War. These pilots, nicknamed 'junglies', flew most of the land-based missions in the Falklands in their Sea King and Wessex helicopters. Much of what happened in the war - the politics, task force ships, Sea Harriers, landings, Paras and Marines - is well-known and documented. But almost nothing is known of the young commando helicopter pilots and aircrewmen who made it all happen on land and sea. This is their 'Boys Own' story, told for the very first time.

Harry Benson has interviewed forty of his former colleagues for the book creating a tale of skill, initiative, resourcefulness, humour, luck, and adventure. This is a fast-paced, meticulously researched and compelling account written by someone who was there, in the cockpit of a Wessex helicopter.

[nebris]

Navy General Board

An extremely cool photo of the Boston Navy Yard in 1943. Why I love about this photo is that many incredible things are to be seen.

First and foremost is the Iowa class battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) in the drydock. Iowa had run aground during exercises and was put into drydock for inspection of her hull, screws, and rudder.

Nearby, the Essex class aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) can be easily spotted. She was still conducting her shakedown cruise prior to heading out for the Pacific.

A Baltimore class heavy cruiser can be seen tied up alongside Bunker Hill. I believe the cruiser is USS Baltimore (CA-68) herself although USS Boston (CA-69) was also at the Navy Yard around this time.

My favorite part of the photo are the group of destroyers clustered near the top.  A single Fletcher class destroyer is present, wearing darker camouflage. She is accompanied by five older destroyers of the Benson class or thereabouts. However, these American destroyers have an imposter among them! The French destroyer Le Fantasque is also present. Her large size is evident in this photo, being almost 100' longer than the American ships.

[tom-etseg]

recodr collection secret shush

#

101 Strings - Songs of the Seasons in Japan

A

Adrian Belew - Lone Rhino

Adrian Belew - Twang Bar King

Adrian Belew - Mr. Music Head

Adrian Belew - Young Lions

The Best of Alfred Apaka

Allan Holdsworth - Velvet Darkness

A. Summers & R. Fripp - I Advance Masked

Anything Goes

Ayalew Mesfin - Hasabe/My Worries

B

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

The Black Watch - Highland Pageantry

Bruford - One of a Kind

Bud Tutmarc - Simply Beautiful

C

Cpt. Beefheart - Unconditionally Guranteed

Cpt. Beefheart - Bluejeans and Moonbeams

The Cars - Candy-O

Chet Atkins - Music From Nashville

Chet Atkins - Lover's Guitar

D

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

David Fanshawe - African Sanctus

Death Grips - Government Plates

Death Grips - The Powers That B

Dio - Dream Evil

Dean Martin - You Can't Love 'em All

The Dungills - Africa Calling

D. Zappa - My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama

E

Music of Edgard Varèse

Music of Edgard Varèse vol. 2

Edward Macdowell - Indian Suite

ELP - ELP

ELP - Tarkus

ELP - Trilogy

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

ELP - Works

Eric Dolphy - Out There

Erik Satie - Piano Music vol. 3

Erroll Garner - Magician

F

Frank Zappa - Freak Out!

Frank Zappa - Absolutely Free

Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy

Frank Zappa - WOIIFTM

Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

Frank Zappa - Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Frank Zappa - 200 Motels

Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All

Frank Zappa - Overnite Sensation

Frank Zappa - Apostrophe

Frank Zappa - Roxy & Elsewhere

Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures

Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti

Frank Zappa - Orchestral Favorites

Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar

Frank Zappa - Drowning Witch

Frank Zappa - The Man From Utopia

Frank Zappa - LSO Vol.1

Frank Zappa - Them or Us

Frank Zappa - Mothers of Prevention

Frank Zappa - Jazz From Hell

Zappa Movie Soundtrack

G

GSOL - Gamelan in the New World

Gentle Giant - Acquiring the Taste

Gentle Giant - Three Friends

Gentle Giant - Octopus

Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory

Gentle Giant - Free Hand

Gentle Giant - Interview

Gentle Giant - Civilian

George Benson - Weekend in L.A.

George Duke - Don't Let Go

George Duke - Dream On

George Thorogood - Maverick

The Great Country Singers

H

Hamilton Face Band

Hank Williams Jr. - Greatest Hits

Harry Enfield - Loadsamoney

Hollow Knight Soundtrack

Hounds - Puttin on the Dog

I

Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird

Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

J

Janis Ian

Jean Luc Ponty - King Kong

Jean Luc Ponty - Aurora

Jean Luc Ponty - Imaginary Voyage

Jean Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean

Jerry Byrd - On the Shores of Waikiki

Jerry Reed - When You're Hot, You're Hot

Jerry Reed - Eastbound and Down

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

John Denver - Spirit

John Denver - The Windstar Greatest Hits

K

King Crimson - ITCOTKC

King Crimson - Lizard

King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic

King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black

King Crimson - Red

King Crimson - Discipline

King Crimson - Beat

King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair

Kiss - Hotter Than Hell

Kiss - Dressed to Kill

Kiss - Alive

Kiss - Destroyer

Kiss - Kissworld

L

Laura Nyro - More Than a New Discovery

Laura Nyro - Eli and the 13th Confessional

Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak

Theme from Lawrence of Arabia

Lynyrd Skynyrd - (?)

