10 High Resolution Photos Of US Navy Destroyer Collision – gCaptain

1stSgt Nelson Kerr - Not really, I have done it many times. Generally, when the orders are written by people sitting in a nice cozy office...

1stSgt Nelson Kerr - As I explained below:
"Actually, shipping lanes (marked by buoys) can be as little as 1000 ft wide. When dealing with ships that have a 100-foot beam (and 600 feet in length), that leaves only 450 feet to either side if you're dead center, so if you turn at all off that axis, suddenly your 600-foot hull is taking up most of the lane. That's going one way. There'll be another right next to it going the other way. Not a lot of room for error. And we need to take into account the possibility of an engineering casualty, which would make all of this moot."

They were 50 miles iut to sea in open water not in a narrow channel at or in a port entrance.

The shipping lanes they were in are marked by electronic markers on satellite navigational images and charts. Not markers. This area is open ocean. Plus look at the two ships. A container ship max speed 19 knots if they are lucky that takes half the ocean to turn. and an AEGIS Guided missile Destroyer 30+ Knots that can turn on a dime figuratively. The Filipino ship should have NEVER gotten anywhere near the Fitzgerald without them knowing exactly where she was how fast she was going and what the skipper had for dinner that night. Its an AEGIS! The SHIELD OF THE FLEET. (For those who are not savvy about the AEGIS capabilities, do research Take the capabilities of an M1A1 Tank and multiply it by 1 Million and you might get close to an AEGIS System) Now if the Electronics were down for whatever reason, (doubtful) they should have had lookouts perched on every sponson with a pair of binoculars and sound powered headsets. You can see the running lights of the ships from 7 miles, The Horizon at sea level. So there was NO EXCUSE.

SN Greg Wright - I agree we need more information... but still, we are not talking about small cars on a busy highway.

SSG Pete Fleming - You ever see two cars collide in an empty parking lot? Or a car run into the only large rock in a large parking area? It happens. Our job is just to make sure everyone is alright, and then laugh at them.

SSG Pete Fleming - Actually, shipping lanes (marked by buoys) can be as little as 1000 ft wide. When dealing with ships that have a 100-foot beam (and 600 feet in length), that leaves only 450 feet to either side if you're dead center, so if you turn at all off that axis, suddenly your 600-foot hull is taking up most of the lane. That's going one way. There'll be another right next to it going the other way. Not a lot of room for error. And we need to take into account the possibility of an engineering casualty, which would make all of this moot.

SSgt Christopher Brose - I like the way you think... and Yes I have seen some crazy things...