Jump to content

What famous event happened with this ship?


vostoktrading
 Share

Recommended Posts

vostoktrading

Here's a new angle on ship lore:

I present a piece of militaria associated with a ship: You tell me what famous event occured with this ship. The first person to get it right wins a cookie (not really, no one wins anything).

All members are encouraged to participate, both as contestants and as contributors. Remember, collecting is not just acumilating old things but also in learning about history!

First item:

post-7885-1326260222.jpg

post-7885-1326260239.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a sad fate to a proud ship. Up to this date she is the only ship sunk by a nuke powered sub. I remember when she was sunk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

USS Phoenix (CL-46), a Brooklyn-class light cruiser, was the third Phoenix of the United States Navy. After World War II the ship was transferred to Argentina in 1951 and was ultimately renamed the General Belgrano. General Belgrano was sunk during the Falklands War in 1982 by the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror. She was the first (and so far only) ship to have been sunk by a nuclear-powered submarine during wartime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vostoktrading

We have a winner! (actually, two winners, m1ashooter and Squad leader for a more complete answer).

 

This ship was present at Pearl Harbor during the attack by Japan on 7 December 1941.

She was sold to Argentina in 1951. She was sunk by the submarine HMS Conqueror on 2 May, 1982.

 

What an interesting history!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vostoktrading

The USS Phoenix at Pearl Harbor 1941, The Sun Newspaper headlines and the ARA General Belgrano going down on 2 May 1982 with the loss of 323 lives.

post-7885-1326289822.jpg

post-7885-1326289845.jpg

post-7885-1326289871.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the Stark was attacked by Iraqi jets sometime in the late 80s? Another one of those "accidental" incidents which involved significant loss of life on the American side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the Stark was attacked by Iraqi jets sometime in the late 80s? Another one of those "accidental" incidents which involved significant loss of life on the American side.

 

 

I think you are correct here Ian. Wasn't this one of those situations that nobody seems to know who gave the order to fire and if they do, they're not telling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you are correct here Ian. Wasn't this one of those situations that nobody seems to know who gave the order to fire and if they do, they're not telling.

 

Sort of "unfriendly" friendly fire...if you know what I mean? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A year later we shot down an airliner with a huge loss of life. As history tends to repeat itself, both US and Iranian gov't should pay attention to their saber rattling before someone gets hurt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK: Here's a new one: Same game...

Interesting coincidence. My father went a reunion of the USS Sumner County (LST-1148). His old DivO was there. When he was my dads DivO, he was an Ensign. However, years later he was the CO of the Stark when she was hit. Also, when I was OPS LCPO on USS Pensacola, I had an RM2 who worked for me. He had been on the Stark also when she was hit. He had swapped watches with another RM (Other RMs request), so my RM had just left the berthing compartment and gotten to the Radio shack just as the missile entered OPS berthing at the same point where my RM2s rack was. If he had not swapped watches, he would have been instantly killed. Sadley the other RM who had asked to swap watches was killed along with the other off watch ops guys.

 

As for Pheonix, at least she got to die like a war ship (of course the loss of life is regretable and sad) and not just cut to bits to be made into "stuff" of questionable quality. Or left ot rust away in neglect.

 

Steve Hesson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A year later we shot down an airliner with a huge loss of life. As history tends to repeat itself, both US and Iranian gov't should pay attention to their saber rattling before someone gets hurt.

 

 

You did? What ship were you on when you did that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I add one to the list? USS Indianapolis.

 

post-8022-1326308571.jpg

 

Delivered parts for the 1st Atomic Bomb (Little Boy) and shortly thereafter, on July 30th, 1945 was sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

 

"eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest"

post-29885-1326310630.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give that man a cigar! Terribly sad story really.

 

Very sad, indeed. It was also the last loss of a major US ship via enemy action.

 

And lest anyone think, Robert Shaw was not on the USS Indianapolis...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very sad, indeed. It was also the last loss of a major US ship via enemy action.

 

And lest anyone think, Robert Shaw was not on the USS Indianapolis...