N

Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance

Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade

M

Mantovani - Gypsy Soul

Martin Denny - Hawaii

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads

Maurice Ravel - Bolero

Max Webster - High Class in Borrowed Shoes

Moondog

Mr. Bungle

Music From Many Lands

P

Pantera - Metal Magic

Pantera - History of Hostility

Pepe Kalle & Nyomba - Moyibi

Persuasions - We Came to Play

Persuasions - IJWTSWMF

Los Pinguinos - at El Shrimp Bucket

Polynesia

Primus - The Brown Album

Prince - Purple Rain

Psychonauts Soundtrack

Q

Quena

R

Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'n' Roll

The Rising of the Moon

Robert Fripp - Exposure

Robert Fripp - The League of Gentlemen

Rush - Hemispheres

Rush - 2112

S

Sanford & Son

Simons - Best24

Slint - Spiderland

Soviet Army Chorus & Band

Sparks - No.1 in Heaven

Split Enz - Waiata

Stanley Black - Russia

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

Street Fighter III: The Collection

Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette

System of a Down - Toxicity

T

They Might Be Giants - Flood

Tihati - Savage

Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin - Missa Luba

V

Van Halen - Diver Down

Vib Ribbon Soundtrack

W

Weather Report - Heavy Weather

Weather Report - Mr. Gone

Weather Report - 8:30

Weather Report - Sportin Life

Y

Yes - The Yes Album

Yes - Fragile

Yes - Close to the Edge

Yes - 90125

The Young and the Restless

[racingtoaredlight]

Opening Bell: April 19, 2019

Yesterday, in the culmination of a process that began two years ago, the Justice Department released a redacted version of the 448 page report that was authored by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III and included all of the findings of his expansive investigation. The report, which was redacted to remove any mention of evidence that is connected to any of the 20 or so investigations currently still underway into either President Donald Trump, his campaign, his inaugural committee, the Trump Organization, among others. The redactions themselves are telling, they are a standing indictment of the nature of Trump’s various conflicts with his role as the nation’s chief executive. It also points to the fact that Trump, though he promised to fully divest himself of all of his business ventures before assuming office, it continues to appear that he has failed to do so, and apparently without consequence. In terms of the Mueller report, the primary takeaways are that, while Mueller’s investigators did not feel as though they could make a case for collusion or conspiracy, but the report explicitly stated that the president was not exonerated by the report; a talking point which will be a Rorschach test of the rest of the report in that people will want to see what they want in the report. For those wanting to read, an annotated version of the report, it is available here. 

In a remarkable examination of what can happen to a president once he leaves office and is accused of malfeasance, former President of Peru Alan Garcia was accused of bribery and corruption. As police officers closed in and entered Garcia’s home, he excused himself into his bedroom, saying that he was going to call his lawyer. Instead, Garcia produced a handgun and shot himself in the head, and was declared dead shortly thereafter. Garcia was elected in 2006 as a response to the corruption of previous administrations, especially Albert Fujimori, but was himself unable to avoid the financial entanglements that have corrupted other South American leaders such as former Brazilian president Michele Temer and both of his immediate predecessors. This would be like if in this country we found out that Jimmy Carter had been involved in graft and rather than surrender to authorities well….he killed himself. So yeah, there is no comparison to the United States.

Almost two years after it suffered a catastrophic collision, and nearly a year after it entered dry dock, the USS Fitzgerald refloated for the first time this week at the Huntington Ingalls Shipyard—which it was originally build—in Pascagoula, Mississippi. While this is a major milestone in the Fitzgerald’s return to service, much repair work remains to take place; the Navy allocated $533 million in repair costs for the guided missile destroyer, and while this may seem like an absurd amount, it is less than half the cost of a new Arleigh Burke class destroyer. A few weeks ago I linked an interactive ProPublica story which recounted the saga of the Fitzgerald on a minute-by-minute basis, which clearly showed the warship was, on multiple occasions, close to sinking but for the actions of its crew. Unfortunately, the actions, or lack thereof, of some of the Fitzgerald’s officers led to the collision, or so the Navy alleged in formal allegations against the ship’s Commanding Officer and the officer in charge at the time of the collision, among others. This week, however, the Navy was forced to drop all charges against Commander Bryce Benson, the ship’s CO, and Lt. Natalie Combs, the officer on the bridge at the time of the collision. While both will escape criminal charges in a court martial for their actions—or, more correctly, their alleged negligence—they each received letters of reprimand from the Secretary of the Navy, which will effectively end both of their careers. The prosecutions of Benson and Combs, however, was tainted from the beginning by senior Navy commanders violating a bedrock principle of military criminal justice: senior officers do not comment on cases under adjudication. The two senior officers accused of commenting on the case? Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Bill Moran. In tangentially related news, the Trump administration announced this week that Admiral Bill Moran would replace Admiral John Richardson as Chief of Naval Operations after Richardson’s retirement later this year.

