USS Fitzgerald has left dry dock at a shipyard in Mississippi, almost two years after the guided missile destroyer collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Japan. That was one of four accidents in the Pacific Fleet in 2017 that cost the lives of 17 sailors.
Without fanfare, the big ship will be moved to dry dock and floated in the coming days. Meanwhile, the public christening ceremony featuring Zumwalt's two daughters will be rescheduled for the spring. Just imagine the Mega Star Destroyer trying to leave a dry dock from the ground, it would need the type of energy that would force it to carve a sizeable hole in the planet just to get up and off.
Earlier this month, the Navy dropped criminal charges against the Fitzgerald's commander and a junior officer. Both received letters of censure that effectively end their careers, a move that concluded legal proceedings following the collisions that wrecked both the Fitzgerald and USS John McCain.
The most senior officer affected was Admiral Scott Swift, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet who took early retirement. Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin was removed as commander of the 7th Fleet; Rear Admiral Charles Williams, commander of Task Force 70 and Captain Jeffrey Bennet, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 15 were also removed from their positions.
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But for the most part, responsibility was placed upon the officers of the two ships – though Lawrence Brennan, a retired naval judge advocate who now teaches at Fordham University Law School told Stars and Stripes that the most serious penalty was levied against the only enlisted man to face charges. Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey Butler pleaded guilty to one count of dereliction of duty and the subsequent demotion will cost him an estimated $200,000 in pay and retirement.
Star Destroyer Dry Docking
Brennan said that firing admirals or denying them a third star in retirement was not the same.
An investigation by ProPublica found systematic failures at the highest levels of the Navy, and also held Congress to blame.
The McCain left dry dock in Japan last November and is expected to rejoin the fleet this spring; it may be next year before repairs and upgrades are finished on the Fitzgerald.
View the discussion thread.
How many people understood just how many different ships there were in the sequel trilogy? Granted, we've seen a few of them before since they come from the original trilogy, and a couple did get used in the prequels, but seeing them in the recent trilogy was kind of nice since it keeps the continuity in a small way at least, which is something that a lot of fans are constantly harping about. Obviously some ships were bound to make it, such as the Millennium Falcon, since they're too iconic not to see in the movies. Then there are the X-Wings and the various TIE fighters that show up pretty regularly since they tend to be versatile ships that can perform a few different functions since a good number of them can operate in the atmosphere and in space, while the bigger ships tend to remain in orbit since coming any closer isn't entirely possible without crashing. Once a dreadnought or a cruiser lifts there's not much chance of bringing them down gently and up in space is where they tend to need to stay. The smaller the craft, the more likely it is that they'll be able to maneuver in and out of the atmosphere since they don't require as much lift to get them off the ground. In fact, some of the bigger ships have been described as being constructed in specialized docks that are settled in orbit around the planet where their materials are found, as getting them off of the ground would be next to impossible. Just imagine the Mega Star Destroyer trying to leave a dry dock from the ground, it would need the type of energy that would force it to carve a sizeable hole in the planet just to get up and off the ground, and then it would need something even more to resist the gravitational pull, not to mention the damage that it would do to the planet in the process.
But for the most part, responsibility was placed upon the officers of the two ships – though Lawrence Brennan, a retired naval judge advocate who now teaches at Fordham University Law School told Stars and Stripes that the most serious penalty was levied against the only enlisted man to face charges. Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey Butler pleaded guilty to one count of dereliction of duty and the subsequent demotion will cost him an estimated $200,000 in pay and retirement.
Star Destroyer Dry Docking
Brennan said that firing admirals or denying them a third star in retirement was not the same.
An investigation by ProPublica found systematic failures at the highest levels of the Navy, and also held Congress to blame.
The McCain left dry dock in Japan last November and is expected to rejoin the fleet this spring; it may be next year before repairs and upgrades are finished on the Fitzgerald.
View the discussion thread.
How many people understood just how many different ships there were in the sequel trilogy? Granted, we've seen a few of them before since they come from the original trilogy, and a couple did get used in the prequels, but seeing them in the recent trilogy was kind of nice since it keeps the continuity in a small way at least, which is something that a lot of fans are constantly harping about. Obviously some ships were bound to make it, such as the Millennium Falcon, since they're too iconic not to see in the movies. Then there are the X-Wings and the various TIE fighters that show up pretty regularly since they tend to be versatile ships that can perform a few different functions since a good number of them can operate in the atmosphere and in space, while the bigger ships tend to remain in orbit since coming any closer isn't entirely possible without crashing. Once a dreadnought or a cruiser lifts there's not much chance of bringing them down gently and up in space is where they tend to need to stay. The smaller the craft, the more likely it is that they'll be able to maneuver in and out of the atmosphere since they don't require as much lift to get them off the ground. In fact, some of the bigger ships have been described as being constructed in specialized docks that are settled in orbit around the planet where their materials are found, as getting them off of the ground would be next to impossible. Just imagine the Mega Star Destroyer trying to leave a dry dock from the ground, it would need the type of energy that would force it to carve a sizeable hole in the planet just to get up and off the ground, and then it would need something even more to resist the gravitational pull, not to mention the damage that it would do to the planet in the process.
Dry Dock Brew
Smaller ships could be manufactured in ground-based factories, though even these are sometimes pieced together in space docks. But the overall feeling of a ship in Star Wars is something interesting since it hearkens to the designs that have been around for a hundred years or more, and there are those that would gladly point out flaws in the designs. When taking into account that it's all fiction and that it cost way too much to build even one of these ships in real life, one can just imagine what that means. A single Star Destroyer would like run a cost that would cross the trillion-dollar mark pretty easily since the cost of materials, the cost of needing a space-based dock to assemble the ship, and the cost of transporting needed materials from earth would create an exponentially-increasing cost that would bankrupt most nations in a hurry just for one ship. But then one has to think of how many people each one of these large ships can hold, which doesn't justify the cost but certainly makes the mind boggle since it might be possible to house a small city within a ship.
A Star Destroyer can carry up to 37,000 people, while the Death Star can carry up to 265,000+ crew, which isn't to mention if it could take on any other individuals. That kind of puts into perspective just how many people actually lose their lives during even one of the battles in the movies, since if one thinks of Starkiller Base, which was an entire planet, they might get a sick feeling in their stomach to realize despite the First Order being seen as the enemy, there were plenty of people that had joined up because of their ideals and the desire to serve a purpose, not necessarily to kill and subjugate others. The Empire was the same, there were plenty of people that didn't fully believe in the ideals that were being pushed, but they did their job because it gave them a purpose and kept them alive. The ideologies that have been pushed in Star Wars from the beginning have belonged to a fraction of those that are fighting for them, while the rest has been kind of forced to follow behind. One good example of differing ideologies is the fact that there were Mandalorian ships in the mix at Exegol, which is odd since the Mandalorians have had a reason to hate the New Republic in its different forms and not bother about such wars since it doesn't benefit them.
Star Destroyer Dry Dock Leveler
But then again, someone could have taken a Mandalorian ship for their own and taken up the cause. In any case, the number of ships shown in the movies was quite impressive since the diversity among them and the different designs show just how technical the details get in the movies.
