Fire, Fire, Fire...

These design decisions were made long before the current CMC’s changes.

Surely the Navy didn’t deep-six the well deck without Marine Corps input.

How do LCACs, AAVs, and LAVs get ashore? Or, is the waterborne landing no longer part of amphibious doctrine?

General Berger said, “we’re getting back to our roots.” The jury is still out on what that entails.
 
THParent said:
I don't understand why the Wasp class doesn't have a well deck, either.
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Wasp class DOES have a well deck - some of the pics of BHR on fire show the Sterngate.

1594851682974.png


The first two "new" LHAs do not have well decks (a poor idea in my view) but future LHAs beyond these two will have well decks.

1594851611746.png
 
Devil Doc said:
These design decisions were made long before the current CMC’s changes.

Surely the Navy didn’t deep-six the well deck without Marine Corps input.

How do LCACs, AAVs, and LAVs get ashore? Or, is the waterborne landing no longer part of amphibious doctrine?

General Berger said, “we’re getting back to our roots.” The jury is still out on what that entails.
Click to expand...
The two America Class are really LPH types as opposed to LHAs. I believe that the thought process was that the LPD and LSD along
with the ESB type ships would take on some of the waterborne load.
 
I wonder if the USO is there, handing out cold water and snacks. I love those people. They showed up outside the old Navy Annex building the day after 9/11, a welcome site, because the food vendors were locked out and the vending machines emptied overnight. That’s where the OPNAV staff camped for several weeks, those of us who lost our workspaces.
 
An HMC I was with at Lejeune and his wife are big time involved with the Jacksonville NC USO. It’s a great organization for sure.
 
Capt MJ said:
I wonder if the USO is there, handing out cold water and snacks. I love those people. They showed up outside the old Navy Annex building the day after 9/11, a welcome site, because the food vendors were locked out and the vending machines emptied overnight. That’s where the OPNAV staff camped for several weeks, those of us who lost our workspaces.
Click to expand...

True story: my grandmother, now deceased, lived on the Eastern Shore for the last segment of her life, where she joined the USO and took her shifts at BWI. This was after a life of garden clubs and the Junior League in the many cities she and my grandfather lived in during their adult lives, domestic and abroad. On September 12, 2001, aged 82, she got a call asking whether she could travel to DC to help staff the USO site near the Pentagon. She made a sheet pan chocolate cake, bought 4 "burner" cell phones, jumped in her 1994 Ford Taurus, and drove to DC with no clue what she'd be doing when she got there. She stayed for three days. Shortly before she died (at 95) she called it the most meaningful service she'd ever done.

If you remember making a phone call using a loaner phone or eating my grandfather's favorite sheet pan chocolate cake, that was her.
 
LongAgoPlebe said:
True story: my grandmother, now deceased, lived on the Eastern Shore for the last segment of her life, where she joined the USO and took her shifts at BWI. This was after a life of garden clubs and the Junior League in the many cities she and my grandfather lived in during their adult lives, domestic and abroad. On September 12, 2001, aged 82, she got a call asking whether she could travel to DC to help staff the USO site near the Pentagon. She made a sheet pan chocolate cake, bought 4 "burner" cell phones, jumped in her 1994 Ford Taurus, and drove to DC with no clue what she'd be doing when she got there. She stayed for three days. Shortly before she died (at 95) she called it the most meaningful service she'd ever done.

If you remember making a phone call using a loaner phone or eating my grandfather's favorite sheet pan chocolate cake, that was her.
Click to expand...
Wow. Yes, I do. We were all hungry, had been up for two days straight, I remember eating 4 Peppermint Patties during one night (last item in the machine), we were all too wired and exhausted and grieving to eat, but standing by that truck in the sunshine, looking down the hill at the stricken Pentagon, with some kindly elders, drinking ice cold filtered water and eating some home-baked items and cracker packs, was one of the things I remembered from about a 60-day blur. The USO set up in several locations. One of the hotels was dedicated to supporting NOK of the deceased, but I wasn’t on the team working that.
I figure the final final final arc of my working life will be taking BWI shifts at the USO lounge.

Did I say I love the USO?
 
This pic was part of a previous link I posted, but I think it is stunning in a “terrible and beautiful way.” I think it was taken on the big island and flight deck burn night. It’s got a dream-like painting quality.

C353A5B1-B1C9-4431-AE15-9F587A1ABC70.jpeg
 
Yesterday somebody posted about 10 pictures of the damage on the inside on a Facebook page. They were all deleted within about 10 minutes, but needless to say, it didn't look good.
 
I’ve been looking at those pictures. I’ve been on three of these type ships for various reasons and it’s hard to reconcile the two visions I have of the BHR. I visited the HMCM I relieved in a gapped billet at Military Sealift Command a few years ago. He was the medical senior enlisted on the BHR. We did a turnover of sorts and I got a tour of the ship. She was an impressive beast who is now a hulk, destined for the scrap yard. I just hope they take her away quietly and let her go with dignity.
 
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