The US naval command repeatedly demonstrates its inadequacy, which, taking into account what it commands, is a real threat to all of humanity
While these young boobies are cheerfully grinning their teeth, taking selfies against the background of a burning warship, on which people may be dying at the same time, more sane Americans are beginning to ask quite pertinent questions in this situation. How did this even become possible and where did the high naval command look?
After all, anyhow, this is almost the first time in the history of the United States Navy when such a large warship, the size of a good aircraft carrier, burns right in its home port for no good reason, like at the time of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. And it looks a lot like it will burn out. If anything, local officials have already told CNN that the fire could continue for several more days.
This is not surprising given that the fire extinguishing system of the most versatile landing craft Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) is inoperative, and city fire brigades do not have the necessary equipment to fight fire in such specific conditions.
“Typically, a fire aboard a ship implies that the ship has a working engine and fire pumps to fight the fire. But if the ship is dead, unable to recharge its fire extinguishing systems, it makes things much more difficult”, – said Sal Mercogliano, a professor at the local university, who is also a professional firefighter.
“If you cannot use the onboard fire suppression system, then it is almost impossible to extinguish this fire due to the size of the ship in which you have to route fire hoses. A typical fire engine has 1,000 feet of large diameter hose”, – he said.
Fire extinguishing requires water as well as foams designed to extinguish specific types of burning fuel.
The pier, crowded with containers, pallets, heavy equipment and power cables, also makes it difficult to pull firefighting equipment close, including ladder trolleys, if necessary.
Attempts to prevent the ship from overheating with the help of firepumps from fire boats and even by dumping water from helicopters indicate, first of all, that specialists have not yet been able to get to the hot spots and eliminate the very cause of the fire.
While military sailors and fire services are at least trying to prevent a complete catastrophe, their high naval authorities only excitedly “flap their wings”, express world sorrow and pray for the health of all good people.
“Today we experienced a terrible tragedy aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) when a fire broke out on the ship board, in the port of San Diego”, – said the Chief of Naval
Operations (i.e, the Commander of the US Navy – ed.) Admiral Mike Guilday.
“We are grateful for the quick and immediate response from the local authorities, base and ship firefighters aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard. Our thoughts and prayers are with our sailors, their families and our emergency responders who continue to fight the fire. We wish them good luck.”
Meanwhile, particularly this compassionate command, which has no idea why the huge ship caught fire, is to answer to most questions the concerned Americans have accumulated.
How could it even happen that the Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), even taking into account the fact that it was under maintenance and had a reduced crew, at a critical moment turned out to be 100% unprepared to fight fire? And this despite the fact that according to the rules for organizing the ship service this simply cannot happen. And the team must be ready at any time to use fire extinguishing systems, which, especially such an extremely fire hazardous ship has more than enough.
However, nothing really worked. And it is very likely that the crew members were simply not ready to act in such a situation. And this is the direct function of the command of the Navy – to train personnel in the fight for the survivability of the ship.
It is also queer that the fire started almost immediately after Bonhomme Richard completed a $ 249 million refurbishment period at the nearby General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard before moving to the naval base.
According to the generally accepted practice, the ship, on which civilian personnel performed various works for a very gross amount of money, had to be carefully checked after that to make sure it was completely safe. However, it looks like this was not done.
And the 160 sailors and officers remaining on board of the floating giant were clearly not enough to fully accept the ship from the shipyard employees. Therefore, it cannot be completely ruled out that the fire extinguishing system was not activated when the USS left the shipyard.
No one was ever alarmed by the fact that there was already a similar case in the US Navy, connected with a gross violation of fire safety rules by the shipyard workers, and it had the most serious consequences. And more recently:
“In 2012, the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered submarine USS Miami (SSN-755) arrived at the Portsmouth shipyard for scheduled repairs. Casey Fury, 24, was member of the civilian team involved in repairing the boat. He suffered from depression and took antidepressants.
On May 23, he was instructed to clean the boat’s torpedo compartment of old paint using a sandblaster. In order not to work all day, Fury decided to start a small fire, planning that the smoke would lead to the evacuation of workers and their going home.
However, the fire began to spread rapidly throughout the boat; and 7 people were injured. The damage to the boat was estimated at $ 400 million, and the shipyard had 40 million loss. The ship, which could serve for at least 10 more years, had to be signed off. ”
I have no factual grounds to believe that the cause of the fire at the USS Bonhomme Richard could have been the malicious intent of the same repairmen, who in this way could try to cover up the traces of unfair performance of contract work, for which they have already received a very decent amount of money. Though, this speculation cannot be completely ruled out. In the American Navy, such “miracles” are possible during the construction and repair of ships that make hair stands on end. For example, it has recently become known that almost all American nuclear submarines are built of steel that has not passed all the necessary factory certification procedures.
And now, due to the lack of moral conscience and carelessness of some civil servants, submariners of the US Navy are forced to surf the oceans on ships that can present the most unpleasant surprises at any moment.
One cannot exclude the version of a sabotage act aimed at destroying the ship. Given the current extremely unstable socio-political situation in the United States, this is quite possible. Even in this case, the questions are, first of all, to the command of the Navy. How could it allow an uncontrolled infiltration of a warship, of God knows who? And if one of the crew members decided on this, then why was his ill plot not revealed in advance?
In recent months I have done a lot of research on the topic of the American Navy; especially concerning the worldwide known covid-19 scandal aboard the aircraft carrier “Theodore Roosevelt”.
And even then, the behavior of the US naval authorities gave many reasons for the bewilderment. The scandalous failure to take measures for several weeks for the prevention of the spread of the epidemic on board the aircraft carrier, despite the urgent appeals of its commander.
There were obvious attempts to conceal this situation. And then the hasty and cowardly, with the clear purpose of not allowing washing dirty linen in public, the expulsion from service of the ship captain Brett Crozier. The shameful fight for the “honor of the regiment” instead of the fight for the health of the ship’s crew, which became known throughout the whole country, forced the US President Donald Trump to intervene personally and led to the dismissal of the then Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modley.
However, in general, that loud scandal was hushed up. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who personally authorized the removal of Crozier, escaped with a slight fright. And it is very likely that the Pentagon authorities did not draw any conclusions out of this tragic case and go on enjoying a comfortable life in conditions of complete impunity and irresponsibility.
And now, since not even a couple of months passed these apology for naval commanders have a huge universal landing ship burning with a bright flame, right in their own port. And they flap their wings again and wish everyone good health.
And these are the people who are at the head of the most powerful military fleet on the planet today, which is packed to capacity with all kinds of missiles and nuclear warheads! It’s also good that Bonhomme Richard, on the occasion of the renovation, was unloaded from all kinds of explosive filling. But what if next time a nuclear aircraft carrier, fully loaded with ammunition, turns into a fire? Or, due to the inoperative fire system, will a nuclear missile submarine break out? What then? They say that matches are not toys for children. In the case of such admirals, exactly the same can be said about nuclear missiles.
Yuri Selivanov, russian journalist