PCU Hawaii Returns From Alpha Trials, Brags About Successful Field Day

I know I'm tilting at windmills here, but I'm getting more and more curmudgeony about submarines flying the "clean sweep" broom after two or three day underways in which they don't sink any enemy vessels. But I digress...

PCU Hawaii (SSN 776) just returned from a successful Alpha Sea Trial yesterday:

The USS Hawaii returned to Electric Boat on Saturday afternoon with a broom on its sail, a sign that the nation's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine successfully underwent the full range of tests planned for its initial sea trials in a “clean sweep.”
The Hawaii, the third Virginia-class submarine, left Thursday for its first voyage in open seas. A U.S. Navy crew of 122 tested the ship's systems and capabilities in a variety of ways during the two-day trials, including submerging it for the first time and conducting high-speed runs both on the surface and submerged.
An additional 75 riders from the U.S. government, Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Newport News participated, said Cmdr. David A. Solms, commanding officer of the Hawaii, when the ship returned Saturday.

These being non-"first of a class" trials, they aren't quite as arduous as what Virginia and Jimmy Carter had to go through. As such, they have even less of a claim on flying the broom than those crews did -- but they did anyway:

Since I knew they didn't do anything as grand as what "Mush" Morton did when he flew the broom on USS Wahoo, I figured they must have been demonstrating how clean their boat was. But, all is not lost. While I was looking at the photo more closely, I found something that brought joy to this old submariner's heart -- evidence that the Sub Force is taking one of our most effective secret weapons more seriously, to the point where they're testing them on Alpha Trials. Look about a third of the way up from the top of the windshield to the CO's hand -- do you see it? I'm pretty sure it's a B1rD! (Probably the CGU-11 mod.) Now our enemies will know for sure we mean business!

Seriously, though, this is a big milestone for the officers and crew of the Hawaii, and it sounds like they did their jobs very well. BZ!

Update 2324 05 Dec: Here's another article about the sea trials. By now, if all went as planned, Hawaii should be back out for Bravo Trials.

Then And Now

As I was checking the sub-blogosphere during a quick break in Army-Navy game watching and Christmas light untangling and repair (only one small electrical shock from plugging in a string with a broken bulb with exposed wires still present) I noticed that Vigilis had done an analysis of changes seen in one "mystery blogger" over the past year. He reached some interesting conclusions...

Gallons

So there are calls to investigae the oil companies and to tax them for "windfall profits" because gasoline is so expensive.

Gas isn't real cheap in my area compared with others.

Right now, the 87 octane is $2.49 a gallon.

A good portion of that is taxes.

Not to mention distillation and transportation costs from perhaps halfway around the world.

Plus a fear premium as instability looms.

I went to the grocery store the other day.

How about water.

You know, what you need every day or you die.

I just bought a six-pack of 24-ounce Aquafina bottled water. That's a Pepsi product.

That's 144 ounces, or 9/8 of a gallon, for $3.99, or $3.55 per gallon.

It gets better.

Milk was $3.89 a gallon, and that's the store brand!

Name-brand milk goes as high as $4.89 a gallon.

Those price-gouging dairy farmers!

They probably get all sorts of government subsidies too.

No populist outrage over the price of milk though, is there?

How much profit is in a bottle of purified water?

Gasoline only seems expensive because people don't usually buy 20 gallons of milk at a time.

But you know what else?

If I just wanted a little bit of gasoline, it would still prorate at $2.49 a gallon, no matter how little I bought.

Try buying milk by the quart! In that size, it shoots up to $7.16 a gallon!

Gas is cheap, and should remain so -- cheap, abundant energy frees the human soul from the age-old constraints of drudgery, time, and space.

Steam Leak On Sub Tender USS Frank Cable

(04 Dec: My most recent update on the story can be found here.)

[Intel Source: The Sub Report] There's breaking news out of Guam of an in-port "steam-related accident" aboard USS Frank Cable (AS 40):

KUAM News has confirmed the Guam Fire Department was contacted this evening at the request of the U.S. Navy to transport victims to the hospital after an accident aboard the U.S.S. Frank Cable. GFD spokesperson Phyllis Blas says the agency was alerted around 8pm Friday to respond to an incident on the 646-foot Submarine Tender, which is moored at Naval Base Guam in Sumay.
Upon arrival, medics transported a number of sailors from Polaris Point to Naval Hospital in Agana Heights. Navy spokesman Lieutenant Donnell Evans says in a press release that eight sailors were injured during maintenance operations following a steam leak aboard the ship. The conditions of the injured is unknown at this time.

You can download the Navy press release from this site (or by clicking here). Our prayers are with the injured Sailors, their families, and shipmates.

Staying at PD...

Update 0645 02 Dec: Five of the injured Sailors are in critical condition, and another is listed as serious. It appears that they'll be flown to Tripler in Honolulu, and then maybe to the Burn Center at Brooke AMC in San Antonio.

From the number and severity of the injuries, it sounds like it was a steam line rupture in the Engine Room. This is one of the scariest possible casualties for people who work in a ship's engineering spaces, and while they might not be as catastrophic on an oil-fired surface ship as they can be on a nuclear-powered sub, as you can see, they're still bad. Some relatively recent examples of even more deadly steam accidents were when 10 Sailors were killed on USS Iwo Jima (LPH 2) in 1990, and the steam leak that killed 10 submariners on the French submarine FS Émeraude (S 604) in 1994.

Update 2104 03 Dec: Updates to the story are here and here, as well as this update from the Pacific Daily News that says the injured Sailors have been flown to Hawaii:

11 a.m., Dec. 4 - A nine-member Army Burn Center Flight Team are in Hawaii to care for six sailors injured Friday during a steam leak aboard the USS Frank Cable, which was docked at Polaris Point.
Military officials said the sailors suffered steam burns to 20 to 70 percent of their bodies. At least five sailors were on lung ventilators, said Army Col. Dave Barillo, a critical care surgeon and the officer in charge of the team from Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
The sailors were injured when a steam line from a boiler room in the ship's lower deck ruptured, according to Navy officials on Guam. The men were flown to Hawaii for further treatment.

All we can do for now it to continue to pray for their recovery, and for comfort to their families.

Go 'Huskers, Beat Sooners!

It just needed to be said.

Also:

Go Navy, Beat Army!

Update 1918 01 Dec: Unlike last year, there don't seem to be a lot of "Spirit Spots" out for this year's Army-Navy game. To make up for it, here's a nice video from last year that celebrates the history of the series (from a Navy perspective):



And for Nebraska fans, here's a video of the Johnny Rodger's punt return in the '71 NU-OU Game of the Century (no quotes required for a statement of fact) that has Lyle Bremser's radio call. Guaranteed to bring chills to any Big Red fan.

And, although it's really not applicable to tomorrow's game, but just because I like seeing it again, here's a video of Tommy Frazier's 75 yard run against Florida in the '95 National Championship game. Why, oh why did we ever give up on the option offense?



Update 2237 02 Dec: 50 passes, 7 points. That's why I don't like the new "West Toast Offense" that Nebraska Athletic Director Satan forced on the 'Huskers three years ago.

Well, at least Navy won. And at least I won't have to spend the next month with rabid Boise St. fans giving me crap for wearing Nebraska stuff.