Tuesday, October 4, 2016

THE END OF THE SWIFT

I see in my latest update from gCaptain that the SWIFT was completely destroyed by Yemen rebels in the Bab al Mandeb. I spent a lot of time there back in 1984 and I have never seen such heavily armed islands or patrol boats.

UPDATE: Video of the attack



One of the little peeves I enjoyed with my long service with the navy was the incredible naivety of the office clerks that run the Navy. The bean counters convinced them a long time ago that logistic ships didn't require any weaponry whatsoever and that, in fact, weapons just got in the way and cost money that needed to be saved so that sailors could attend LGBTQ training seminars in Norfolk or Washington, DC. The ships that had weapons went into the shipyard to have them removed.

HSV2 SWIFT, Look Ma! No guns!
Oh, and for you bean counters at NAVSEA who thought speed = life? I guess the Swift just wasn't fast enough and of course, it's as fast or faster than the Littoral Combat Ships.

Interestingly to me, one of Jerry Pournelle's sons was the XO of Swift when it was providing relief supplies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

3 comments:

OldAFSarge said...

Your office clerks are what we in the Air Force called shoe clerks. Per Juvat, "There's only two kinds of people in the Air Force, Fighter Pilots and Shoe Clerks. Being a Fighter Pilot is not an AFSC, it's an attitude. A shoe clerk is someone who has forgotten that the mission of the Air Force is to fly and fight."

HMS Defiant said...

Yep. War has always been a mindset. I retread, 'Once an Eagle' and the Massangales are back in charge again. Too bad really since they instantly set about squandering lifetimes of actual modern combat experience. What happened to the Swift was dead easy to foresee and it was by CNOs that refused to believe the actual voice of experience.

OldAFSarge said...

Once an Eagle - I think it's high time I reread that.

Concur on the Massangales.