Healthcare has, of political and economic necessity, become a major talking point over the last three decades. Shortly after his inauguration in 1993, then President Bill Clinton appointed his wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton, to head a committee which author a proposal for Universal Healthcare in order to arrest skyrocketing healthcare costs in the United States. For a variety of reasons, congressional Republicans opposed the proposal and it never made its way out of a Democratically-controlled Congress. Subsequent scandals affected the Clinton administration and no further attempt at major healthcare legislation was attempted. In 2009, Barack Obama was elected, in part, on a promise to take up the challenge of healthcare reform and after a year of political wrangling, and bitter partisanship, a Democratically-controlled Congress passed the Affordable Care Act or ACA. In India, healthcare has, proportional to the national median income, also become a major socio-political issue. In the 1990s, an Indian practitioner, Dr. Devi Shetty, a surgical cardiologist by training, opened a series of hospitals around India that provided full-range care at costs that were dramatically lower than other private hospitals, to say nothing of American hospitals and their highly itemized billing system. Shetty’s hospitals offered flat rates for open-heart surgery, lung transplants, bypass surgery, and other procedures which would cost thousands of dollars in India and hundreds of thousands in American hospitals. Shetty, however, found ways to economize within acceptable medical standards, and his hospital system has turned a profit every year since its founding, and without charging burdensome prices to its patients. However, 500 million of India’s population still cannot afford insurance and so Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed through parliament a major campaign promise: healthcare for India’s uninsured, or Modicare as it has been termed. Unlike Obamacare, which launched almost a decade ago, Modicare is less than a year old. While its goal is laudatory, its funding is insufficient—Modi’s government allocated only $900 million in the plan’s first fiscal year—and the rates it demand participating hospitals charge, are even lower than the bargain rates that Dr. Shetty’s hospital systems can offer. Rather than view this as a market interference, however, Dr. Shetty has instead taken this as a challenge: he is determined to eliminate inefficiencies without sacrificing patient care in order to meet the Modi government’s cost targets for procedures, while still enabling his company to turn a profit. If he can succeed, Shetty may discover a model for affordable, and yet business friendly healthcare for the world to copy.

Sticking with medicine, sort of, The Atlantic has an interesting dive into something that few of us ordinarily do not think of, outside of two unpleasant events per year: a trip to the dentist. There is a joke in Seinfeld, among many other places, about dentists being persecuted because they are not on the same level as MDs. And while this is a shorthand and lazy, reductionist malign attack on an otherwise honorable profession, there are notable distinctions between how medical and dentistry practices are vetted by scientific, evidence-based studies. And many dentists used this in order to recommend invasive treatments that cost clients thousands. To be clear, there is no negligence here, rather there are a large number of dentists who knowingly prescribe invasive, surgical procedures without regard to their actual value to the patient, and then charge that patient thousands of dollars that that patient would not otherwise haves spent; so this is closer to fraud than negligence or malpractice. What I like about this article is that it examines, albeit too briefly in my opinion, the difference in experience between visiting a doctor and visiting a dentist. I also appreciate the review of the apparently scant number of dentistry articles which approach issues from an evidence based perspective, something which medical journals have done now for generations. Few of us like going to the dentist, but this article may give you pause when your dentist recommends a procedure at your next appointment.

Many of us have seen the movie The Thomas Crown Affair. In it, Pierce Brosnan plays an otherwise wealthy Manhattan playboy who steals priceless works of art purely for the joy of doing so. While there have been many notable art heists over the years, the majority of the assailants are caught when they try to fence the art they have stolen. But, in The Thomas Crown Affair, the protagonist does not wish, and indeed has no need, to sell the artworks he steals. This is actually a major, if brief, turn in the movie’s plot, which helps the protagonist’s start to build a profile of Crown. There is, it may surprise you, a real life equivalent of Thomas Crown, but he is not a dashing Manhattan British ex-pat who has a day job as an investment banker. Instead it is Stéphane Breitwieser who stole over 200 pieces of art from museums around Western Europe, often in broad daylight and always without any gun or other firearm. Breitwieser was no monied playboy though. Instead he and his long-time girlfriend worked together to steal artwork in plain sight in the middle of the day and then curated it in his own home; the bedroom of his mother’s home in northeastern France. Eventually Breitweiser possessed stolen art that had a vale of over $1 billion, though he never attempted to sell any of it, and in fact Breitweiser was often broke, relying upon his mother’s pension and his girlfriend’s salary as a hospital orderly. This is absolutely worth reading from beginning to end, including the epilogue.

