Warship Appreciation Thread

[ShadowArxxy]

Yeah, you can really thank the Dixies and Wildrow Wilson for that clusterfuck. That and people like Benjamin 'Pitchfork' Tillman constantly starving the USN of money to retain procedures and whatnot.

In a lot of ways, the *sheer* pettiness and vindictiveness of the Navy officers handling the situation was what made the situation such a strong lever.

You had entire units of African-American enlisted men who had been officially assessed as qualified for combat roles and then trained for those roles, being arbitrarily reassigned to menial hauling tasks for *no* reason other than the racist belief that this was all they were good for *because of their race*, being forced to do those menial tasks without proper training and without proper safety equipment, and even when this malicious negligence by white officers literally kills three hundred men and destroys most of a crucial Navy base -- the Navy callously orders them to throw away their lives by continuing to follow unsafe procedures. When they refuse to *essentially commit suicide*, the Navy vindictively goes out of its way to railroad them on the most extreme possible charges.

These men were literally ordered to load and unload thousands of tons of live munitions with the detonators screwed in, without even having gloves, under the "leadership" of white officers who were openly contemptuous of the men they were supposedly responsible for and who were pretty much *gleeful* at depriving them of necessary safety equipment and demanding that the *only* priority was speed, speed, speed.



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[Sailor.X]

In a lot of ways, the *sheer* pettiness and vindictiveness of the Navy officers handling the situation was what made the situation such a strong lever.

You had entire units of African-American enlisted men who had been officially assessed as qualified for combat roles and then trained for those roles, being arbitrarily reassigned to menial hauling tasks for *no* reason other than the racist belief that this was all they were good for *because of their race*, being forced to do those menial tasks without proper training and without proper safety equipment, and even when this malicious negligence by white officers literally kills three hundred men and destroys most of a crucial Navy base -- the Navy callously orders them to throw away their lives by continuing to follow unsafe procedures. When they refuse to *essentially commit suicide*, the Navy vindictively goes out of its way to railroad them on the most extreme possible charges.

These men were literally ordered to load and unload thousands of tons of live munitions with the detonators screwed in, without even having gloves, under the "leadership" of white officers who were openly contemptuous of the men they were supposedly responsible for and who were pretty much *gleeful* at depriving them of necessary safety equipment and demanding that the *only* priority was speed, speed, speed.



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Me thinks those officers did not go to the Good place when they died. They went to the other place.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

President Clinton formally pardoned one of the "Port Chicago 50" in 1999, but by that time only three of them were still alive and only the one had applied for a pardon. After several unsuccessful attempts, Congress finally passed a resolution exonerating all fifty in 2019

 

[Aaron Fox]

In a lot of ways, the *sheer* pettiness and vindictiveness of the Navy officers handling the situation was what made the situation such a strong lever.

You had entire units of African-American enlisted men who had been officially assessed as qualified for combat roles and then trained for those roles, being arbitrarily reassigned to menial hauling tasks for *no* reason other than the racist belief that this was all they were good for *because of their race*, being forced to do those menial tasks without proper training and without proper safety equipment, and even when this malicious negligence by white officers literally kills three hundred men and destroys most of a crucial Navy base -- the Navy callously orders them to throw away their lives by continuing to follow unsafe procedures. When they refuse to *essentially commit suicide*, the Navy vindictively goes out of its way to railroad them on the most extreme possible charges.

These men were literally ordered to load and unload thousands of tons of live munitions with the detonators screwed in, without even having gloves, under the "leadership" of white officers who were openly contemptuous of the men they were supposedly responsible for and who were pretty much *gleeful* at depriving them of necessary safety equipment and demanding that the *only* priority was speed, speed, speed.



.

Yeah, the Shadow of the Dixies is a very long one...

President Clinton formally pardoned one of the "Port Chicago 50" in 1999, but by that time only three of them were still alive and only the one had applied for a pardon. After several unsuccessful attempts, Congress finally passed a resolution exonerating all fifty in 2019

... wow...

