USS Fitzgerald
 

Its 2017, and it really makes you wonder.... We spend billions and billions of dollars on defense, We have state of the art radar, sonar, night vision, infra red, automatic target acquisition and identification. a heightened state of awareness with multiple people on deck looking for threats, multiple sets of eyes on the bridge... State of the art offensive and defensive weapons systems. automatic missile launch detection... Yet you can hit a state of the art US Naval Destroyer with a 730 foot lumbering freighter with an absolute top speed of 30 mph so hard you damn near sink it, and nobody new anything until they heard the thunderous kaboom?

Wondering the same thing myself. Makes no sense. For crying out loud, a Furuno at West marine would be able to spot a container ship on it's worst setting.

Really, the only excuse is that the container ship had a Romulan cloaking device :p

Maybe the Fitzgerald was taking a blocking position to keep the freighter from getting to port, and was rammed. Far too many secrets kept from us, and the freighters tracking log shows a very erratic course. Far too many questions remain, but in the end, RIP for the sailors!

two word's " COVER UP "

Uss fitz
 

maybe no one on the bridge with much experience..............with 18 yr. olds out of basic training one may wonder if that's correct. How much training do they have?? and are they really prepared. It would be better if the issue was shared and not swept under the rug.

:party-smiley-004: Eight people on the bridge and Aegis radar. This appears to be some Exxon Valdez entry-level incompetence. Not proud of our navy since Iran debacle.

^^^^^like^^^^ let's wait and see! RIP

i believe their is a lot of information the general public will never be told.

there always is..... In other news Iran is now shooting missiles at Isis targets in Syria and we just shot down a Russian made Syrian war plane....

fitz
 

the u turn and erratic radar track is from the container ship doubling back to ck on the fitz.........i suspect there will be a few fine sailors peeling tators for a while

yep F/A 18E Super Hornet blew a SU22 out of the sky! Splash 1!!

Boggles the mind. How they could miss this. Gives the ragheads more confidence for another Cole like attack if we cant see a Freaken Freighter!!

freighters travel in straight lines. they haul stuff from 1 port to another. they drink too much fuel to so much as change their speed, let alone weave all over the place. a freighter behaving like that is not hauling freight.

Well it's hauling something...

Give it time and lets see what comes out. Things happened on a battle ship years ago and the Navy tried to pin it on a sailor instead of what really happened.

Maybe the container ship had a stepped or cat hull and was really hauling ass.

I've seen it happen ^^^^

It is hard to understand how something like this could happen in this high tech world today.

The real deal here is that some good and dedicated souls lost their lives far too soon. Say a prayer for them and their loved ones, the rest will work itself out in time, it is after all the smaller part of this. Your son, your brother, your father, your partner, would change how one would look at this. Easy here boys, respect is due.

Maybe it's just me but by the way it sits in the water, it looks like it isn't carrying that much of a load. Experts?....Anyone?

I cant see the plimsoll lines so hard to judge, even then it depends upon ballast which they often pump some out in order to make harbor. Looks to be as fully loaded as the ones I see in the Houston ship channel in terms of stack height.

The Captain was in his cabin when it happened late at night. He was injured in the incident and had to be airlifted. Reports say the Japanese ship crewed by Filipinos suddenly made a sharp turn and rammed the Fitz. Could be that the Fitz's officer of the deck was green and failed to take precautions to ensure there was enough distance so that this could not happen, or the Fitz may have been in a narrow shipping channel and they didn't have time or room to maneuver when the container ship suddenly turned and hit them.

Time will tell.

Seriously?
 

Something stinky here! If the incident was an accident, gross incompetence on many levels. The Russians must be choking on their vodka. It is ridiculous that one of our most technology laden warships could be caught in a pants down situation like this. A major embarrassment, and a shame that lives were lost. At the risk of paranoia rearing it's ugly head, Is there anyone else whose first reaction after "No freakin' way " was Terrorists?

I doesnt matter if it was terrorists or Capt Hazelwood at the helm of the freighter. The fact is that that ship is supposed to be able to neutralize multiple missiles fired at it from hundred miles away traveling at high speeds, anytime, anywhere......

Exactly my sentiment, How the Hell did this happen!

i,ll bet the penguins from madagascar were driving the container ship a funny thought........ but still a sad day for the navy

Its the Russians... look at the route the freighter took, classic Crazy Ivan. Straight out of the Captain Ramius text book.

The USS Fitzgerald Is At Fault. This Is Why. ? gCaptain Here is a pretty interesting article on it.

Yup, career killer also.

Right. The brown clown is gone, as are the days of the U.S. always being the apologetic fool. Given time the real reasons will surface. Remember the real deal here,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, lives lost, ours not theirs.

Some sure sound like a arm chair quarterback

We have a few navy vets around that have stood watch a time or two also....

So you figure every time something goes wrong in the world today we / the U.S. is the one to fault. Should we send a check to fix the cargo ship? Should we send a check to fix the centuries old Mosque that the whack jobs just blew the fock up as well?

Just asking, Friday is cut the check day for me, just wondering where this weeks should go.

Agree, there are very few which have done that, I have

And No I'm not saying we (the USA) is at fault, I'm saying folks are taking crud off the net and reposting as gospel and not giving it time to find out what really happened. Yes, the Navy has tried to push off the issue on a dead man, but right now, we (the public) do not know what happened. So to turn into a Fox or CNN gossip column does no one any good, and may even hurt folks on the ship and their families from innuendo. Give it some time

No matter which way you slice it (unless the freighter somehow went thru a worm hole in the time space continuem) there was a complete and utter failure of the defensive capabilities of a US Navy Destroyer. That much we know.

If you say so Mr O'Reilly

Yep, and one of the reason I got out is because they wouldn't let me drive the boat,..........errrr ship. :)

[QUOTE=Marginmn;4564033]Yep, and one of the reason I got out is because they wouldn't let me drive the boat,..........errrr ship. :)[/Q
All ships are called boats on the Great Lakes, even 1000' freighters. Navy ships are built up on northern Lake Michigan yet called boats until they're out of the lakes.

Submarines are also called boats.....

[QUOTE=Interceptor;4564070]I did not know that. Thanks.

Well, hate to see this but doesn't look good for the Navy https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-fit...vy-discipline/

The freighters track was probably an attempt to render aid (my speculation)