Tom Ricks’ ship name suggestions
October 12th, 2009 | Blogs Military Sealift Command Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Military analyst Tom Ricks suggests a future attack submarine, like the New Mexico, seen here, could be named for the Native American Chief Crazy Horse // Northrop Grumman
Big-dog military analyst Tom Ricks, who blogs for Foreign Policy magazine, wrote Monday that he likes that Military Sealift Command’s next dry cargo and ammunition ship is to be named Medgar Evers. Inspired by the civil rights activist theme, he had some other suggestions for names for future Navy warships:
Now, how about honoring a Hispanic such as Cesar Chavez? And I’m still waiting to see Nat Turner get his due, perhaps with an escape & evasion course named for him.
I’d also like someday to ride aboard a Malcom X-class destroyer, or the USS Crazy Horse, which would make a cool attack submarine. And USS War Chief Joseph would be a good name for a flagship.
The names of Navy ships always provoke discussion — for or against — whether it’s an aircraft carrier named Barry Goldwater or a submarine named Jimmy Carter. What do you think of Ricks’ ideas about honoring more controversial Americans with future Navy ships?
Additions to the fleet
October 12th, 2009 | Military Sealift Command Science and technology Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Crew members stood aboard the newly commissioned destroyer Wayne E. Meyer in Philadelphia Friday, beneath one of the ship's SPY-1 radar arrays, which the ship's namesake helped develop // Christopher P. Cavas/ Staff
Our senior Scoop Deckmate Christopher P. Cavas was in Philadelphia this weekend for the commissioning of the Navy’s latest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the Wayne E. Meyer, which was looking fine all dressed up for the occasion. The Navy had hoped the ship’s namesake, who led the team that developed the Aegis system back in the 1970s, could’ve been at the commissioning himself, but retired Rear Adm. Meyer died in September just a few weeks short of the event.
Another development this weekend was Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ announcement that Military Sealift Command’s next dry cargo and ammunition would be named for the civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
“He was committed to his fellow human beings and the dream of making America a nation for all its citizens,” Mabus said Friday.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Friday that the ship formerly known only as T-AKE 13 would be named Medgar Evers // Navy illustration
Gas with cookies (updated)
September 11th, 2009 | Life at Sea Military Sealift Command | Posted by Andrew Scutro
The cruiser Anzio tops off its fuel loads courtesy of the fleet oiler John Lenthall on Aug. 18 off the coast of Somalia.// Sheila Vemmer/ Staff
The cruiser Anzio was clearly not the first replenishment at sea for the fleet oiler John Lenthall, seen here off the coast of Somalia. Quite a few ships have met up with Lenthall for a rendezvous before.
Observing a ship's tradition, Anzio tied a bag of cookies to the nozzle for the Lenthall crew.// Sheila Vemmer/ Staff
The crew of the Anzio however, had the decency when it was over to tie a bag of fresh chocolate chip cookies to the nozzle which the Lenthall crew could retrieve and enjoy after the ships parted ways.
Their boat was lost, then a little Byrd brought it home
September 10th, 2009 | Life at Sea Military Sealift Command Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The dry cargo and ammunition ship Richard E. Byrd underway in the Pacific as part of its Pacific Partnership tour. The ship, which was designed to re-supply carrier strike groups, has been on a humanitarian deployment // MC2 Joshua Valcarcel/ Navy
A few months ago, Scoop Deck wondered how a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo and ammunition ship — a big, deep-draft, fleet re-supply vessel — would do after taking over for a small-deck amphib on a U.S. humanitarian mission in the Pacific. Specifically it was Military Sealift Command’s Richard E. Byrd, which had to stand in for the amphibious transport dock Dubuque after the warship started feeling under the weather.
The Byrd is still out there, so it’ll be awhile before we learn about how it fared overall, but at least it left behind some happy customers in the Gilbert Islands, according to the Navy. Earlier this month the ship returned a fishing boat that had gone adrift last year, stranding three men at sea, and then been taken to the Solomon Islands. But it couldn’t get home without a ride on a bigger ship, and the crew of the Byrd said they would oblige.
It may not have a well deck, but apparently the Byrd did end up doing at least one amphibious mission, after all.
The old-fashioned way
August 17th, 2009 | Military Sealift Command Photos Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The dry cargo and ammunition ship Matthew Perry slides into the water after its christening Aug. 16 in San Diego // Sarah Burford/Navy
There’s something to be said for smashing a ship with a bottle of champagne, officially giving it a name, and sliding it backward down the ways into the water for the first time.
