"We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose." - President Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address
I was stationed on the DD-951 and around 1975 while we were underway between SD and Long Beach. We were cruising at around 25 knots when one of these came up from behind us, did a circle around us then it just left us behind like we were stopped. That speed sure looked good. A few years later there was one of these at SIMA S.D. up on the pier with the front wing folded back the wrong way because it had hit a whale. If memory serves me the boat had been being used by the USCG for a test to see if they could use them when the whale committed suicide. I think that a few crew were injured by the sudden stop also.
That would have been USCGC Flagstaff. I understand she never worked right after that, in part because there were few spares available for her unique systems.
What the Navy never did understand is that HSVs need regular M&R. They balked at the shoreside support unit all the time they were in service. Even the older PGs got an AGP ex-LST when they went to the Med. All of that should be lessons learned for LCS. Let's see now: optimal (minimal) crew, limited spares onboard, fwd deployed, mission mods swapout, and NO forward logisitic ship planned~ Oh well maybe there will be a friendly port?
I was stationed on the DD-951 and around 1975 while we were underway between SD and Long Beach. We were cruising at around 25 knots when one of these came up from behind us, did a circle around us then it just left us behind like we were stopped.
ReplyDeleteThat speed sure looked good.
A few years later there was one of these at SIMA S.D. up on the pier with the front wing folded back the wrong way because it had hit a whale.
If memory serves me the boat had been being used by the USCG for a test to see if they could use them when the whale committed suicide.
I think that a few crew were injured by the sudden stop also.
That would have been USCGC Flagstaff. I understand she never worked right after that, in part because there were few spares available for her unique systems.
ReplyDelete'kaayy..the AIM option just leaves gibberish as a signature. Let's see how this works.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Navy never did understand is that HSVs need regular M&R. They balked at the shoreside support unit all the time they were in service. Even the older PGs got an AGP ex-LST when they went to the Med.
ReplyDeleteAll of that should be lessons learned for LCS. Let's see now: optimal (minimal) crew, limited spares onboard, fwd deployed, mission mods swapout, and NO forward logisitic ship planned~
Oh well maybe there will be a friendly port?