Ingalls Shipbuilding claims that DDG 117 is tied up at the dock in Pascagoula, Mississippi. When I checked with them, they suggested that my eyes are lying. Make of that what you will. Maybe I’m crazy.
But —
The DDG 117 sailed past the O-Club at Joint Base Pearl Harbor at about 10:00 HRS in broad daylight. I know because I was there finishing my eggs Benedict and OJ, and had just cracked the computer open to try and get some work done.
The O-Club sits right on the channel (and it’s narrow) so ships tower over you as they pass through. The USS Paul Ignatius is the newest of the DDG 51 Class of destroyers and was scheduled to be commissioned in 2018. My sense is that the impending war with North Korea and the unfortunate ramming of the USS John S. McCain and the USS Fitzgerald, which took them out of the fight, caused the navy to hurry the Iggy’s commissioning.
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| LL with future Naval Special Warfare operators at the USS Arizona Memorial |
USS Paul Ignatius is the 2nd of 8 planned Flight IIA “technology insertion” ships, which will contain elements of the Flight III ships projected to begin with DDG-124. That means that she can shoot down Nork missiles in flight. I would have brought her into Pearl under cover of darkness if I wanted to keep things under wraps and would have painted other hull numbers on her. So maybe the navy doesn’t care THAT much?
Grandsons are present, so I took them to the Arizona Memorial in the afternoon and then we went by the Iggy’s berth to check out the newest DDG…except she’s in in Mississippi??? Really?
My sense of things is that Iggy is picking up the rest of her crew at Pearl Harbor. There weren’t many sailors manning the rails when she sailed in, which means that most of them were standing watch.
On the bad side, I saw some of the most slovenly looking sailors hanging around on Joint Base Pearl Harbor that I’ve ever seen. Inner city types with ratty beards, wearing filthy BDU’s and not wearing covers. In another day and time, I’d see they faced a captain’s mast, but times have changed and I’m just a(nother) worthless civilian…almost a feather merchant but not quite.
(Somebody needs to Article 15 those turds to close confinement on bread and water – you can still do that in the Navy. But there may be an inner city person exception for the sake of diversity??)
Aw, being a little hard on those swabbies, aren't you LL? It is common knowledge among the four branches of service that the navy is the sloppiest of them all, third slovenly in rank is the Air Force, then the Army, and the snappiest are of course the Marines.
No covers: you may recall from your active duty days, that when in the process of various details that require hard manual labor, covers become optional if they interfere or obscure the vision or mobility of the soldier/sailor/airman or jarhead. I'm sure these swabbies were working hard, LL.
Slovenly appearance = piss poor performance.
The start of my enlisted tour was in 1974 in West Germany. This was during the start of the all volunteer military. 'Interesting' mix. On one side, Vietnam vets who brooked no BS from anybody. On the other, the dregs of society the recruiters had dredged up, whose reasons for joining were everything but honorable service to their country.
There was a small but constant parade of extra duty assignments and company grade article 15's for insubordination and dereliction of duty, etc. You just KNEW that if the balloon went up, these people would be the first to cut and run. My biggest fear is that it is even worse now. Much worse.
Ship? What ship? I don't see no stinking ship. You had too much Vodka in your OJ, LL.
I repeat that I'd clap them in irons and put them on bread and water. You're limited to 72 hours NJP on bread and water (at a time) per regs. And these slovenly scumbags were just calking-off.
Agreed. I don't know where their leading petty officer was but I'd have his ass too.
Yeah.
On a ship, though, it's tougher to cut and run because there's nowhere to run to.
It could have been a hole in the water that moved past…Should have stuck to bloody marys.
Never saw the ship, so will trust your judgement on that one.
But the slovenly appearance is in play across the board, in both the civilian and military. Grandson #1 commented on the lack of proper dress when he was assigned to Bethesda naval hosp towards the end of his enlistment.
I was at a formal wedding this summer, when one of the young men showed up in shorts and flip flops. He was extremely lucky I'm not his grandmother.
Parents, it starts with parents.
Good on you for teaching the grands about history, it's important.
Pass the Bloody Mary's…
They were probably already on restriction or on some shit detail because they going through separations. I was stationed on sub base at Pearl in the early to mid 80s. There was no shortage of guys like that back then but they usually had dirty piss tests or were constant dicipline problems and were on there way out in one way or another.
It was actually a virtual mirage passing by…
Winner!
Saw an Airforce Captain the other day. He looked like he'd bought his uniform from the rollover aisle at Walmart. And that's just the shoes.
Hunh.
Getting soft in your old age, LL. Why not just keel haul them? They deserve it, right? F-ing scumbags. I just thought I would throw them a sympathetic bone. I'm for discipline, too. Ghenghis Khan- style. But I've been told I'm a bit harsh at times.
Whatever.
Maybe the DDG-117 was time traveling.
Like when the Nimitz went back to Hawaiian waters on Dec. 6, 1941.
There was that documentary made about that incident.
:>)
Walking the plank, keel hauling, the cat-o-nine tails and all of the fun stuff has been stopped by the bleeding hearts. Same with dueling. What fun is the navy if you can't do all that?
Yeah, the inner city pukes looked like they polished their boots with a Hershey bar. I forgot to add that. Slovenly scumbags — shitbirds.
Ok, that was cool and the documentary laid out how it helped us win the war. Catherine Ross stared in that film and I always had a thing for her.
The numbers 117 were proudly displayed on the haze gray flanks of the ship and it sailed into port in broad daylight. If they want to keep things on the down-low, they could have UNREPed (underway replenishment) and they could have victualed at Midway or some other back water.
On reflection, that has to be it. They can return to the Chicago, Philadelphia or Los Angeles ghetto from which they sprang.
"Splash The Zeroes…..!"
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