I don't put much of this off on chance (or luck), since it has been four incidents in succession, in the same classes of ships, in the same fleet. The trick is to sort out all the variables. There's a precipitating cause that starts the chain, then subsequent weak points and mistakes. To give the crews credit, there was some gutsy rapid damage control response that kept these ships from flooding and listing more than they did, or sinking outright. They had to seal off the flooded compartments after rescuing the people in the compartments, to the degree possible. Scary and hairy and death-defying work, at top speed. So if there are heros here, those are the guys, and maybe gals. On the McCain, the communications spaces were among those damaged, so that brings it home to me, having manned a minesweeper radio shack. We were a high and visible target -- oh good. And I bunked in one of those vault-like berthing compartments at the waterline, but we did have pretty good ventilation/a.c., and my work space was a.c., not for the sailors but for the radio gear. The guys who died on the Fitzgerald looked pretty much like my shipmates--same age,diversity, haircuts. I'll watch the progress on these inquiries with serious interest. This elevates my respect for the officers and especially senior enlisted who saw us through many months at sea, a typhoon "evasion," combat zone patrols and more. If that was a typhoon evasion, I can't imagine what a non-evasion would have been like. I had to go out on the weather decks to get messages to the bridge, hanging on to the lifelines for dear life.
