quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:

quote:

In mid-July, Boxer's engineering team needed to rotate the propulsion system's main reduction gear for maintenance. Despite multiple rounds of retraining and outside intervention after the previous casualties, they again departed from procedure: the team spun the main gearbox for two hours without lubrication, and did not notify the commanding officer of this potentially damaging decision until 27 hours later.

This is hard to believe and potentially a very costly mistake. You never, never put the reduction gear on the jacking gear without the lube oil pump turned on.

Also an Ex-Nuclear Machinist Mate.

Not only were we required to memorize the procedures but the requirement was we had to have the procedure open and following it. I don't remember if putting the reduction gear required three people, as in one to read the procedure out loud, the second to repeat the procedure then do it, and the third person overseeing both. But I'm sure the engineroom lead PO had to be watching at least.

Don't they read anymore? Or are the procedures done in drawings now?

Another victim of DEI. Destroy Everything Institional.

quote:

Originally posted by ltz400:
There is no more Chiefs Mess. They did away with them long ago. This is (in my opinion) why the Navy is having so many problems across the board.

I think you are mistaken, all commands have a Chief's mess.
Could you be thinking of the Chief's club which some bases did away with?

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:

quote:

Originally posted by ltz400:
There is no more Chiefs Mess. They did away with them long ago. This is (in my opinion) why the Navy is having so many problems across the board.

I think you are mistaken, all commands have a Chief's mess.
Could you be thinking of the Chief's club which some bases did away with?

Sorry, but thoughts and tone of speech do not travel well through the keyboard.

I was trying to convey the neutering of the Chiefs community through the last few decades of politics and poor leadership. It's to a point where people are being put in positions of having to choose between doing the right thing (getting things done) and saving their own career.
The Chiefs mess is both a physical place and a group of individuals at the same time and when the leadership pits them against each other it breaks down the cohesion that keeps the Command together. The junior enlisted folks can see this as well and it results in the complacency and poor attitudes seen in this command. When you find a command where the Chiefs are neutered you will see failure every time.
And , yes, I know about the clubs being removed and it was a sad event to watch them go. My first Chiefs club at NAS North Island had topless waitresses, it was great.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
The article appears to use the word “casualty” and “casualties” in a way I’m not accustomed to. These are apparently not human casualties, but damage to machinery and equipment causing loss of functionality. Is that about right?

Yes, in the manner used by the Navy, in this casualty refers to an equipment casualty.

quote:

Originally posted by ltz400:

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:

quote:

Originally posted by ltz400:
There is no more Chiefs Mess. They did away with them long ago. This is (in my opinion) why the Navy is having so many problems across the board.

I think you are mistaken, all commands have a Chief's mess.
Could you be thinking of the Chief's club which some bases did away with?

Sorry, but thoughts and tone of speech do not travel well through the keyboard.

I was trying to convey the neutering of the Chiefs community through the last few decades of politics and poor leadership. It's to a point where people are being put in positions of having to choose between doing the right thing (getting things done) and saving their own career.
The Chiefs mess is both a physical place and a group of individuals at the same time and when the leadership pits them against each other it breaks down the cohesion that keeps the Command together. The junior enlisted folks can see this as well and it results in the complacency and poor attitudes seen in this command. When you find a command where the Chiefs are neutered you will see failure every time.
And , yes, I know about the clubs being removed and it was a sad event to watch them go. My first Chiefs club at NAS North Island had topless waitresses, it was great.

Sorry, I completely missed the point you were making.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
My good friends father is a retired E9. Senior master chief. Most anal retentive dude I know. He’d lose his mind seeing this. Next door neighbor is also a Retired master chief. Dude is wound way tight as well. Meaning both guys have immaculate garages and houses and everything they own is squared away and they are both very methodical. Navy isn’t making chiefs like that anymore ?

My guess is the guys who WANT to be the good guys aren't ALLOWED to, and are PENALIZED if they don't actively and purposefully tow the line for the du jour of the day.

Good grief...people need to not only be fired but prosecuted and busted down.

USS Boxer Headed to San Diego for Repairs, Pacific Deployment Stalled

quote:

USS Boxer (LHD-4) is heading back to San Diego, Calif., after suffering an engineering casualty, forcing the big deck amphibious warship to return for repairs, USNI News has learned. Boxer and elements of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit left on April 1 for a Pacific deployment that had been on hold due in part to maintenance issues on the big deck. Following the departure, Boxer operated off the coast of California recertifying Marines with MV-22B Ospreys after a grounding that was lifted last month.

“USS Boxer is returning to San Diego to undergo additional maintenance in support of its deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. Boxer departed San Diego on April 1 for an Indo-Pacific deployment and was conducting integration exercises with the MV-22 Osprey in the 3rd Fleet Area of Operations,” reads a statement from U.S. 3rd Fleet to USNI News.
“USS Boxer will resume its deployment in the near future.”

Navy officials did not detail the casualty when asked by USNI News. A defense official told USNI News the repairs could take two to three weeks based on the early estimates of the damage.