 

 

Interesting history on the Shaw/Quint speech and how it was developed into the script:

 

Speilberg (from a 2006 interview):

 

 

“We shot it twice. the first time we attempted to shoot it Robert came over to me and said, ‘You know, Steven, all three of these characters have been drinking and I think I could do a much better job in this speech if you actually let me have a few drinks before I do the speech.’ And I unwisely gave him permission … I guess he had more than a few drinks because two crew members actually had to carry him onto the Orca and help him into his chair. I had two cameras on the scene and we never got through the scene, he was just too far gone. So I wrapped … At about 2 o’clock in the morning my phone rings and it’s Robert. He had a complete blackout and had no memory of what had gone down that day. He said, ‘Steven, tell me I didn’t embarrass you.’ He was very sweet, but he was panic-stricken. He said, ‘Steven, please tell me I didn’t embarrass you. What happened? Are you going to give me a chance to do it again?’ I said, ‘Yes, the second you’re ready we’ll do it again.’ The next morning he came to the set, he was ready at 7:30 and out of make-up and it was like watching Olivier on stage. We did it in probably four takes. I think we were all watching a great performance and the actors on camera were watching a great performance; Roy and Richard.”

 

“I owe three people a lot for this speech. You’ve heard all this, but you’ve probably never heard it from me. There’s a lot of apocryphal reporting about who did what on Jaws and I’ve heard it for the last three decades, but the fact is the speech was conceived by Howard Sackler, who was an uncredited writer, didn’t want a credit and didn’t arbitrate for one, but he’s the guy that broke the back of the script before we ever got to Martha’s Vineyard to shoot the movie. I hired later Carl Gottlieb to come onto the island, who was a friend of mine, to punch up the script, but Howard conceived of the Indianapolis speech. I had never heard of the Indianapolis before Howard … Howard one day said, ‘Quint needs some motivation to show all of us what made him the way he is and I think it’s this Indianapolis incident.’ I said, ‘Howard, what’s that?’ And he explained the whole incident of the Indianapolis and the Atomic Bomb being delivered and on its way back it was sunk by a submarine and sharks surrounded the helpless sailors who had been cast adrift and it was just a horrendous piece of World War II history. Howard didn’t write it as a long speech, he probably wrote about three-quarters of a page. But then when I showed the script to my friend John Milius, John said, ‘Can I take a crack at this speech?’ and John wrote a 10-page monologue that was absolutely brilliant, but out-sized for the Jaws I was making! But it was brilliant and then Robert Shaw took the speech and Robert did the cut down … Robert took a crack at the speech and he brought it down to five pages. So, that was sort of the evolution just of that speech.”

 

On what happened to Milius’ 10-page version of the speech:

“I don’t think it exists. I know I don’t have it. I’ve been asked for it, everybody has been wanting to see it and John doesn’t have it because in those days we didn’t have computers, we didn’t have hard drives, it was just on pieces of paper!”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

USS Stark was hit by an Exocet missile fired by an Iraqi plane in 1988. I remember it and I never could understand why the CIWS didn't shoot it down. They also had SM1 MR Standard's that might have had a chance if they'd gone weapons free. If the Stark was repaired in Mobile, AL, I may have seen her there when we were on vacation and touring the Alabama.

 

There is conjecture that USS Scorpion may have been sunk by a Soviet submarine but the Soviets/Russians vehemently deny it. The most popular theory is one of the MK 37 torpedoes had a hot run in the torpedo room and they did a high speed turn in order to reverse course and activate a fail safe that would disarm the warhead. Unfortunately, they didn't make it. The fail safe was put in place to counter a circular run torpedo to prevent the submarine from sinking itself as happened to the USS Tang during WWII.

 

An interesting piece of historical data regarding the Scorpion. Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1985. However, this discovery was incidental to his true mission. The Navy agreed to fund his expedition but only if he would steam to the location of and photograph the USS Scorpion using his high tech underwater equipment. In order to do this, they recommissioned him as a Commander, I think, and he found and photographed the Scorpion. With his mission for the Navy complete, he steamed to the Titanic's probably location and found her just before he was due to head home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

USS Stark was hit by an Exocet missile fired by an Iraqi plane in 1988. I remember it and I never could understand why the CIWS didn't shoot it down. They also had SM1 MR Standard's that might have had a chance if they'd gone weapons free.

 

In reading the report of what happened that night in CIC, you'd find that the CIWS was NOT ready for any sort of engagement. The CIC team had no idea they'd been fired on until teh SLQ-32 picked up the Exocet's radar (which only enables during the attack portion of the flight profile) which means it was too late. One of the OSs did report radar separation when the F1 launched, but that report was not acted on by the TAO.

 

The Stark was caught with their pants down as they never thought that a threat would originate in Iraq. They had tracked the bird (via the British/Saudi/USAF - I forget which - AWACS) from the moment it lifted off the deck. The Iraqi flew a very standard CAP route (they were still flying them in '88 when we were there) and it was business as usual until the F1 turned toward the Stark.

 

Based upon behavior and the crew's posture, they had no chance to protect themselves. It was inevitable that they'd take the full impact of those missiles. ROE for the Persian Gulf changed immediately following that incident.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...