Finally, in the least unlikely news of the week, President Donald Trump gained a Republican challenger for the 2020 nomination. This challenge comes from former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. To call this challenge quixotic is an insult to the Gentleman from La Mancha and to windmills. However, Weld being the sole challenger to Donald Trump is newsworthy, and it is worth looking at the analysis by the Center for Politics on the potential bottleneck for Trump in the New Hampshire Primary.

  Welcome to the weekend.

[newstfionline]

Bodies of Several Sailors Are Found Aboard Damaged U.S. Destroyer

By Jonathan Soble, Motoko Rich and Andy Newman, NY Times, June 17, 2017

TOKYO--The bodies of several missing American sailors were found in the flooded berthing compartments of the damaged naval destroyer Fitzgerald on Sunday, a day after it was rammed by a container ship four times its size off the Japanese coast, the Navy said in a statement and a Twitter post.

The Navy’s statement did not say how many of the seven missing sailors were found, or if any of them were found alive. But Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin, commander of the United States 7th Fleet, said at a news conference later Sunday that the search and rescue mission had ended. He said no further information about the missing sailors would be released until the process of notifying families had been completed.

Search crews had to work their way through the extensive damage to the Fitzgerald’s starboard side before they found the sailors, the Navy said. They were taken to a naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan.

The collision with the Philippines-registered cargo ship, the ACX Crystal, occurred about 60 miles off the coast at 2:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, at a time when most of the crew of the Fitzgerald would have been asleep. After the accident, the ship was escorted back to its base, in Yokosuka, Japan, where the search took place.

The shipping lane where the collision occurred is a congested one, with about 400 vessels passing through each day, the Japanese Coast Guard said. Three major accidents have been reported in the area in the last five years, including at least one fatality, said Masayuki Obara, a Coast Guard official.

Mr. Obara said the Coast Guard was interviewing the crew of the Crystal to determine, among other things, whether negligent piloting by either side contributed to the collision.

No injuries were reported on the Crystal, which was traveling up the Japanese coast.

The Fitzgerald was about 64 miles south of Yokosuka when the Crystal rammed nose-first into the destroyer’s starboard, or right, side, on a clear night.

Photographs showed the side of the Fitzgerald caved in about a third of the way back. The Navy said the collision inflicted significant damage to the destroyer above and below the water line, flooding berths, a machinery area and the radio room. The Crystal, at 730 feet in length, is more than 200 feet longer than the Fitzgerald and, with its load of shipping containers, would weigh several times as much.

The cause of the collision was unclear. Under international maritime rules, a vessel is supposed to give way to another one on its starboard side, and the damage indicates that the Crystal was to the Fitzgerald’s starboard, and therefore had the right of way.

But maritime experts cautioned that many other factors could have led to a crash. Marine traffic records show the Crystal made a series of sharp turns about 25 minutes before the collision, which in crowded seas could cause a cascade of maneuvers by other vessels.

Sean P. Tortora, a veteran merchant marine captain and consultant who said he had sailed through the area of the collision many times, said that evidence suggested the Fitzgerald was at fault.

Captain Tortora described the collision as a “T-bone” in which the bow of the Crystal hit the starboard side of the Fitzgerald. “From what I’ve seen, the Fitzgerald should have given way and passed to the stern of the container ship,” he said.

He added that a common cause of collisions, at sea or on the simulators used for training, is a misjudgment of distance and speed on the part of a captain trying to cross in front of another vessel. “They think they can make it and they make a run for it,” Captain Tortora said.

Another possibility, Mr. Doherty said, is that one or both vessels were acting “in extremis,” or ahead of what appears to be an imminent collision. “At that point, both vessels are burdened, and then both vessels, by law, are required to immediately take the best action to aid to avert a collision,” he said.

Asked about Captain Tortora’s comments, a Navy spokesman, Capt. Charles W. Brown, said it was premature to address the cause of the collision.

A former director of the National Transportation Safety Board’s office of marine safety, Marjorie Murtagh Cooke, said it could take a year or more to determine what happened.

The Fitzgerald had recently participated in military exercises with two American aircraft carriers and ships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, as that country’s navy is known.

