RUSSIA’S NEWEST NUCLEAR SUBMARINE ARRIVES IN PACIFIC OCEAN

The USS Zumwalt was christened on April 12, 2014 and will be commissioned in exactly 2 weeks (October 15th) in Baltimore. It will be the most modern destroyer afloat, and was/is scheduled to be deployed in the western Pacific.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Zumwalt&h=3455&w=5523&tbnid=Upz2_7Obdxdh7M:&tbnh=125&tbnw=200&docid=Ky5R_oDLd9aMzM&itg=1&usg=__meWNGdR93Yj3woWBLtXz3vHgXPE=

The ship's captain is (I am not making this up) Captain James Kirk. At the christening, the best speech was given by Senator Angus King of Maine (where the ship was built), who said his most fervent wish was that the ship's impressive firepower would never be used in action, but would only serve as a deterrent.

so it will stay as far away from USS Zumwalt, or any other destroyer as possible.

The Zumwalt commissioning date has been set for a long time now, and I'm wondering if Putin wants the first bit of naval notoriety of the fall.

The only reason I knew of the date of the Zumwalt commissioning is because the Zumwalts are good friends of ours, but I'm sure the date was known to Russian naval intelligence well before I knew it.

the deployment of a destroyer or ballistic missile submarine, even if they are brand new vessels, doesn't have the PR aspect it used to.

The christening in Bath, Maine was attended by both Senators from Maine, some members of Congress, the Secretary of the Navy, and a fair amount of Washington prominence (also, sadly by Paul LePage, Maine's oafish governor, who, with any luck, will NOT be there in Baltimore in 2 weeks). The commissioning in Baltimore will probably be a far bigger deal, due to the proximity to DC. Bath, Maine was pretty far out there, and a pain in the ass to get to. Baltimore is an hour from Capitol Hill.

On the 14th, a few of us get a tour of the ship. That should be a trip, especially if Captain Kirk is the tour guide. At the christening, they told us the design gives off a radar image about the size of a rowboat.

Where it does no good whatsoever. And that bow! As I said, they built it upside down.

I hope it never experiences a bow-on rouge wave, that thing is going to want to dive.

The Merrimack and the Monitor were studied when considering the ship's design.

There is the obvious question as to whether or not they become obsolete before they are even brought into service, and that is one I am not qualified to answer. Looking at a few web sites to support one point of view or another isn't going to make us any wiser, either, I'm fairly sure.

have been plagued with serious problems.

Here are a few . .
https://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-new-3b-uss-zumwalt-is-a-stealthy-oddity-that-may-already-be-a-relic/

The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex is not your friend.

Veterans For Peace

The issues were no secret and addressed (although to what degree of success was more of a secret).

Whether or not the powers that had the ship built is our friend or not, the man after whom the ship is named WAS very much the friend of the rank and file of the Navy. It is because of Bud Zumwalt that women and blacks could rise in rank the same as any other sailor, and Nixon hated him for it, even ordered Jim Schlesinger to have Zumwalt fired on Nixon's last day in office. Schlesinger disobeyed Nixon's order, and Nixon was no longer president by the time he found out.

Bud's daughter, Ann, is a dear friend of ours, and our daughters are close friends to the point where they crossed the ocean to be there when one of them got married. We'll be there to honor Bud Zumwalt and to be with his family, our friends. We are not going for politics. We are not being given a tour because we'll have the slightest idea what we're looking at, but because our friends invited us to a very special occasion. We'll leave the sneering to others, and wish the ship's crew well--and hope along with Sen. King that the greatest honor the ship could possibly garner is to never have to fire a weapon in anger.

In a trial run, the ship did see its first action, by the way: it rescued a fisherman off the coast of New England from a storm that wrecked his boat.

you disclosed your conflict.

Navy officers who supported the Vietnam War deserve to
be sneered at.

Monsanto had assured him that Agent Orange was safe to humans, which is why he authorized it use in the first place. His son, Elmo, Jr. Died horribly from the effects of contact with it. Zumwalt never forgave Monsanto or himself for his son's death.

