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Seawolf attack Sub Connecticut "hit something" under the South China Sea


AUS-97HORN

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41 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

When the big missile boomers go out to play cat/mouse under the ice caps, not even POTUS knows where they are.  Completely and utterly autonomous.

forget POTUS, the Joint Chiefs, Sec-Nav, no one knows where they are

Full Disclosure: My Dad served on a Sub and I subscribed to Proceedings Magazine as a kid, so this hits close to home

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12 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

To add to that, my grandfather spent three days swimming in the Pacific after his ship was hit by a torpedo, so I wasn’t trying to be flippant about your great grandfather’s service.

Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies. Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain...

 

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4 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Man, find that and preserve it. Dad has his that says Pleiku Club for Wayward Boys- 1967. I want that hat. He can give the rest of his shit to my asshole cousins but not that one. 

 

It’s buried in a closet.  It looks exactly like a hat that was designed by a senior citizen, so I don’t ever wear it.  Wife knows that it is not to be part of any household purge of miscellaneous shit.  Funny thing, did a google image search, and very few results were returned, but one of them was a picture of my grandfather.

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17 hours ago, Captainant said:

I recall reading about a similar collision where a sub hit an underwater mountain and the investigation found the charts onboard the sub didn't have the the hazard marked for some reason.

That was also the premise for an episode of Monk, except death and murder were involved. 

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16 hours ago, Updawg said:


Yep. I heard a talk by the captain of the Sun that hit the Japanese? fishing boat. He at least was able to get on the lecture circuit but his navy career was over immediately

If you're talking about the one in Hawaii, that guy was lucky to just have his career end.  The story is he was showing off to a bunch of VIP's on board and executed the maneuver where the sub basically jumps out of the ocean.  You Navy guys I'm sure know the official name for this.  Turns out the Japanese fishing boat was right where they surfaced and like 10 high school kids were killed - it was some kind of training boat.

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1 hour ago, shakahorn said:

the maneuver where the sub basically jumps out of the ocean.  You Navy guys I'm sure know the official name for this

emergency surface or emergency blow

Funny story about the "USS City of Corpus Christi". It was originally called the "USS Corpus Christi" The navy got a call from the vatican, complaining that a warship that was designed to kill people was called "Corpus Christi" which translates to  "Body of Christ" in English. So they added the "City of" to the name of the ship. 

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15 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

To add to that, my grandfather spent three days swimming in the Pacific after his ship was hit by a torpedo, so I wasn’t trying to be flippant about your great grandfather’s service.

One of the 316 who came out of the water alive - good for him, thank him for his service; and great for you or you wouldn't be here (unless your father was already born)

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2 hours ago, shakahorn said:

If you're talking about the one in Hawaii, that guy was lucky to just have his career end.  The story is he was showing off to a bunch of VIP's on board and executed the maneuver where the sub basically jumps out of the ocean.  You Navy guys I'm sure know the official name for this.  Turns out the Japanese fishing boat was right where they surfaced and like 10 high school kids were killed - it was some kind of training boat.

The Hawaii one was the Greenville.   The one that hit the underwater mountain was San Francisco.  It was bad.  I saw it in drydock in Bremerton at PSNS.  They ended up cutting the front end of the Honolulu and attaching it to the San Fran.  We started calling it the San Franolulu.  Knew about 10 guys on the San Fran when it collided.  Most of them are command master chiefs now or warrant officers

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1 hour ago, blacklab said:

emergency surface or emergency blow

Funny story about the "USS City of Corpus Christi". It was originally called the "USS Corpus Christi" The navy got a call from the vatican, complaining that a warship that was designed to kill people was called "Corpus Christi" which translates to  "Body of Christ" in English. So they added the "City of" to the name of the ship. 

The duality of man. Sir. 

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5 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

One of the 316 who came out of the water alive - good for him, thank him for his service; and great for you or you wouldn't be here (unless your father was already born)

You obviously have some knowledge of what transpired.  He was part of the group that floated until they found land, and were taken in by the locals when they came ashore.  He was injured badly enough to be discharged after a brief stay at a hospital in California.  My grandmother was his nurse.  Sadly they are both no longer with us.

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6 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

You obviously have some knowledge of what transpired.  He was part of the group that floated until they found land, and were taken in by the locals when they came ashore.  He was injured badly enough to be discharged after a brief stay at a hospital in California.  My grandmother was his nurse.  Sadly they are both no longer with us.

My bad, I presumed you were talking about the Indianapolis

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15 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

You obviously have some knowledge of what transpired.  He was part of the group that floated until they found land, and were taken in by the locals when they came ashore.  He was injured badly enough to be discharged after a brief stay at a hospital in California.  My grandmother was his nurse.  Sadly they are both no longer with us.

USS Helena? She was sunk in Kula Gulf, I think. My first thought was really the USS Juneau, though that just off Guadalcanal, not in Kula Gulf.

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23 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

My great grandfather was captain of a minesweeper in WW2. His ship, the Portent, hit a mine and sank during the Anzio invasion. He survived but was laid up with burns and other injuries for a few months and even then some higher up was trying to drum him out of the navy during wartime for well, hitting a mine while sweeping mines during an invasion. I have these papers somewhere and eventually that assholes CO just ruled that the loss of the Portent was “an acceptable consequence arising from the hazards of naval warfare,” or something like that. He was given another command and life went on, and he returned from the war and went back to Beaumont, albeit as an alcoholic by that time. 
 

if you want to see some real old school overzealous prosecution of naval officers, check out the British Admiralty back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Not only was your career at stake, they hang your ass for such offenses as “not pressing an attack with sufficient zeal,” even if said attack would have been a suicide mission. 
 