The ship, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer, normally carries about 300 sailors and officers. Commander Benson, 40, took the helm of the ship just a month ago.

The Crystal, chartered by Nippon Yusen, a Japanese shipping company, had about 20 Filipino crew members on board, the company said in a statement. The cargo ship was heading toward Tokyo at the time of the collision, after making a stop on Friday at Nagoya, Japan.

[kacydeneen]

Navy to Drop Charges Against Former USS Fitzgerald Officers

Charges are expected to be dropped against two former USS Fitzgerald officers accused of negligence in the 2017 destroyer collision that killed seven sailors, a U.S. Navy statement said Wednesday.

Former USS Fitzgerald commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson and former crew member Lt. Natalie Combs will receive letters of censure, but charges against them will be withdrawn and dismissed, the Navy statement said. Letters of censure acknowledge acts of wrongdoing but have no legal ramifications, NBC News reported.

"This decision is in the best interest of the Navy, the families of the Fitzgerald Sailors, and the procedural rights of the accused officers," the Navy's statement said. "Both officers were previously dismissed from their jobs and received non-judicial punishment," 

The USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged merchant ship on June 17, 2017, in Japanese waters about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, where the U.S. has a naval base. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in flooded berthing compartments of the destroyer the next day.

Photo Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Christian Senyk/U.S. Navy via Getty Images Navy to Drop Charges Against Former USS Fitzgerald Officers published first on Miami News

[hudsonespie]

USS Fitzgerald Combat Team Unaware Of Approaching Merchant Ship Until Seconds Before Fatal Collision

The sailors who were manning the combat nerve center of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) did not know they were on a collision course with a ship almost three times their size until about one minute before impact, according to new information revealed in the preliminary hearing for two junior officers accused of negligent homicide for their role in the collision that resulted in the death of seven sailors.

Lt. Natalie Combs, the tactical action officer, and Lt. Irian Woodley, the surface warfare coordinator, were both on duty in the windowless combat information in the belly of the guided-missile destroyer on early on the morning of June 17 as the ship moved southwest from the coast of Japan less than a day out of port.

“[Based on the interviews] the general consensus was it was a quiet night in CIC with four to five tracks and nothing within 10,000 yards,” said Rear Adm. Brian Fort, the lead investigator into the admiralty investigation following the collision, said at Woodley and Combs Article 32 hearing on Wednesday.

Representation Image – Credits: US Navy

Then, shortly after crossing into a busy shipping channel, the merchant ship ACX Crystal popped up on the CIC’s commercial ship automatic identification system dangerously close to Fitzgerald. The container ship was bearing down on the warship, bow pointed toward the middle of the warship. Woodley ordered the camera used to spot targets for the ship’s 5-inch gun toward the bearing of Crystal. Fire Controlman Second Class Ashton Cato, who manned the camera, saw the flared bow of the ship fill up his monitor just seconds before the fatal crash.

Prosecutors argued during the Wednesday hearing that the fact that Woodley and Combs did not know the ship was at risk from Crystal, did not see other nearby contacts and were not in contact with the bridge crew was evidence of criminal negligence and hazarding the ship.

During the course of the hearing, prosecutors called witnesses to outline that the role of sailors in the CIC was to assist the bridge watch in understanding the surface picture around the ship, to make the point that Woodley and Combs failed to live up to that standard.

In combat, the TAO fights the ship, coordinating attacks on air, subsurface and surface threats. But the role is different during a peaceful transit.

“The TAO has other areas of focus, but if they aren’t worried about the [air] or subsurface threat, they can truly focus on the surface picture,” retired Capt. Bud Weeks, an instructor at the service’s Surface Warfare Officer School, testified on Wednesday.

He said CIC and the team on the bridge needed to be in constant communication to develop a good understanding of what’s happening around the ship.

However, that communication was non-existent during the late night watch, Fitzgerald officer of the deck Lt. j.g. Sarah B. Coppock admitted on Tuesday when she pleaded guilty to a single count of dereliction of duty as part of a plea deal in a special court-martial.

While Coppock admitted she should have talked with CIC during the watch, she “had low confidence in certain [CIC] watch standers.”

“Coppock did comment that she had received poor information from [Woodley] before,” Fort said in testimony.

However, the ship’s executive officer, Cmdr. Sean Babbitt, admitted to the Coast Guard during its safety investigation that he didn’t completely trust Coppock and that the inclusion of Woodley in the CIC was to provide backup for a bridge watch team he said wasn’t the strongest.

Woodley and Coppock had very different pictures of what was happening around the ship, and it would have taken communication to reconcile the differences. While the bridge had almost 200 contacts on its SPS-73 radar, the CIC’s SPS-67 radar had an only a handful due to an overall “poor radar picture,” Operations Specialist Second Class Matthew H. Stawecki said at the hearing.