Sneering is easy 50 years after the fact and in present context. Ask all the women and black sailors who finally got the chance to become officers when Zumwalt introduced the notion, against massive resistance from the Pentagon and Nixon, if they think Zumwalt deserved to be sneered at. Bud Zumwalt was their hero and probably Nixon's most hated man in the military. I don't sneer at the memories of people with those credentials.

the least of the problems with the US in Vietnam.

Even a lowly grunt like me finally figured out that the war
was based on fantastical lies, and that the US had no right in
the world to be there.

In fact, I just helped to edit a book with those themes.

If Zumwalt had had half a hair, we would have resigned and
joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

But anyway, you have strong feelings about this (and so do I) -
thanks for keeping it halfway civil.

And most of the effects of Agent Orange weren't widely known until after our involvement ended (although some brave souls tried to get the word out earlier).

That we were baboozled into the whole mess in the first place was pretty much clear back then, agreed. At age 15, I was there at the Pentagon watching the National Guard trying in vain to figure out how to react to protesters coming up to them and, instead of spitting on them, putting flowers in their rifle barrels.

Context and personal stories will obviously play a role in anyone's perspective. I appreciate yours, and appreciate your accepting mine.

in doing your best to make the world a better place.

DFW, the personal connection you have with the Zumwalt family is fascinating, and I appreciate you sharing it. I'd be fascinated to hear about the christening and tour after you get to experience it.

FairWind, the people who questioned the Vietnam War and Monsanto's Agent Orange lies while it all was going down are heroes. I'd be interested to hear more about the book you are part of.

The diversity and interplay of your viewpoints here at DU is exactly why I return to this website almost daily.

-app

Here is the book - I worked on a new edition of it last spring.

http://www.powells.com/book/blind-nationhow-ignorance-and-arrogance-fueled-our-vietnam-intervention-9780985380205

It's interesting in part because it focuses on the role of the French, and how
the US became involved. It ends in 1964 with LBJ's build-up.

(BTW, I call Vietnam the US's longest war, longer than Afghanistan
because the US was instrumental and indispensable to the French
re-occupation, picking up well over half the costs. That means it began
in 1945 and ended in 1975. The Vietnamese agree, and call it "The
Ten Thousand Day War."

Taking out an invading vessel with a $600 C-802 Chinese made anti-ship missile.

I think you mean Iranian supported minority Shia rebels, Vs Gulf State/Saudi supported Sunni majority elected government.

like it is supposed to be dismiss the fact that they are local freedom fighters. Also the US and Saudi has put a siege, one worse than anything Aleppo is facing which means that any so called support they are getting from Iran has stopped.

Btw, for anyone else following this discussion. President Hadi, the American backed puppet president won the lasyt presidential elections by getting 99.8% of the vote.

Hadi won with 99.80% of the vote and took the oath of office in Yemen's parliament on 25 February 2012.[12] He was formally inaugurated as the president of Yemen on 27 February 2012, when Saleh resigned from the presidency and formally ceded power to Hadi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_Rabbuh_Mansur_Hadi

Lastly, why is the west trying to bring him back to power? especially seeing as he ran from the country. When Yankukovi of Ukraine ran from power because armed Neo Nazi and the west were putting pressure on him (pressure including sanctions), they all agreed that by him leaving the country, he lost his legitimacy to lead even though he was democratically elected in a real election unlike Hadi.

Sorry m8, but I am rooting for the local freedom fighters in Yemen aka flip flop warriors. They are were able to defeat the authoritarian puppet president swiftly without destroying the country. This is something you cannot say about our so called moderate beheaders in Libya or Syria.

Trying to overthrow elected government = rebels, not "freedom fighter"

I find the term freedom fighters less "offensive" than I find the term invading forces. That just doesn't seem accurate based on my understanding of the situation.

you mean the man who won his election with 99.80% of the vote, not even Kim Jun Un wins elections with that type of margin. You must be kidding yourself if you think the poor people of Yemen who are saddled with a US controlled president, a president who allows the US military to freely drone the citizens celebrating their wedding can shake off that tyrannical govt any other way.

They are in deed freedom fighters.

You mean drone AQAP? (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula)

That's the actual targets, not weddings, sorry.