Fifth Avenue Forum

Posted: **Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:40 pm**

Aboard ship, everyone is a firefighter.

Also, LHD-6 has taken on a starboard list.

Posted: **Tue Jul 14, 2020 5:00 pm**

Three days and the ship is still on fire.

Posted: **Tue Jul 14, 2020 5:10 pm**

More word re the Halon system: It was initially reported that the system was deactivated for maintenance purposes, but the new reporting is that the crew was in the process of bringing it back online, but there was an explosion below decks that forced an immediate evacuation.

Also, no current threat to the ship's fuel stores.

Posted: **Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:31 pm**

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2020 6:27 pm**

https://www.vvmf.org/The-Wall-That-Heals/

Is in Bedford, PA set up on the football field from 7/23/20 - 7/26/20.

The Wall That Heals exhibit features a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The replica is 375 feet in length and stands 7.5 feet high at its tallest point. Visitors experience The Wall rising above them as they walk towards the apex, a key feature of the design of The Wall in D.C.

Like the original Memorial, The Wall That Heals is erected in a chevron-shape and visitors can do name rubbings of individual service member’s names on The Wall. The replica is constructed of Avonite, a synthetic granite, and its 140 numbered panels are supported by an aluminum frame. Machine engraving of the more than 58,000 names along with modern LED lighting provide readability of The Wall day and night.

As on The Wall, the names on The Wall That Heals are listed by day of casualty. Beginning at the center/apex, the names start on the East Wall (right-hand side) working their way out to the end of that wing, picking up again at the far end of the West Wall (left-hand side) and working their way back in to the center/apex, joining the beginning and end of the conflict at the center.

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2020 7:00 pm**

Nice! I always loved visiting the wall at the Altoona VA.

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:33 pm**

I missed the announcement, but the Navy announced back in April that Fincantieri Marinette Marine and the FREMM multipurpose frigate were the winners of the FFG(X) competition. Variants of that design are already in service with the Italian, French, Egyptian, and Moroccan navies. I want say this is the first time in something like a century that the US will field a non-homegrown naval ship design. The ships will be built at first in Wisconsin, although the Navy could award a contract for more ships to a second constructor like Bath Iron Works or Ingalls Shipbuilding.

I also missed the announcements that the first two each of the Freedom and Independence classes of LCS will be retired early and scrapped in 2021 after serving as "testing" ships that were never really fully operational. LCS-4 Coronado will have only been in commission for seven years at that point. What a mess the whole LCS program turned out to be. The idea of the ships being "modular" never really materialized, and they ended up under-armed and under-protected.

Posted: **Thu Jul 30, 2020 3:24 pm**

Over my patch of the bottom of the sky there has recently been a marked uptick in air traffic of aircraft that are not broadcasting ADS-B data, both military and 'unknown'.

Posted: **Thu Jul 30, 2020 3:41 pm**

Welp, there's the alien invasion.

Posted: **Fri Jul 31, 2020 6:06 pm**

1 Marine dead, 8 missing from AAV accident off southern California coast

One Marine has been pronounced dead after an amphibious assault vehicle with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit had a “mishap” Thursday off the southern California coast, Marine officials announced.

15 Marines were inside the vehicle during the time of the incident, eight of whom are still missing, according to a press release from the 15th MEU.

Two other Marines are in a nearby hospital with one listed as in “critical condition,” the press release said.

Around 5:45 p.m. Marines in the AAV reported taking on water while participating in a training exercise near San Clemente Island, California.

Search and rescue operations are underway with assistance from multiple Navy and Coast Guard ships and aircraft, the press release said.

That's gotta be a pretty terrifying way to go.

Posted: **Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:09 pm**

One of them drove into a septic pond in Iraq and flooded while stuck at the bottom. By the time I met that unit, those guys were various degrees of Kurtz.

Posted: **Sat Aug 01, 2020 6:57 am**

One of them drove into a septic pond in Iraq and flooded while stuck at the bottom. By the time I met that unit, those guys were various degrees of Kurtz.

Posted: **Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:46 pm**

Back when rando civilians could drive through Camp Lejeune via Hwy 172, one of those pulled out of some bushes alongside, scaring the **** out of me. The Marine in the turret blew me a kiss, crossed the road behind me and disappeared.

It was at least 20 years ago, and it remains one of the strangest things to happen to me while driving.

Posted: **Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:19 pm**

The one time I went to Comic-Con in San Diego, I got stuck on the 5 near Camp Pendleton; CHP had stopped traffic in both directions because the Marines were filming a recruiting commercial and 'invading' California with all manner of air, ground, and sea assets.

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2020 8:34 am**

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2020 11:46 am**

This is good stuff. I can only imagine how bloody a land invasion would have been. The bombs were objectively the right decision.

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:28 pm**

The entire populace was training to repel invaders. Pointed sticks, kitchen knives, whatever was on hand. It would have been ugly, very ugly.

And to think Dick Winters wanted to go back after his time in the ETO to help green Airborne troops during the invasion of Japan. Unbelievable.

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2020 1:12 pm**

They have called off the search for the 7 Marines and 1 Sailor that remain missing after Thursday's AAV mishap.

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2020 1:16 pm**

Oh man. That will be one of the worse accidents they've had.

I was at Lejuene when the Osprey went down (the exact one I, and ironically Joe Biden, was on two weeks prior at the Pentagon). It was awful around that place for weeks.

Posted: **Mon Aug 03, 2020 2:46 pm**

Posted: **Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:29 am**

This is really interesting in so far as MacArthur warns Kennedy against Vietnam.

Posted: **Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:16 pm**

This is really interesting in so far as MacArthur warns Kennedy against Vietnam.

This is good stuff. The original wisdom was that MacArthur was warning JFK based on his experiences in Korea, but it sounds like what he was *really* thinking about was the Japanese land war in Manchuria. They got bogged down badly in China, even with all the horrific atrocities they committed.

Posted: **Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:43 pm**

NSAM-263

Posted: **Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:31 pm**

Posted: **Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:37 am**

Fifteen months later, and Montemayor on YouTube uploaded the rest of the Midway videos. This guy's work is amazing. I can't recommend these videos enough.

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