“There was a lot of clutter,” he said.

Part of the reason the picture was muddy was the radar had been set to a long-range so-called “long pulse” mode that made contacts close to the ship difficult to see. The setting couldn’t be directly adjusted from CIC, and Fort’s investigation found there was no effort to contact the ship’s electronics technicians to adjust the radar picture.

“They accepted the fact they had clutter, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Fort said. “It was the world in which they were living in, and it was the world that was accepted.”

But according to Fitzgerald’s former combat system officer, the circumstances of broken equipment and lapses in crew training were commonplace for a warship that was part of Forward Deployed Naval Force in Japan.

Lt. Cmdr. Ritarsha Furqan, who reported to Fitzgerald in 2014 and left the ship a few months before the collision, said deploying with missing crew, insufficient spares or systems that didn’t work, under the direction of U.S. Pacific Command or Pacific Fleet was the norm — even if what was broken or who was missing violated a deployment redline, she said.

“[Redline issues] were a much bigger deal with U.S.-based ships. They weren’t showstoppers in 7th Fleet,” she said. “We would find the body, find the part or just make do. … Sometimes I thought it was unsafe.”

The pressure to deploy at a moment’s notice made it difficult for the crew to be proficient in all the tasks they needed to accomplish, and training time was cancelled with no notice for operational tasking, she testified.

For example, following a longer-than-anticipated repair period, the ship had planned for two weeks of independent steaming to get the crew used to being back at sea. Instead, they were ordered to participate in an exercise and spent four months underway, moving from task to task at the expense of training time. Along the way, the ship suffered casualties they couldn’t fix, including the loss of both their unclassified and classified NIPR and SIPR networks.

“I know I’ve stood in my boss’s office and told [previous Fitzgerald commander] Cmdr. Shu, ‘we’re not ready to execute.’ I was told ‘they know,’” Furqan said “We were told to go. We had to go.”

During the hearing, the defense and prosecutors largely agreed on the facts of the collision but were split on where to place the blame.

Prosecutors said Combs and Woodley shared the blame with executive officer Babbitt and then-ship’s commander Cmdr. Bryce Benson – who faces his own Article 32 hearing on similar charges later this month.

Defense attorneys said to look higher.

“The Fitz was a wreck. A wreck of a ship,” Combs’ defense attorney, David P. Sheldon, said during his closing arguments of the hearing. “The blame? It lies with the Navy for putting its head in the sand, with putting a ship to sea that wasn’t ready. But the Navy wants only to hold these officers accountable.”

The hearing official will now craft a recommendation on how to proceed and provide it to Adm. James Caldwell, director of Naval Reactors. Caldwell is the Consolidated Disposition Authority who was appointed to oversee accountability actions related to the Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) collisions. Caldwell, who was not present for the hearings this week, will decide how to proceed with the case later this summer based on the recommendation.

Press Release: news.usni.org

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from Storage Containers https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/uss-fitzgerald-combat-team-unaware-of-approaching-merchant-ship-until-seconds-before-fatal-collision/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[lonestarbattleship]

USS TEXAS (BB-35) providing ground support during the Normandy Invasion.

"June 7th continued to be an eventful one as the radio guided counter measure team aboard TEXAS reported several radio bomb signals heard and jammed. The ship also held front row seats to a heavy allied air bombardment of German forces near the beach but would move from its place to avoid possible German shells as well as to give HMS GLASGOW more room to fire. Shortly after shifting its position TEXAS would begin to fire at German troop concentrations near the towns of Surrain and Trevieres."

Note: a Benson Class Destroyer in the background.

The map fire control used to plot during her bombardment operations.

Date: June 7, 1944

source, source, source

NARA: 77069

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: 80-G-352840, 1969-232-A

[casualazurlane]

USS BAILEY [X]

Artist:  DanGo

[melindarowens]

Container Ship Was On Autopilot When It Struck USS Fitzergerald

A deadly collision between the Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal and Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald that left seven sailors dead earlier this week occurred while the ACX was on autopilot, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon.

While investigators say they’ve found no evidence the collision was intentional, that the ship was relying on its computerized navigation system at the team of the collision means hackers could’ve infiltrated into the ship’s navigation system and steered it into the Navy ship – though the collision off the coast of Japan could’ve just as easily been caused by a malfunction, or human error if the system’s warning signals were ignored.

“The Philippines-flagged cargo ship ACX Crystal was under control of a computerized navigation system that was steering and guiding the container vessel, according to officials familiar with preliminary results of an ongoing Navy investigation.

 Investigators so far found no evidence the collision was deliberate.

