Post by Sailor on Sept 30, 2015 18:23:57 GMT -8
Naval Station Mayport, Florida (CNN)— The USS Simpson has turned into a ghost ship.
Its passageways are pitch black and steamy hot. It's silent, the constant hum of machinery that's the heartbeat of a warship eerily absent. Its windows are covered and ventilation sealed off. Its battle ribbons have been removed, its flag lowered.
But the ship still has a story to tell.
The U.S. Navy decommissioned the 30-year-old frigate Tuesday and with it shut the back cover on one of the most significant -- yet little-heralded -- stories in U.S. military history.
The Simpson was the last modern U.S. Navy warship to sink an enemy vessel in action. Of the 272 ships in the fleet now, only one ship can claim a similar honor: the USS Constitution, now a showpiece in Boston harbor, which sank British vessels in the War of 1812.
www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/politics/uss-simpson-decommissioned-warship/
The last Norfolk VA based frigate was decommissioned earlier this summer, I doubt if there are any Perry class frigates left on active duty now.
The new LCS (Littoral Combat Ships) are being called "frigates" now even though in the opinions of a lot of professional warship sailors they are even less well armed than the older Perry class ships like Simpson AFTER the Perry missile systems were removed. Like the Spruance class DDs when they were retired there is still a lot of "life" left in most of the Perry hulls, but like the Spru's they were put on the chopping block as a cost saving measure. Too bad the Coast Guard doesn't want them.
Its passageways are pitch black and steamy hot. It's silent, the constant hum of machinery that's the heartbeat of a warship eerily absent. Its windows are covered and ventilation sealed off. Its battle ribbons have been removed, its flag lowered.
But the ship still has a story to tell.
The U.S. Navy decommissioned the 30-year-old frigate Tuesday and with it shut the back cover on one of the most significant -- yet little-heralded -- stories in U.S. military history.
The Simpson was the last modern U.S. Navy warship to sink an enemy vessel in action. Of the 272 ships in the fleet now, only one ship can claim a similar honor: the USS Constitution, now a showpiece in Boston harbor, which sank British vessels in the War of 1812.
www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/politics/uss-simpson-decommissioned-warship/
The last Norfolk VA based frigate was decommissioned earlier this summer, I doubt if there are any Perry class frigates left on active duty now.
The new LCS (Littoral Combat Ships) are being called "frigates" now even though in the opinions of a lot of professional warship sailors they are even less well armed than the older Perry class ships like Simpson AFTER the Perry missile systems were removed. Like the Spruance class DDs when they were retired there is still a lot of "life" left in most of the Perry hulls, but like the Spru's they were put on the chopping block as a cost saving measure. Too bad the Coast Guard doesn't want them.