Armed to the teeth

[HisMajestyBOB]

Originally posted by faded glory
we also have dozens of smaller carriers and helicopter transports. My Bro in law is on the Pelelui (damn it...cant spell it. So i just pronounce,. Pel-a-lou)

As in like France carrier size or something? I thought all we had were Supercarriers, plus helicopters off of Destroyers/Cruisers.

[Dis]

LHA's and LHD's

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-lha.html

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Dissident

And the Kennedy is a reserve ship. I'm not sure how they use it. I recall they did actually do a med cruise a few years ago. They have a a high reservist ratio operating that ship. it is used for training purposes.

edit: I keep messing this post up!

Well, you won't like this but the Kennedy is not a reserve flattop, in fact she left for the Arabian Sea not too long ago. (Best friend's older brother is a Petty Officer on her)

It is also the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen. Brazil's carrier is better maintained.

It's worth noting after the Jacksonville newspaper grabbed hold of the internal inspection Docs, the crew had a 2 week 24-hour run on repairing the damn thing. 140 Engineers (some were civilians brought down from NNS) went AWOL.

In November, the Damn thing almost sank at dock, and on the last cruise, the fuel got mixed in with the drinking water.

So, who here thinks that maybe the USN needs to have a fricking bone thrown here?

[Dis]

fuel in the drinking water. LOL

That's worse than my ship. We had CHT get into the fuel. And I had to analyze that sh!t. Literally . CHT is pretty much sewage for anyone who cares.

I am curious what happened. So that was an engineering problem? Sucks for them. I was a machinist mate (although our rating does no machining . That is for MR's). I ran propulsion plants. I'm curious how they screwed that up.

[Dis]

Duh. Why don't i just read the link. I got it thanks.

Loss of main engine vacuum. Jeez they must be in poor shape. Trying to do high power runs on 3 shafts. I can't imagine how bad that ship is. I know a few girls that went to that ship. Don't get me started on female Machinist mates . Although some of them were quite good, most were not.

This is the kind of stuff I grew to love. But no ship I was on was in this poor of shape. I'm sure the Engineer's career is pretty much toast. He will never get Captain of a ship (many carrier engineers are already the rank of Captain- maybe all of them)

AFTER THREE FULL DAYS OF PRE-UNDERWAY MATERIAL CHECKS, THE SHIP COMMENCED THE UNDERWAY PHASE OF THE MI WITH THREE MAIN ENGINES AND FIVE BOILERS CLEARED FOR OPERATION. MMR NR 1 HAD SEVERAL UNCORRECTED MAJOR DEFICIENCIES THAT RENDERED IT UNSAFE FOR OPERATION. AN ATTEMPT TO CONDUCT A MODIFIED HIGH POWER DEMONSTRATION AT 23 KNOTS ON THREE SHAFTS WAS UNSUCCESSFUL DUE TO NUMEROUS CASUALTIES. THESE INCLUDED LOSS OF MAIN ENGINE VACUUM, CASUALTIES TO MMR NR 3 FUEL OIL SERVICE PUMPS WITH THE SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF ONE BOILER IN THAT SPACE, AND CASUALTIES TO OTHER MAJOR EQUIPMENT INCLUDING A MAIN FEED PUMP, A FORCED DRAFT BLOWER, AND MULTIPLE AIR EJECTORS. THE PROPULSION PLANT WAS EVALUATED TO BE EXTREMELY UNRELIABLE AND DETERMINED TO BE ROUTINELY OPERATED OUT OF SAFE PARAMETERS AND IN NON-STANDARD CONFIGURATION. TWO SHAFT SEALS HAD UNACCEPTABLE LEAKAGE RATES AND ONE RECENTLY REPLACED SEAL ON A THIRD SHAFT (ALTHOUGH STILL IN THE BREAK-IN PERIOD) HAD AN OBSERVED LEAKAGE RATE THAT SUGGESTS IT WILL NOT BE SATISFACTORY

[David Floyd]

Why not just decommission the damn thing? We don't need it or anything.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by David Floyd
Why not just decommission the damn thing? We don't need it or anything.

So, are you saying that we don't need to have the ability to deploy two carriers somewhere at once? Bear in mind, if we start expanding the tours of duty even more,lots and lots of people are going to quit and never look back.

[David Floyd]

Great, then we can cut it back even further

[faded glory]

To the contrary, I think that carrier demonstrates just exactly why we need more funding for our armed forces.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by David Floyd
Great, then we can cut it back even further

More likely well be even more short handed. The only way to come up with people then would be to hold a draft, and that would turn nasty when all the cowards, er, "Concientious objectors" flee.

I'm glad someone appreciates what these Servicemen are doing, because it's clear you don't.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by OneFootInTheGrave
Anyway i did not expect that 40% of the military spending in the world is spent by the US

In the early '90s it was half the military spending in the world. Now remember, unlike some countries, we pay our soldiers. Also, a lot of our military spending is pure pork barrel stuff that is unneeded and/or unwanted by the military.

When all is said and done, more than half our Federal budget goes to pay for past, present, and future wars. Veterans programs, war loan repayments, military hardware, soldiers, GI bills, etc., and so forth.

[David Floyd]

Lonestar, if we don't have the assets to wage offensive war, we won't - and no country is gonna mess with us, whether we have 2 carriers or 12 or 100.

Terrorists, maybe, but carriers don't deter terrorists.

[faded glory]

Originally posted by David Floyd


Terrorists, maybe, but carriers don't deter terrorists.

Oh but they do. If they cant have camps, funding and shelter. They cant have an organization, can they?

[David Floyd]

So you're telling me more aircraft carriers would have deterred 9/11??

[Dis]

I think the manpower issue in the Navy, and in the armed forces is a serious problem.

Although recent events should aleviate that problem.

I started seeing real problems in the mid to late 90's. With a strong economy, nobody who was smart and knew what they were doing wanted to stay in the navy. Myself included. The quality of men on ships was spiralling downward. This carrier is a prime example. Most people want to get paid for doing nothing. And when you have supervisors that allow this to happen, preventative maintenance get sidetracked. And we have the USS Kennedy debacle. I had good engineers (and Reactor Officers). They worked us hard, but it prevented serious problems like this.

Now that jobs are more scarce and the economy is tough. This is actually good for the military. It will bring in better quality people. Of course pay increases wouldn't hurt as well .