 Nevertheless, an accident during computerized navigation raises the possibility the container ship's computer system could have been hacked and the ship deliberately steered into the USS Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.”

The ship’s tracking data, particularly a part of the record showing how the ship reacted after the collision, is the most telling piece of evidence that it was on autopilot, sources told the Free Beacon that it’s clear the container ship was on autopilot.

Commercial ship autopilot systems normally require someone to input manually the course for the ship travel. The computer program then steers the ship by controlling the steering gear to turn the rudder.

 The system also can be synchronized with an electronic chart system to allow the program to follow courses of a voyage plan.

 Tracking data broadcast from the Crystal as part of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) shows the ship changed course by 90 degrees to the right and slightly reduced its speed between around 1:32 a.m. and 1:34 a.m. After that time, the data shows the ship turned to the left and resumed a northeastern coarse along its original track line.

 Private naval analyst Steffan Watkins said the course data indicates the ship was running on autopilot. "The ACX Crystal powered out of the deviation it performed at 1:30, which was likely the impact with the USS Fitzgerald, pushing it off course while trying to free itself from being hung on the bow below the waterline," Watkins told the Free Beacon.

 The ship then continued to sail on for another 15 minutes, increasing speed before eventually reducing speed and turning around. 

 "This shows the autopilot was engaged because nobody would power out of an accident with another ship and keep sailing back on course. It’s unthinkable," he added.

Speaking at a news conference earlier this week, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin said the impact crushed berthing cabins below the waterline and ripped open a large hole in the vessel. Bodies of the missing sailors were found in the berthing cabins. Aucoin declined to say how many of the seven missing sailors had been recovered, but Japanese media said all had died.

 Commander, US 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, answers questions about #USSFitzgerald Full video available here https://t.co/14zqjOWfJZ pic.twitter.com/FMwputRfVJ

— DVIDSHub (@DVIDSHub) June 18, 2017

 The damage to the ship was significant, Aucoin said.

“There was a big gash under the water," Aucoin said at Yokosuka naval base, home of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the docked Fitzgerald behind him. "A significant portion of the crew was sleeping" when the destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, destroying the commander's cabin, he said.

The Fitzgerald is salvageable, he said, but repairs will likely take months. "Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back," Aucoin said.

The rarity of such crashes has also raised questions about what caused the collision, and who might be at fault.

As the WSJ notes, collisions at sea involving Navy ships are extremely uncommon, according to Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer captain, who said they occur only once or twice a decade, if that. He said he couldn’t remember a recent collision that was this consequential.

“There are 275 ships in the Navy and 100 are under way all over the world,” navigating “millions and millions of miles” every year, said Mr. McGrath, who retired in 2008 and is now a consultant. “This is very, very rare.

US naval history includes a few notable accidents. In 2005, the USS San Francisco, a Los Angeles-class submarine, hit a seamount or underwater mountain, injuring dozens of crew. In 2001, the USS Greeneville, another Los Angeles-class sub, performed an emergency ballast blow for special visitors aboard the vessel, surfacing quickly and hitting a Japanese fishing ship on the surface near Hawaii, killing nine crew members of the Japanese vessel.

In one of the Navy’s worst incidents, the aircraft carrier Wasp in April 1952 collided with the destroyer Hobson in the North Atlantic, killing 176 men.

Mr. McGrath declined to speculate as to what occurred or who or what might be to blame in the Fitzgerald incident. The collision occurred in darkness in a high-traffic area of the Pacific, he said. The most concerning aspect of the collision, from the destroyer’s point of view, is the damage to the Fitzgerald’s starboard side below the waterline, resulting from the container ship’s construction and the way its bow hit, he said.

the Fitzgerald collided with the merchant vessel, which was more than three times its size, some 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka early on Saturday. Three people were evacuated to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka after the collision, including the ship's commanding officer, Bryce Benson, who was reported to be in stable condition. According to Reuters, Benson took command of the Fitzgerald on May 13. He had previously commanded a minesweeper based in Sasebo in western Japan.

The Fitzgerald limped into port on Saturday evening, listing around 5 degrees, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Yokosuka said. The flooding was in two berthing compartments, the radio room and auxiliary machine room, he said. There were 285 crew onboard.

source http://capitalisthq.com/container-ship-was-on-autopilot-when-it-struck-uss-fitzergerald/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/container-ship-was-on-autopilot-when-it.html

[everettwilkinson]

Container Ship Was On Autopilot When It Struck USS Fitzergerald

A deadly collision between the Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal and Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald that left seven sailors dead earlier this week occurred while the ACX was on autopilot, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon.

