I don't often get the chance to use that expression anymore but it seems appropriate. The PCU Cleveland which will be commissioned USS Cleveland, arrived in port on May 9th while we were in Pittsburgh and it will remain here for commissioning on 16 May, 2026 so today we decided to see if we could invite ourselves aboard for a tour. They were very obliging. It was kind of impressive in the way that I found warships in the Royal Navy to be impressive. It was spotless. It is brand new but the ship was absolutely pristine.
There is a guy over there now scratching his head and wondering where his drill is. I know. That was about the only thing out of place in a tour that lasted over 30 minutes and took in the flight deck, hangar, bow and pilothouse. It is true that they have different names for everything but we know what they really are.
I was really impressed by the crew who were all bright, cheerful and pleasant. At the Entry Control Point I asked one of the ship's Chief Petty Officers if he would hold onto my pocket knife and he was more than happy to. It turns out that they also were more than willing to store things like that at the actual scanner so nobody lost anything they might have had in their pockets. I cannot tell you how rare that is.
It was a very interesting and pleasant way to spend a couple of hours on a beautiful sunny afternoon and it has been a long time since I stood on the deck of a USN ship. I found it interesting in retrospect that while standing on the bow I unconsciously stepped into the wind shadow of the gun mount and noted too that the ship, despite the 40 knot winds we had yesterday, is singled up at the pier.
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| PCU CLEVELAND as it prepares for commissioning in Cleveland |
6 comments:
To date what missions has the LCS actually done?
SNIP At least five U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ships have been decommissioned as of 2026.
The U.S. Navy has retired several LCS vessels earlier than their expected 25-year service life due to design flaws, operational limitations, and maintenance issues.
Oh I know. You’d have to tour the RN and RFA ships to understand my praise. The volunteers were speaking of a long distinguished career in the USN topped off by being brought home to metroparkcentralis to join the former USS COD on the waterfront.
Was not a crewmember, but recall former LPD-7, as it was known the steaming Cleveland. The Navy and US taxpayers probably got their money's worth out of that class of LPDs. Just searched and LPD-7 was in fleet 44 years, SINKEX June 2024. Weapon used was a PrSM Increment 2 anti-ship ballistic missile. Have to look up that weapon, never heard of it till now. Jim.
I served on LaSalle. I think there was no more versatile and useful class of warship in my almost 30 years in the Navy. They did literally everything.
Sadly, cannot say the same about the poor littoral combat ship. They were doomed by design to do nothing and do that poorly.
A "littoral combat ship". The only noted accomplishments of the class is being massively over priced. I suspect much of the money spent on the class was not put into the ships but instead found its way into numerous corrupt politician's pockets.
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