The Mess - Military Forum Off Topic Thread!

Former Chief of Staff Lt. General James Parker (rtd) has died one day short of his 92nd birthday from the effects of Covid-19.

Gen. Parker was CoS between 1989 and 1992 and among a wide variety of Army postings in a 44 year career, was a veteran of the Siege of Jadotville.

Normally he would be afforded a State funeral but this is currently not possible, so will be laid to rest by his immediate family and a memorial held at a later date

May he rest in peace.

sparky42 wrote: »

The US navy has a major fire on board LHD 6 in San Diego.

Looks like it. 21 injured so far, fire apparently started in the well deck and has worked its way forward. The ship may be a total loss.

A clip of the morning after:
https://www.facebook.com/denis.bondarenko.56/videos/10220491883020080/
The fire burned through the Bridge superstructure with one of the masts collapsing and reports one of the CWIS collapsed as well, they are now using Bambi bucket drops as well as the other water hoses. Hard to see anything of value being left in her now.

thomil wrote: »

The only way I can see her ever being recommissioned is if they strip her down to the waterline and rebuild her to the standards of an America class LHA. The latter is almost identical in dimensions to the Wasp class after all, and given the damage that the fire has caused, I doubt that there's anything above the waterline that's worth saving.

Far cheaper just to order another America Class I would imagine, as you say it's hard to see how anything above the waterline is of use, even the steel must be suspect after over 24 hours of burning on board, there's some reports that the flight deck has collapsed. Currently they are managing to hold the fire from the fuel tanks though which is a good thing.


Wonder is anyone downwind arguing about wearing masks now?

Topgear on Dave wrote: »

They seem to have the fire under control but apparently its still burning in there. Surely it has to be a write off by this stage?

It will surely be an interesting investigation as to the causes. It sounds like the shipyard had it wide open from one end to the other for maintenance with the fire fighting systems disabled and few crew or workers aboard.

Its not even the first time this type of thing has happened. The USS Miami sub also had a fire in 2012 but it was found to have been deliberately set, the sub was a write off and the shipyard worker who set the fire got 17 years in prison.

In fairness, it seems the yard had the proper mechanisms for closing all the hatches, the reports now suggest they were in the middle of shutting the fire zone and activating the fire fighting systems when "something" in the area on fire exploded driving the crews back and spreading the fire further. After that it was impossible to control. Add in it seems that area had plenty of flammable material (cardboard, drywall, oil, rags...) so it had plenty of fuel.


After this long burning and with those temperatures it would seem highly unlikely to be repairable, I mean you have to think you've steal weakening issues now.

So the French are back building Star Forts across Africa...
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35863/the-french-army-is-building-renaissance-style-fortresses-in-africa

sparky42 wrote: »

After this long burning and with those temperatures it would seem highly unlikely to be repairable, I mean you have to think you've steal weakening issues now.

Your correct Sparky, she's going for the scrapper.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/11/30/navy-will-scrap-fire-ravaged-bonhomme-richard/

She had just been in the ship yard for 18 months and had 250 million buck worth of an upgrade. Holy moly :pac:

Not much to be learnt from a sinkex with a hull that has already suffered structural weakening. She'll be recycled.

Word is JAG is going after the contractors who caused the initial fire.

Larbre34 wrote: »

Former Chief of Staff Lt. General James Parker (rtd) has died one day short of his 92nd birthday from the effects of Covid-19.

Gen. Parker was CoS between 1989 and 1992 and among a wide variety of Army postings in a 44 year career, was a veteran of the Siege of Jadotville.

Normally he would be afforded a State funeral but this is currently not possible, so will be laid to rest by his immediate family and a memorial held at a later date

May he rest in peace.

Jim Parker was not in Jadotville.

sparky42 wrote: »

Not much, but it would be a nice exercise for those involved given her size, or sunk for an artificial reef, though as you say most likely recycled.

Not long since a flat top was subject to Sinkex(USS America CV66 in 2005). Little has changed weapon wise in the meantime.

Dohvolle wrote: »

Not long since a flat top was subject to Sinkex(USS America CV66 in 2005). Little has changed weapon wise in the meantime.

Big difference though between a CV and a LHD in terms of internal compartmentalisation, not too mention the age gap in terms of construction methods and design, so it could still be a learning experience, just as how the fire got out of control is likely to be a massive study for the USN and others.

Dohvolle wrote: »

Do you think?
The only significant difference is one had steam catapults, the other didn't. One had a well dock, the other didn't.
Both had flat tops, both had internal aircraft hangars accessed by deck edge lifts.
One was 70m longer than the other..

You really think the survivability of a CV and a LHD is the same? The Well Deck alone is a huge difference (for example the issues Ro-Ro's have when they get water on their car decks). Moreover you are talking about ships separated by over 30 years in design and construction, the CV's are in a different league to LHD's in design and suriviability.

Is the Chief of Staff for the Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia a pretty big deal?

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

In what context? the position is held by a colonel.

Also, Chief instructor of all Army prosecutors throughout the world. In the context of a glowing letter of recommendation in order to get into a top US law school.