Underway replenishment links
August 13th, 2009 | Aviation Foreign navies Military Sealift Command SEALs Ships Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
The fast combat support ship Arctic re-supplied the destroyer Winston S. Churchill and the carrier Harry S. Truman in January, 2008, much as today's links supply information to Scoop Deck readers // Navy
Palletized cargo carryin’, high-line riggin’, VERTREP stagin’, DFM pumpin’, fresh veggie deliverin’ links, pulling along side and ready to match RPMs so you can take on news and information:
- The remains of Capt. Scott Speicher are to return Thursday to Florida, 18 years after he was shot down over Iraq in the first Gulf War
- The lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama, where SEAL snipers ended the ship’s hostage standoff with three simultaneous shots, is to arrive soon at a SEAL/Underwater Demolition Team museum in Fort Pierce, Fla.
- A British play about the fate of the Russian guided missile submarine Kursk is to open soon in Edinburough, Scotland.
- A new captain is set to take command of the “battleship” Gonzalez, according to the Monitor newspaper of South Texas, although Scoop Deck prefers the term “destroyer.”
- The Navy is to christen its latest Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo and ammunition ship, the Matthew Perry, formerly known only by its hull number, T-AKE 9. Air Force Times reporter Bruce Rolfsen, one of Scoop Deck’s neighbors here at the Center of Excellence, remarked a moment ago that he thought it was funny the Navy has taken to naming ships for members of the cast of “Friends.”
Homecoming for a pirate brig
July 28th, 2009 | Military Sealift Command Pirates Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The dry cargo and ammunition ship Lewis and Clark, seen here doing a vertical replenishment in January, was due back Tuesday at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. // MC2 Katrina Parker/Navy
This is a week of high-profile homecomings at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., with the hospital ship Comfort and the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower both scheduled to return this week from big-deal deployments to South America and the Persian Gulf, respectively. But another naval ship also was scheduled to come back to Norfolk on Tuesday — a Military Sealift Command supply ship that did much more than sustain the fleet.
For part of its cruise the dry cargo and ammunition ship Lewis and Clark was part of the Navy’s counter-piracy armada off the lawless coast of Somalia, serving as an overflow headquarters for the group and as a floating jail for pirate suspects arrested at sea. The ship also hosted a pirate-patrol helicopter detachment, all on top of its normal job re-supplying and refueling U.S. and allied warships underway.
This apparently made the pirates angry enough they tried to get revenge: In May the Lewis and Clark had to repel an attempted hijacking of its own, which included being chased by small boats and taking fire from the would-be boarders.
The ship escaped, and soon it’ll be home again.
Dry cargo, ammunition, pirate brig, goodwill-bringing ships
June 22nd, 2009 | Military Sealift Command Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The dry cargo and ammunition ship Richard E. Byrd, seen here in the South China Sea in 2008, is pinch-hitting this summer for the Navy's Pacific Partnership goodwill mission //MC2 Mark Alvarez/Navy
Military Sealift Command’s Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo and ammunition ships are already pretty versatile — they carry food, ammunition, fuel and other supplies for Navy strike groups — but these past few months have seen them take on even more missions.
Back in Feburary, Lewis and Clark itself became the Navy’s floating brig and support ship for its anti-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa; captured pirate suspects slept on cots in one of its cargo holds. Now, that ship’s sibling, Richard E. Byrd, is conducting a goodwill deployment in the Pacific that you can follow on its Pacific Partnership blog or its Twitter feed.
Byrd is pinch-hitting for the dock landing ship Dubuque, which originally was to have made this summer’s Pacific Partnership deployment until many of its sailors came down with the infamous swine flu. What’s interesting is the potential things Byrd can’t do that Dubuque could have, and vice versa, with the spaces, crew and equipment on each ship.
The Dubuque, for example, has a well deck and can launch and recover amphibious craft to connect its crew with an unimproved beach; Byrd will have to anchor offshore and use local tenders or a helicopter. But Byrd has vast internal spaces and a “clearway” staging area that extends the length of the ship’s main deck, which its crew could turn into a massive clinic, while keeping patients from getting lost in the ship.
How will using a T-AKE on a U.S. goodwill mission change what the mission can and can’t do? We’ll be watching.
H/T: USNI
The never-ending search
June 12th, 2009 | Military Sealift Command Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Military Sealift Command
As long as there are American fighting men and women who haven’t come home, even after decades, the military will continue to search for them. There are almost 1,800 service members still unaccounted for in Vietnam, for example, where Military Sealift Command is lending a hand for the first time to help look for underwater crash sites and the remains of their pilots.
The oceanographic survey ship Bruce C. Heezen, with its sophisticated bottom-searching gear, should help with finding and recovering the lost aviators, local searchers hope.