Chief Rick

Not entirely true. The ship should be on its own fire pumps unless going through an availability or other situation that requires securing them, at which time there are stringent requirements for the contractor to provide firemain. Firemain also supplies cooling water to some systems. Whether those requirements are enforced is another matter. I do agree that minimum manning, as I mentioned in my above post, severely limits the number of people available when a casualty conflagrates.

Brought back memories of watching videos of the USS Forrestal fire off the coast of Vietnam.

Dave, It's SOP anymore. There are requirements to run mutual aid drills to test communications and integration with local emergency services. The rescue and assistance teams from the other ships should have been lined up on the pier, though.

We pray something like this never happens. Then when it does, you've put the majority of your single and geographic bachelor sailors in a barracks room or in privatized housing,. You have no back-up to your duty section. The other ships can't provide rescue & assistance because they only have minimum manning for a duty section as well. Would having more qualified people onboard, in a non-duty status, make a difference? Maybe. If they were in an availability that would also have a factor in how many were able to live onboard. With that said, there appeared to be a berthing barge at the head of the pier. Add to this the money being spent to house said sailors in barracks rooms/privatized housing when ships with racks and galleys are sitting empty, the constraints the Navy is operating under for maintenance funds and the personnel deficit. A typical SCBA is rated for 45 minutes and that is only going to last that long under ideal conditions. Depending on where the fire is in relation to where you have to go on-air, a rough rule of thumb is 15 minutes ingress and 15 minutes egress - that leaves 15 minutes to actually fight the fire. In a real fire most people will be fortunate to get 1/2 the time out of a bottle. Saying this to say, it takes a lot of people to fight a fire such as this and the Navy has taken those people off of ships and spent potential maintenance and modernization funds to GIVE them a (potential) higher quality of living. Then, we've taken all the risk out of shore based training. We use propane to simulate the fire with smoke generators. But then, we have to monitor the compartment temperatures and not allow them to get too hot. Not for the building/equipment, but for the safety of the sailors. If it's too hot outside? Same thing. When these kids have to hit their first real fire it's a shock.

Looking at the top picture, it look like there is some type of maintenance going on. There appears to be plastic on the exterior. Pray their training is sufficient and the only injuries are due to heat exhaustion. Fighting a fire inside a ship is nothing like a house. There's no way to vent the heat and smoke - you have go through it to put out the fire once it's (the fire) fully involved.

Do you reload? If no - .44 Special is going to be the most cost efficient. If yes - .44 Russian has the least case capacity so will be more efficient at lower velocity/pressure. .44 Russian = .956" OAL, .44 Colt = 1.095" OAL, .44 Special = 1.145" OAL. 500 pcs of Starline .44 Special is $110, 500 pcs of .44 Special is $116 while 500 pcs of .44 Russian is $115. If you're only shooting it in pistols you don't have to worry about losing the brass and it should last forever as CAS velocity/pressure.

A lot of people laughed at the blue digital camouflage uniforms the Navy went to several years ago saying now they'll never see a person if they fall overboard. I got news for you, if the sea state is up at all it's difficult to find a person regardless of what they're wearing. The Navy uses a mannequin with flotation devices to keep him afloat for man overboard drills, call him "Oscar". Our Oscar was in a gumby suit - bright orange. In rough seas it was very difficult to find without a helicopter. Especially if the bridge team is not on their game and can't properly execute a Williamson (or "J") turn.

Terrible news. Great American Patriot.

Nice review. Keep us updated after your matches. How many matches do you plan on shooting a month?

Recoil is subjective. With the Taurus Judge - I didn't find the recoil of factory 2 1/2" .410-bore to be any worse than factory .45 Colt loads, but I can't remember which factory loads I had. Used the 2 1/2" #8 shot to take out some roosters that were causing a problem. You really need to pattern one with the shot you're using if you go with one.

They don't get a penny from me. Won't watch on TV or go in person. People that want to complain need to show them how they feel and not purchase a single thing that puts money in their pockets.

I used to be a die-hard NASCAR fan. We would plan our weekend around the races. Then, it all became the same. Certain drivers were overtly shown favoritism while others were dealt with harshly for the same "infraction". The cars all looked the same. And I personally can't stand super-speedway races. I hadn't watched a NASCAR race in probably 8-10 years until last month. Hey, it was the only form of sports on TV that was live and not being played on video games by "professionals". Then, this BLM and "noose". I'm still not sure what is what with the noose. The only picture I saw was of a garage door pull and I couldn't tell whether it was a noose or bowline knot or something else. Seems the FBI investigated and found this had been there since October 2019 at least. I used to root for Bubba Wallace when he was getting started, but I wonder now if he is just another snowflake... Another driver that doesn't have the talent to truly excel at this level of motorsports. You can have all the money in the world and the best team, but if you're not talented enough, you won't be a Jimmy Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, etc. Ask Dale, Jr.

What he said.

Is now making masks...

I have a number of acquaintances that are really up in arms about changing the MS flag as well as banning the Confederate flag. The funny thing, to me, is that very, very few of these people even own or display the flag they are vocally defending.