While investigators say they’ve found no evidence the collision was intentional, that the ship was relying on its computerized navigation system at the team of the collision means hackers could’ve infiltrated into the ship’s navigation system and steered it into the Navy ship – though the collision off the coast of Japan could’ve just as easily been caused by a malfunction, or human error if the system’s warning signals were ignored.

“The Philippines-flagged cargo ship ACX Crystal was under control of a computerized navigation system that was steering and guiding the container vessel, according to officials familiar with preliminary results of an ongoing Navy investigation.

  Investigators so far found no evidence the collision was deliberate.

  Nevertheless, an accident during computerized navigation raises the possibility the container ship's computer system could have been hacked and the ship deliberately steered into the USS Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.”

The ship’s tracking data, particularly a part of the record showing how the ship reacted after the collision, is the most telling piece of evidence that it was on autopilot, sources told the Free Beacon that it’s clear the container ship was on autopilot.

Commercial ship autopilot systems normally require someone to input manually the course for the ship travel. The computer program then steers the ship by controlling the steering gear to turn the rudder.

  The system also can be synchronized with an electronic chart system to allow the program to follow courses of a voyage plan.

  Tracking data broadcast from the Crystal as part of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) shows the ship changed course by 90 degrees to the right and slightly reduced its speed between around 1:32 a.m. and 1:34 a.m. After that time, the data shows the ship turned to the left and resumed a northeastern coarse along its original track line.

  Private naval analyst Steffan Watkins said the course data indicates the ship was running on autopilot. "The ACX Crystal powered out of the deviation it performed at 1:30, which was likely the impact with the USS Fitzgerald, pushing it off course while trying to free itself from being hung on the bow below the waterline," Watkins told the Free Beacon.

  The ship then continued to sail on for another 15 minutes, increasing speed before eventually reducing speed and turning around. 

  "This shows the autopilot was engaged because nobody would power out of an accident with another ship and keep sailing back on course. It’s unthinkable," he added.

Speaking at a news conference earlier this week, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin said the impact crushed berthing cabins below the waterline and ripped open a large hole in the vessel. Bodies of the missing sailors were found in the berthing cabins. Aucoin declined to say how many of the seven missing sailors had been recovered, but Japanese media said all had died.

  Commander, US 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, answers questions about #USSFitzgerald Full video available here https://t.co/14zqjOWfJZ pic.twitter.com/FMwputRfVJ

— DVIDSHub (@DVIDSHub) June 18, 2017

  The damage to the ship was significant, Aucoin said.

“There was a big gash under the water," Aucoin said at Yokosuka naval base, home of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the docked Fitzgerald behind him. "A significant portion of the crew was sleeping" when the destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, destroying the commander's cabin, he said.

The Fitzgerald is salvageable, he said, but repairs will likely take months. "Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back," Aucoin said.

The rarity of such crashes has also raised questions about what caused the collision, and who might be at fault.

As the WSJ notes, collisions at sea involving Navy ships are extremely uncommon, according to Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer captain, who said they occur only once or twice a decade, if that. He said he couldn’t remember a recent collision that was this consequential.

“There are 275 ships in the Navy and 100 are under way all over the world,” navigating “millions and millions of miles” every year, said Mr. McGrath, who retired in 2008 and is now a consultant. “This is very, very rare.

US naval history includes a few notable accidents. In 2005, the USS San Francisco, a Los Angeles-class submarine, hit a seamount or underwater mountain, injuring dozens of crew. In 2001, the USS Greeneville, another Los Angeles-class sub, performed an emergency ballast blow for special visitors aboard the vessel, surfacing quickly and hitting a Japanese fishing ship on the surface near Hawaii, killing nine crew members of the Japanese vessel.

In one of the Navy’s worst incidents, the aircraft carrier Wasp in April 1952 collided with the destroyer Hobson in the North Atlantic, killing 176 men.

Mr. McGrath declined to speculate as to what occurred or who or what might be to blame in the Fitzgerald incident. The collision occurred in darkness in a high-traffic area of the Pacific, he said. The most concerning aspect of the collision, from the destroyer’s point of view, is the damage to the Fitzgerald’s starboard side below the waterline, resulting from the container ship’s construction and the way its bow hit, he said.

the Fitzgerald collided with the merchant vessel, which was more than three times its size, some 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka early on Saturday. Three people were evacuated to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka after the collision, including the ship's commanding officer, Bryce Benson, who was reported to be in stable condition. According to Reuters, Benson took command of the Fitzgerald on May 13. He had previously commanded a minesweeper based in Sasebo in western Japan.

The Fitzgerald limped into port on Saturday evening, listing around 5 degrees, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Yokosuka said. The flooding was in two berthing compartments, the radio room and auxiliary machine room, he said. There were 285 crew onboard.

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/container-ship-was-on-autopilot-when-it-struck-uss-fitzergerald/