Me thinks those officers did not go to the Good place when they died. They went to the other place.

Eh, given a lot of the shit that US 'Christians' pulled over the course of the US's history? I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of them went to The Bad Place in the end... if not face annihilation in soul (because even the Big Guy Downstairs has standards).

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Just to be clear: 258 African-American sailors refused to continue loading ammunition under unsafe procedures, but they also explicitly stated that they would follow *any* other order, including orders to resume loading ammunition *as long as procedures were revised*. The Navy responded by rounding all of them up and imprisoning them while also declaring that their safety complaints were invalid because the Navy hadn't come to any official conclusion as to the cause of the explosion. 208 of them gave in after several days and returned to unsafe duty; they were also sentenced administratively for disobeying orders. 50 of them refused to give in, and were court-martialed for mutiny.

The Navy investigation subsequently concluded that it could not come to any conclusion, i.e. that it was politically unacceptable to admit that there was any fault in the procedures.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Just to be clear: 258 African-American sailors refused to continue loading ammunition under unsafe procedures, but they also explicitly stated that they would follow *any* other order, including orders to resume loading ammunition *as long as procedures were revised*. The Navy responded by rounding all of them up and imprisoning them while also declaring that their safety complaints were invalid because the Navy hadn't come to any official conclusion as to the cause of the explosion. 208 of them gave in after several days and returned to unsafe duty; they were also sentenced administratively for disobeying orders. 50 of them refused to give in, and were court-martialed for mutiny.

The Navy investigation subsequently concluded that it could not come to any conclusion, i.e. that it was politically unacceptable to admit that there was any fault in the procedures.

Then again, remember that the USN had trouble with keeping a budget as well, given that Congress loved to go 'nice budget, we'll take it' [yoinks budget]. A lot of shit was because of said penny pinching and the sort of culture and norms it produced and compounded by other cultural norms...

Remember the entire Mk14 clusterfuck? Yeah, a lot of that was because Congress was a bunch of penny pinchers (if not outright robbing the USN of its budget) and made it pretty much impossible to test the weapons properly.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

One of the sad parts about the USN being racist in the Interwar and WWII periods was the fact that prior to Wilson ruining everything the USN was actually highly integrated with no less than 15 to 20 percent(depending on the year) of the enlisted sailors being people of color and plans where in place to open up the Naval Academy to them in the near future. Wilson killed all this stone dead

 

[Sailor.X]

One of the sad parts about the USN being racist in the Interwar and WWII periods was the fact that prior to Wilson ruining everything the USN was actually highly integrated with no less than 15 to 20 percent(depending on the year) of the enlisted sailors being people of color and plans where in place to open up the Naval Academy to them in the near future. Wilson killed all this stone dead

Wilson also undid all the work TR did to make the US Navy a force to be reconned with. TR was a big proponent of the Navy he wanted as many Americans as possible to serve in the Navy. Black White it didn't matter to him. He wanted us to rival the British on the open seas. But Wilson being ultra racist and really really hating TR personally. Undid a lot of things TR did out of pure spite.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Wilson also undid all the work TR did to make the US Navy a force to be reconned with. TR was a big proponent of the Navy he wanted as many Americans as possible to serve in the Navy. Black White it didn't matter to him. He wanted us to rival the British on the open seas. But Wilson being ultra racist and really really hating TR personally. Undid a lot of things TR did out of pure spite.

There is a paraphrased quote that I heard somewhere that explains TR's stance on racism: Put a [insert N-Word here] and a White Man in the same position, you get the same result.

TR might have believed in the entire race genetics thing (but who in academia at the time didn't?), but he was very anti-racism. Something that he shared in some ways with his cousin FDR (although FDR was far more politically conscious on that).

Although, if what I've heard about Wilson is correct, at least he wasn't Benjamin 'Pitchfork' Tillman racist. That man's racism makes you go 'damn' in awe...

