Normal Americans have noticed many of the inestimable benefits of the Harris/Biden DEI years. To be fair, Barack Obama gave Biden’s handlers a real leg up on DEI, but the handlers really ran with it. Among the most noticeable of those “benefits” has been a dramatic increase not only of US Navy ships that look like third world rust buckets, but an equally dramatic apparent increase in those rust buckets running into other ships and geographic features.
It’s unusually difficult to find current data on ship collisions. There’s quite a bit of information on the 2017 collisions of the destroyers McCain and Fitzgerald which killed 17 sailors, but there’s little information from 2017 to 2025. The previous link contains interviews with several Admirals. Their primary message is Navy culture is bad, maintenance is equally bad, manpower is scarce and they’re poorly trained and the Navy is being asked to do too much with too few ships and inadequate manpower. All of which led to this:
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Graphic: Specialist Jose Hernandez, Public Domain
“The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea,” the Navy’s Sixth Fleet Public Affairs said in a statement earlier this week.
“The collision did not endanger the Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as there are no reports of flooding or injuries. The propulsion plants are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition,” it added.
The Navy said the incident is now “under investigation.”
I’m no naval expert, but I do know when our warships are in congested waters, they put plenty of sailors with Mark I eyeballs, two each, on deck to watch for ships and other navigational hazards. That’s done pretty much constantly even though oceans are big. In that part of the world, the Navy also does it to keep any eye out for Islamist attacks, and of course, our warships constantly maintain electronic watch. Carriers also maintain combat air patrols, so it’s a bit hard to understand how a freighter was allowed to be close enough to collide with the Truman, one of the Navy’s rarest, most expensive and critical ships.
Normally, a ship collision is a career ender for its commander, and that’s the case here:
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Graphic: Specialist 2nd Class Matthew Nass, Public Domain
The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of the USS Truman — the aircraft carrier that had a collision with a merchant ship outside the Suez Canal last week.
Capt. Dave Snowden was relieved Thursday for “loss of confidence in his ability to command” by Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 8, a Navy statement announced Thursday.
The damage to the Truman apparently did not affect its combat readiness. It’s electronics were apparently undamaged, and it could apparently launch and recover aircraft:
The Navy, in its statement, said that the collision did not result in flooding or injuries aboard the Truman and later posted photos of the ship that showedsome hull damage on its right back quarter.
In a social media post Sunday, the Navy said that most of the damage inside the ship was to the exterior walls of several storage spaces, while on the outside of the carrier there was damage to a space reserved for handling the lines that keep the ship moored when in port as well as some platforms.
The Navy noted that the aircraft elevator near the area of the collision was fully operational.
The Truman pulled into port at Souda Bay in Crete on Sunday and began repairs. Navy officials have not offered an estimate of how long they expect the repairs to take.
So a vital warship is out of action for who knows how long? It’s a virtual certainty Capt. Snowden won’t be the only officer, NCO or sailor disciplined in this incident, but that still doesn’t explain how our warships, including the Truman, are sent out with rust befitting an ancient third world frigate.
As the aforementioned admirals noted, our Navy not only has fewer ships than we need, it doesn’t have enough sailors to man the ships we have. Compared to the damage rust causes, paint is cheap, yet it seems not to be a Navy priority. As with everything else in the government during the Harris/Biden years, DEI was the real priority, which may well have been a cause of the bad culture about which the Admirals spoke. It surely badly depressed recruitment. I suspect we’ll also discover it reduced entrance standards, saddling commanders with people who should not have been in the Navy.
Donald Trump and his Cabinet have much to clean up.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
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