 

Early in the war I know there was a lot of tension between Academy graduates and USNR officers who attained command or senior positions, even if only relatively senior, such as command of a destroyer or other small ship.

Obviously, it was impossible to wage WWII solely on academy grad officers and those small vessels, destroyers especially, really fought the war, from a naval combat perspective.  And the USNR officers acquitted themselves very well in most cases.

By the time of Anzio, that should have been mostly over and done, but that sounds like some ringknocker shit.  Also, I bet that persisted in the Atlantic fleets longer than Pacific.

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2 hours ago, pantone159 said:

USS Helena? She was sunk in Kula Gulf, I think. My first thought was really the USS Juneau, though that just off Guadalcanal, not in Kula Gulf.

As an aside, I’ve been wanting to go over there, rent a boat, and trace his footsteps.  See what he saw if you will, even though it wouldn’t be remotely the same.  The Solomon Islands are not a very easy-to-get-to travel destination.

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18 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

As an aside, I’ve been wanting to go over there, rent a boat, and trace his footsteps.  See what he saw if you will, even though it wouldn’t be remotely the same.  The Solomon Islands are not a very easy-to-get-to travel destination.

I have had similar thoughts, though I don't have any family that fought there, I only know of history in books. The Solomon Islands seem to be well out of the way, and have some social issues now, but have some cool scuba diving, as well as the ghosts. You would fly into the main airport at Honaira, which was once named Henderson Field. In this case you should surely come via Pearl Harbor. I kind of want to get on a dive boat and sail around Savo Island at night, and do some night dive. Kula Gulf is a few islands farther west I think, so it would be even harder to get to.

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2 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

I have had similar thoughts, though I don't have any family that fought there, I only know of history in books. The Solomon Islands seem to be well out of the way, and have some social issues now, but have some cool scuba diving, as well as the ghosts. You would fly into the main airport at Honaira, which was once named Henderson Field. In this case you should surely come via Pearl Harbor. I kind of want to get on a dive boat and sail around Savo Island at night, and do some night dive. Kula Gulf is a few islands farther west I think, so it would be even harder to get to.

Last time I looked (pre-COVID) it was 2-3 days to get there and the same to return.  Most routings go through Australia, then you have to spend a night there, then double back to the Solomon Islands, then do the same to return.  Then you have to take the puddle jumper to the outer islands going and coming.  There are a few very interesting looking small resorts, that while a bit primitive, look like a good place to spend a week.  I’ll do it at some point.

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12 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Last time I looked (pre-COVID) it was 2-3 days to get there and the same to return.  Most routings go through Australia, then you have to spend a night there, then double back to the Solomon Islands, then do the same to return.  Then you have to take the puddle jumper to the outer islands going and coming.  There are a few very interesting looking small resorts, that while a bit primitive, look like a good place to spend a week.  I’ll do it at some point.

I did not do much actual travel planning, but if I was following the spirits of WW2 (which I would), I'd try and arrange my plans to go through Pearl then Henderson Field somehow. Going through Australia in the middle would have been likely at the time, so that makes sense too!

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1 hour ago, conVINCEd said:

As an aside, I’ve been wanting to go over there, rent a boat, and trace his footsteps.  See what he saw if you will, even though it wouldn’t be remotely the same. 

It wouldn’t remotely be the same.  Most of the prostitutes he would have known have long since died.  

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2 hours ago, pantone159 said:

I did not do much actual travel planning, but if I was following the spirits of WW2 (which I would), I'd try and arrange my plans to go through Pearl then Henderson Field somehow. Going through Australia in the middle would have been likely at the time, so that makes sense too!

The airlines really don’t give a shit about the spirit of WWII.

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6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Early in the war I know there was a lot of tension between Academy graduates and USNR officers who attained command or senior positions, even if only relatively senior, such as command of a destroyer or other small ship.

Obviously, it was impossible to wage WWII solely on academy grad officers and those small vessels, destroyers especially, really fought the war, from a naval combat perspective.  And the USNR officers acquitted themselves very well in most cases.

By the time of Anzio, that should have been mostly over and done, but that sounds like some ringknocker shit.  Also, I bet that persisted in the Atlantic fleets longer than Pacific.

Yeah in peacetime he was Sabine / Neches pilot. He was a regular Navy vet from WW1 but not an officer. He served on a small ship with an experimental engine that was captained at one point by the young Chester Nimitz but if my g-grandfather served under him he seems not to have talked about it much. 

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Typically they'll just use passive sonar and navigational charts since active sonar also let's everyone else know you're there lol
I recall reading about a similar collision where a sub hit an underwater mountain and the investigation found the charts onboard the sub didn't have the the hazard marked for some reason. Just part of the dangers of operating in a stealth ship without windows, I guess

If it’s the one I’m thinking of, there was a new elevation due to an underwater volcanic eruption that hadn’t been mapped yet.
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We are in the "finding out" stage of determining China has done to shape that particular battlefield. 

This is the concerning part. No idea what the solution is for detecting that kind of stuff in advance, but in situations like this it seems like they should fire up their active sonar (or whatever it’s called) to get a full lay of the land before heading up. You’re surfacing anyway, so keeping your location secret is already out the window.
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4 hours ago, SquishMitten said:


This is the concerning part. No idea what the solution is for detecting that kind of stuff in advance, but in situations like this it seems like they should fire up their active sonar (or whatever it’s called) to get a full lay of the land before heading up. You’re surfacing anyway, so keeping your location secret is already out the window.

South China sea is a very shallow op area.  Lots of contacts.  Lots of noise.  Tow array cannot be deployed.  Active won't do shit for you.  

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