One of the sad parts about the USN being racist in the Interwar and WWII periods was the fact that prior to Wilson ruining everything the USN was actually highly integrated with no less than 15 to 20 percent(depending on the year) of the enlisted sailors being people of color and plans where in place to open up the Naval Academy to them in the near future. Wilson killed all this stone dead

Yeah, if you want to blame a group for the current race situation in the US, blame the Dixiecrats and through them Wilson. If, say, the Dixies supported a crazed Britain like in my AltHist portion of my GATE fic, a lot of the pain and sorrow leading up to the Civil Rights Movement will be either stopped in its tracks, preempted, or short-circuited (and thus backfiring).

 

[Robovski]

Sorry if this isn't the right place for this.

US Navy uses 40,000lb explosive to test warship in 'Full Ship Shock Trial'

The US Navy conducted a 'Full Ship Shock Trial' against its aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

www.bbc.com

 

[Zachowon]

Sorry if this isn't the right place for this.

US Navy uses 40,000lb explosive to test warship in 'Full Ship Shock Trial'

The US Navy conducted a 'Full Ship Shock Trial' against its aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

www.bbc.com

Astounding we test for that
I wonder how close the enemy thinks thier missles will get

 

[Robovski]

Astounding we test for that
I wonder how close the enemy thinks thier missles will get

Well, I'm just speculating, but one could air burst a nuclear warhead some distance from a fleet for that effect. It's certainly plausible that a nuke could be used against a fleet in blue water, there being no land or real civilian casualties makes it much more politically feasible. It's just that we would nuke back as the main deterrence to that.
Further, there is always the possibility of shore defenses, mines, mass torpedo attack and manned suicide attacks by sea or air.
Again, pure speculation on my part.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Well, I'm just speculating, but one could air burst a nuclear warhead some distance from a fleet for that effect. It's certainly plausible that a nuke could be used against a fleet in blue water, there being no land or real civilian casualties makes it much more politically feasible. It's just that we would nuke back as the main deterrence to that.

We already tested that -- that's the original Able and Baker nuclear test shots.

 

[Robovski]

We already tested that -- that's the original Able and Baker nuclear test shots.

The whole reason anyone has ever heard of Bikini Operation Crossroads - Wikipedia

 

[Sailor.X]

Astounding we test for that
I wonder how close the enemy thinks thier missles will get

Yeah it is called a shock test. It is a standard test for all warships.

 

[BF110C4]

And its also useful for smaller explosions way closer to the hull, like for example if the carrier manages to trigger a magnetic detonator in an errant naval mine or if one of the carriers own planes suffer an accident and detonates its payload too close to the ship.

Plus the full check of every system afterwards is a good way of training the crew first in damage control procedures in a brand new ship and then preventive and or corrective maintenace of every primary and secondary system.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Imma gonna post some more pictures...

The USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer. Named after Medal of Honor winner, Thomas Hudner, a US Navy Aviator who crashed his own plane into a snowy mountainside during the Battle of Chosin Resevoir in an attempt to save his Wingman's life after his plane crashed and started to burn after being hit by Chinese ground fire.

Also the USS Mount Whitney, a Blue Ridge-class Amphibious Command Ship and the flagship of the United States Sixth Fleet, which operates in the Mediterranean. It's named after Mount Whitney, a mountain in California's Sierra Nevadas.

They're both pulling into Kiel, Germany... probably for nefarious purposes.

 

[Captain X]

I really wished they would bring back names like Wasp, Hornet, Saratoga, Lexington, and Intrepid.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

The Blue Ridge are interesting for, among other things, being among the last warships in U.S. Navy service with old-fashioned steam boilers (the only others are the Wasp-class LHDs and the Mercy-class hospital ships).

 

[Knowledgeispower]

I really wished they would bring back names like Wasp, Hornet, Saratoga, Lexington, and Intrepid.

To be fair we have a Wasp and a Essex and I don't think we'll see a Hornet until the plane of the same name is retired. Agreed on the other names with addition of Yorktown to the list