Sailor charged with arson

https://news.usni.org/2021/07/29/na...ing-2020-fire-of-amphibious-assault-ship

They should make him pay for it, what is a few hundred million anyway...

I saw an article quoting $3 billion in damages... I think it's totaled.

Wow. What the heck is wrong with people?

Firing squad.

Nah, put to work making gravel everyday (the hard way) for the rest of his life

"All told, the Navy clearly came to the conclusion that sending Bonhomme Richard to meet the scrapper's torch was the least bad option it had available."

www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37880...-scarp-fire-damaged-uss-bonhomme-richard

With all the "idol worship" attitudes that some people have in regards to members of the armed forces, I can tell you it has its share of dirtbags, jerks, and nuts just like any other profession.

Just wearing the uniform does not make you a hero.

In 1989 there was a gun turret explosion on the battleship USS New Jersey which caused numerous deaths. The first investigation into the explosion, conducted by the U.S. Navy, concluded that one of the gun turret crew members, Clayton Hartwig, who died in the explosion, had deliberately caused it.

After a more thorough investigation, the incident was attributed to an accidental misloading of the gun.

The point? Let's wait 'til all the facts are in before condemning a sailor accused by his superiors. They could be wrong AGAIN.

I believe that was the USS Iowa.
Ron

I used to know and race with the E5 that was the guy at the radar console when the USS Starke was attacked in the Gulf in 1987. (mopar guy to) They tried to hang that on him to but only later found out it was faulty radar equipment that got rammed through Congress. Made his life hell for awhile. I had my own "episodes" in the Navy where they ALWAYS find the lowest man to blame for any and all issues that arise. Not saying he did or did not but "trust" an investigation like that when butts are on the line. I will hold fire pending all of them are completed.
Todd

You tagged me in that response and I just want to be clear that I only posted the article. And did not make any judgement on the matter.

Correct - the Iowa. It was never fully repaired

I have previously read that there was minimum crew on the ship when the fire was discovered but I was alarmed that US Navy ships would not be wired with sensors to effectively detect fires and automatic systems to successfully fight multiple fires at once. Perhaps these sytems were disabled for maintenance?

Anti-ship missiles in vast amounts by potential adversaries have certainly have been in the news and the fires a hit would start would be extreme compared to an arson fire in below decks equipment. Navy crew members must be highly trained fire fighters, and be on ships with designed in fire fighting features superior to any potential adversary. Has the modern USA Navy forgotten this lesson from the battle of Midway ?

On the other hand, modern torpedos no longer hit the side of the hull. They explode below the keel creating a gas bubble that cracks the keel of the ship in half.

{The British torpedo that hit the former US Cruiser that Argentina renamed the Belgrano shows the massive destruction of a modern torpedo.} edit: Wiki says 3 conventional torpedos hit side of hull of Belgrano.

The only hope for a modern ship is to sink the ship/submarine/drone before it is in torpedo range, or launch mini defensive torpedos that destroy the incoming torpedo.
US Navy attempts to create such mini defensive torpedos to protect aircraft carriers have so far been a massive waste of money. Penn State University has a grant to improve mini torpedo.

that was the Iowa. had a high school friend that was on it at the time, said it was a horrible scene. yes they railroaded a sailor that they said was in some kind of gay lover tirangle or some crap if i remember correctly. it was found that it was something to do with powder from world war II and how it was stored and or loaded.


.

Seems very odd to me, a modern operating warship, could be totally ruined by a single sailor, when at dock, without any significant explosive(?) device, when docked at a US modern well equipped military port.

I wonder how alj the in the heat of the battle, under attack ships, ,far out to sea survived Japaneses Kamikaze attacks in WW2.

Docked with a skeleton crew as I remember, only a hundred-something men on board so it could go unnoticed for a while

The Belgrano was a light cruiser not a battleship.

the rest of your statement is just about as far off too. I served in the Navy, did 4 years on a destroyer and time on other ships as well. I was there when the Samuel B. Roberts hit a mine and nearly cracked in half. Nothing automated would have saved the ship, the crew did that. The worst part of that wasn't the fire, it was the water used to fight the fire, they damn near sank themselves trying to put out the fires. We ended up sending damn near every portable dewatering pump in the Persian Gulf to them, then they realized they didn't have enough gasoline to run them for long, so we sent damn near all the gasoline we had in the Gulf to them. We learned two things from that, ships need more dewatering pump and more gasoline to run them.

The main engineering spaces do have automated firefighting systems. The rest of the ship has the crew. People cry about the cost of military equipment as it is, then complaint about how it's not state of the art, without all the bells and whistles. You can't have both. A warship is a compromise, every single aspect of it is carefully balanced against needs and wants. Doesn't make sense to have a warship capable of fighting any conceivable fire automatically if all that gear leaves no room for ammo, or fuel, or provisions.

One article I read said that numerous issues colluded to make it much worse than it would have been at sea.

Because it was there under maintenance:
Lots of doors were open and had hoses/wires/whatever going through them, so they couldn't be closed off to isolate the fire.
Skeleton crew
Lots of extra maintenance/cleaning stuff laying around that wasn't normally there, ready to burn.
Fire suppression systems may have been turned off for maintenance.

Bad situation for sure, but not really relevant to what would happen at sea if a fire broke out.