Comment

Comment by LLovesmysailor on April 9, 2009 at 5:10pm

Excuse me. "effete East-coast Trident thing" As a New Yorker who spend a lot of her teenage years watching the submarine races from the beaches of Long Island, I think I resent that label. LOL

Comment by Mark on April 9, 2009 at 4:50pm

Lol Kaye - keep looking, maybe it's linked under "FUBAR"... I've polled my little community of ex T-hull sailors (you can use that one :) ), and they've never heard "boomer" was socially inappropriate either - we're in unanimous agreement that it must some sort of effete East-coast Trident thing...

Comment by Kaye S. on April 9, 2009 at 9:44am

Thank you! Like I told Jeanne, I spent over an hour on that site reading all kinds of stuff. (Click on the link, "Bubbleheads, etc." - wow!) I love having our own private "lab assistant" here to help with the homework assignments. It will be fun, when Son is next home, for MOM to discuss submarine maneuvers!

One last thing... I can't find the term "cattywhompus" anywhere in my Guide to Naval Terms & Acronyms. Is is classified? ;-) k.

Comment by Mark on April 8, 2009 at 11:22pm

Oh - also, the Navy always invites monitoring for radioactivity around it's nuclear-powered ships in foreign ports, to prove that they are not contaminating harbors in any detectable measure, so Bahrain's request to sample is not noteworthy.

Comment by Mark on April 8, 2009 at 11:16pm

That was some interesting reading Kaye - thanks for pointing it out, and thanks to Jeanne for posting the link. Addressing your questions with some context, now... :) ... Ro-ro would be referring to "roll-on, roll-off" ships, transport ships that are easily loaded and unloaded, as indicated by the name - apparently, the New Orleans is one of them. My guess on "TMA" was right (yay!) - Target Motion Analysis is the process used in the control room of a sub to track contacts, predicting location, in order to prepare firing solutions (when desired). Looks like "Q" tanks have nothing to do with missiles, but from the context, it would be a ballast tank located as far forward as possible, that can be flooded very quickly, in order to achieve a sharp "down-angle" in as short a time as possible, so that the main engines can drive the boat deeper in a hurry. I'll have to ask the former Trident sailors I work with about the alleged social inappropriateness of the "boomer" term - I'm still skeptical, but the guy seems to have a background.
The comments were the most interesting - the original writer's theory doesn't make sense (NO and Hartford traveling in same direction to mask Hartford's entry into Gulf), because the 85 degree roll experienced could really only be caused by the two boats going in different directions. The Hartford would have been traveling slowly and cautiously in such a congested area, and at a shallow depth (to minimize chance of "broaching", accidentally breaking the surface, risking detection). Because the damage was on the front of the sail, if they were traveling in the same direction, the sub would have to of overtaken the NO - HIGHLY unlikely, and if NO overtook the Hartford, the damage would be on the rear of the sail. After typing all of the above, I'm finally not seething at the idiot activist, who's only intelligent comment was that the periscope must have been damaged. There is no "door" for the scope, since it is never retracted fully into the pressure hull, but there are mechanical seals around the scope, and the other masts and antennae within the sail, that would have sustained damage by the sail being knocked cattywhompus. This is likely to have caused some leakage, but nothing the pumps couldn't and handle, and something that will have to be fixed before submerging the boat again. As I've indicated before the sail is pretty much a relatively flimsy structure attached to the vastly more robust pressure hull, so the activists comments about the seriousness of the sail damage were pointless. Finally, the reactor plant would have been undamaged - one must remember that submarines are designed to handle depth charging, and other forms of battle damage much more serious than the damage to the sail, which is really superficial.

Comment by Kaye S. on April 8, 2009 at 10:23pm

That's a good guess, Mark. All the translatin' I asked for is terms in the article that Jeanne posted a link to in "Lovely Links to Know" (above). She gave a link to an article speculating what might have happened with the Hartford collision.

As regards to your "inspiration:" even a BROKEN clock is right twice a day
;-D Hugs! k.

Comment by Mark on April 8, 2009 at 9:54pm

Lyn does have a point about leave immediately prior to a deployment. They are likely to consider the family situation though, they realize that changing boats (splitting tours) is a hardship - plus if it's several weeks until the deployment, it'll make a big difference.

Comment by Mark on April 8, 2009 at 9:50pm

Stacey,
Once qualified in submarines - always qualified in submarines. He will have to redo his watchstation qualifications though. It will be a lot easier the second time around, especially if he is on the same type of boat. Watchstation qualification progress shouldn't affect leave either, because nuc watch quals (for the most part) can only be accomplished while the plant is steaming (reactor operating, etc...), which is not the case while in port. Good question, by the way.

Comment by LLovesmysailor on April 8, 2009 at 8:27pm

Oh, Stacey. Don't count on his getting leave before they go out. That is the hardest time to get leave because of all that needs to be done to prepare the boat for deployment. That's was Alex has told us a number of times. I'll keep a bunch of good thoughts for you and I hope he does get leave.

Comment by Mark on April 8, 2009 at 10:34am

Hey Kaye,
I may have received an inspiration this morning - I'm going to guess that the "Q" stuff has to do with a depth control system, maybe unique to boomers that compensates for the abrupt change in ballast accompanying a missile launch, something that us steely-eyed killers on fast attacks don't have. :)

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