As of Thursday afternoon, Marines and aircraft from the 15th MEU were offloaded from Boxer, but the ship had not yet arrived in San Diego, two defense officials told USNI News Thursday.

The big deck is the flagship of the three-ship Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, which includes USS Somerset (LPD-25) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49). The deployment is the first for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, the successor to the retired Assault Amphibious Vehicle.

Somerset departed on its own in January and participated in a series of exercises in the Western Pacific ahead of Boxer and Harpers Ferry. Harper’s Ferry departed San Diego on March 19.

Sailors on Boxer were the subject of two command investigations that found major deficiencies in maintenance and crew discipline. The delay in deployment has upended a series of planned enagements and exercises in the Pacific, defense officials have told USNI News over the last several weeks.

“How much longer are we going to accept such catastrophic maintenance management from the U.S. Navy before someone at the Pentagon gets fired?” one defense official told USNI News.

The fun continues. No drydocks available for USS Boxer.

The article says that they managed to damage the rudder. How did they do that? Rudders are a technology almost as old as ships? They don't mention running her aground, so I'm curious what the ship operators among us think of this.

Link

The two dry docks large enough to accommodate a big deck amphibious warship in San Diego, Calif., are currently occupied, complicating the repairs of USS Boxer (LHD-4), USNI News has learned.

Boxer came back into port last week with one of its rudders damaged after leaving earlier this month on deployment. As of Friday, the Navy was assessing how to repair the rudder to allow the 45,000-ton capital ship to return to sea, a service official told USNI News. The service would prefer to fix the rudder underwater with the understanding that the replacement repair could take up to two to three weeks, USNI News previously reported.

Complications could arise if the big deck needs to go into dry dock. The dry dock large enough to accommodate Boxer at BAE Systems’ San Diego repair yard is occupied by an availability for Littoral Combat Ship USS Oakland (LCS-24). The nearby General Dynamics NASSCO dry dock is occupied by guided-missile destroyer USS Chung Hoon (DDG-93), which is undergoing an availability to install the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3. Moving either of the warships would extend both availabilities, USNI News understands.

The Navy is considering using a dry dock in Portland, Ore., at a shipyard owned by Vigor Industrial, but the service would have to remove ten feet of the Boxer’s mast so the big deck could travel under a bridge on the Willamette River to reach the yard, two sources familiar with Navy deliberations told USNI News.

As of now, Boxer is at the pier at Naval Base San Diego.

Boxer returned to San Diego on April 11 after leaving on a delayed Amphibious Ready Group deployment with the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Group.

Boxer is the flagship of the three-ship Boxer ARG, which also includes USS Somerset (LPD-25) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49). The deployment is the first for the Marine’s new Amphibious Combat Vehicles.

The deployment of the Boxer ARG and the 15th MEU has been split due to the big deck’s maintenance woes. Somerset left San Diego in January on its own with elements of the 15th MEU aboard. Harpers Ferry departed San Diego on March 19.

Having Boxer sidelined has forced the Navy and Marine Corps to retool several planned engagements in the Western Pacific, including Cobra Gold off Thailand earlier this year and the bilateral Balikatan exercise with the Philippines. Boxer was supposed to be a key asset in the drills with Manila that are billed as the largest in 30 years. This year’s exercises follow increasingly aggressive moves from China against Armed Forces of the Philippines’ resupply mission to the AFP’s base on Second Thomas Shoal, USNI News previously reported.

quote:

The service would prefer to fix the rudder underwater with the understanding that the replacement repair could take up to two to three weeks, USNI News previously reported.

Complications could arise if the big deck needs to go into dry dock.

So... do they even need a dry dock to fix it?

I don't think that analysis is done yet, but they are clearly worried about it.

US Navy can’t hide its flagging fleet

US Navy brass goes quiet on internal report showing 11 years of shipbuilding delays and setbacks, and no clear plan to fill emerging capability gaps

https://archive.ph/XizFB#selection-1099.0-1121.154

Fleet readiness? pffft who needs it. They've got the really important issues covered

Meet the Navy’s drag queen, ‘Harpy Daniels’

https://youtu.be/Eio7p2adUkA?si=Za9wJP5VKAD6f0gK

The old Vancouver Shipyards in British Columbia has/had a 1200ft Drydock...

USN has avoided investing in its maintenance and repair for several decades now, and unfortunately nobody in Congress is all that concerned. There's been a handful of people showing interest and attempting to hold the service accountable for their obfuscation and intransigence, unfortunately they are far and few between, in the meantime our fleet languishes. The latest DoD plan has more ships getting retired annually than being commissioned...meanwhile there's a large country across the Pacific that recently lapped us for world's largest Navy and they're looking to push us out of the Western Pacific militarily, politically and economically.

What's sad is, the two shipyards in San Diego do not have good reputations around their work. Combine that with not enough sailors manning the ships, along with sailors not quite being trained on all facets of their rate and you end up with a ship that is poorly put together that may or may not, operate because whole sections and departments are winging-it. As we read in previous reports, the Engineering department aboard Boxer was a complete shit-show. Not sure if the rudder needs replacing, bearings are all worn out, internal steering gear is broken, major electrical in steering needs replacing ...