Topic: Well that was mighty nice of the Navy

[Electric Eye]

I was reading detailed reports of the U.S.S. Indianapolis CA-35 (They have an exhibit in Indianapolis now) and I always knew they tried to make a sham of Cpt. McVay, but can you believe they also wanted to make a sham of the Cpt. of the U.S.S. Cole?

http://www.ussindianapolis.org/resolution.htm

As a footnote, although the Navy admirals had strongly opposed the legislation to exonerate, they must have learned a lesson. Following the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in the Red Sea harbor on October 12, 2001, the Navy decided not to court-martial her captain. It gave as reasons that the captain of the Cole (1) had taken all reasonable precautions to prevent such an attack and (2) had not been adequately warned of the danger to his ship in the harbor.

The same reasons were used in the successful effort to exonerate Captain McVay. It might be concluded that the Navy did not want another controversy on their hands.

Too bad our Navy of today does not have Admirals of the caliber of Nimitz and Spruance, who strongly opposed any C.M. on McVay. How can today's admirals been opposed to the legislation to exonerate? And I cannot believe they wanted to C.M. the Cpt. of the U.S.S. Cole. IMHO, if any Cpt. of a U.S. Navy vessel should have been reprimanded and the weapons officers relieved of rank and duty would have been the U.S.S. Stark incident.

Modified for all you peeps that do not know the story on U.S.S. Stark. Seems someone did get relieved of command, but there were others involved, as Judge probably knows.

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id344.htm

Brindel insisted that his ship's combat system was fully operational, but Navy technicians in Bahrain said the Stark's Phalanx system had not been working properly when the frigate put out to sea. (Brindel was relieved of duty and later forced to retire.)

But here is what gets me, the defences picked up nothing, even the AWACS missed it. So the phalanx would have been useless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_(FFG-31)

No weapons were fired in defense of Stark. The Phalanx CIWS remained in standby mode, Mark 36 SRBOC countermeasures were not armed, and the attacking Exocet missiles and Mirage aircraft were in a blindspot of the defensive STIR (Separate Target Illumination Radar) fire control system, preventing usage of the ship's Standard missile defenses. The ship failed to maneuver to bring its weapons batteries to bear prior to the first missile impact.[1]

Ok, so the ship missed it, but why did the AWACS not pick it up?