Thursday, April 11, 2024

Firepower

 


13 comments:

  1. Can someone explain what all the flags are about?

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    1. I was not a "squid" ... but rather a Jarhead ... but the flags are "signal flags" that mean different things when displayed individually or in sets. The squids used to over-use them when they are showing off like this battleship.

      Check out this website to see what you can learn:
      https://www.navysite.de/what/flags.htm

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    2. Thank you. I knew someone here would know.

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    3. Squid like bubblehead refer to submariners not just the navy in whole.

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    4. It's called "dressing" the vessel. Done for special occasions.

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  2. Do they have the targeting system on the right way? Better check to see it's not backwards.

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    1. Visit, go in the turret and look at the targeting system. This was the old Navy and they had it all together. When you can toss a shell up to 25 miles you had best have some idea of what you are doing. I read that in Gulf #1 the New Jersey did not need to upgrade its targeting system it was more than accurate enough as designed and installed.
      As for the squid in the photo, he (it?) with the yellow bird sh*t on the cap embarrassed anyone who ever held that rifle.

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  3. Only BB I've ever seen in person is the 'Bama. That thing looks like it dwarfs the 'Bama!

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  4. See those "ears" on the sides of the turrets? Those are armored housings for lenses that are part of optical range finders. See that box with the round radar antenna, above the bridge? I suspect that's a radar gun-director. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-control_system. As a midshipman on a summer cruise I spent 6 weeks aboard USS Epperson, DD-719. The ship, old and tired, was undergoing requalification and we were doing gunnery drills with the 5-inch 38s. On the first day a Navy tug was towing a floating target. The radar gun director apparently locked onto the tug instead of the target and we bracketed the tug (one over and one under) with two rounds from a single gun mount. They wouldn't let us shoot at them anymore. The next day we were to shoot at targets on San Clemente Island. The first round went out 20 degrees high - potentially over terrain masking an airfield on the other side. We cruised around for awhile looking for smoke, but were never able to determine where the round went. She was a hard-luck ship with a shabby, demoralized Zumwalt-Navy crew.

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