The truth behind the aircraft carriers photo
Here's a picture that's picking up steam around the Internet
today. A picture of five aircraft carriers in port in Norfolk,
Virginia. The chances are pretty good it's
going to show up in your Facebook feed soon.
The accompanying message is only partially correct:
What is wrong with this picture?
The picture is of the five nuclear carriers.
Just like Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
This picture was taken the other day in Norfolk.
The Obama Administration ordered 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for
"routine" (?) inspections. Heads of the Navy were flabbergasted by
the directive.
NORFOLK, VA.
(February 8, 2013). The
first time since WWII that five (*) aircraft carriers were docked together. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS
Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN
72) are all in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., the world's largest naval
station.
Sources stated that this breached a long standing military
protocol in the Navy meant to avoid massive enemy strike on major US
forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J.
Courtade/Released)
What's the real story? Welcome to the sequester.
First, the picture was actually taken in mid-December, not
this month. Second, none was ordered into port for "routine
maintenance."
- The USS Enterprise was retired from the Navy in January.
It's being dismantled.
- The USS Eisenhower deployed on Thursday and is on its way to
the Middle East to relieve the USS Stennis, which will
return to its home port on the West Coast. The Eisenhower was in port for two
months to get its flight deck resurfaced.
- The USS Harry Truman was to depart on a mission to the
Central Command in early February, but Navy officials asked the secretary of
defense to cancel that mission, which presumably was to the Persian
Gulf where the U.S.
has had two aircraft carriers. Now it will have one -- the Eisenhower.
- The USS Bush was not ordered into port for "routine inspections." It
had been undergoing tests of its ability to have aircraft, which it does not
presently have. Its cruise was canceled because of the sequester.
- The USS Lincoln also was not ordered into port for routine maintenance. It was
in port for a two-year refueling mission, which the Navy has now canceled
because of the sequester cuts.
The Truman's situation is particularly interesting.
WTVR TV in Richmonddescribed what happens
to people when a deployment is canceled. Families depend on deployment money to
pay bills. Many move home
for family support. They are already gone. Single sailors with children already sent their kids to
caretakers. Many sailors moved out of
apartments or homes,
have cars in storage and already set up mortgage and phones and bills. This
will be a tough adjustment. Since they are now cancelled, only delayed indefinitely,
they could have to leave suddenly if the budget impasse is solved. The Navy is asking for community help for these 5,000
sailors, giving leniency on bills. Living arrangements, help with
temporary storage,
temporary transportation...many of them do not have local family or a support
system.
Home for Christmas: 9 Flattops at Norfolk
naval base, December 20, 2012.
With the returns from deployment of the carrier DWIGHT D.
EISENHOWER on Dec. 19, and the amphibious ships IWO JIMA
and NEW YORK
on Dec. 20, the piers at Norfolk's
naval base are about as full up as they'll ever be.
Five aircraft carriers, four big-deck amphibious assault
ships, a full cast of "small boy" surface warships, along with
nuclear submarines and support ships, are crowding the base, giving a
comfortably snug feeling to the waterfront. Similar scenes -- although not with
the gathering of flattops seen here -- are taking place at other fleet
concentration areas like San Diego
and Pearl Harbor.
The Navy makes a point of trying to gives its shipboard
crews a chance to spend Christmas with their families, and for a few days the
percentage of ships underway drops to the lowest point it will be all year. But
many of these ships will be gone in two weeks as the pace of operations picks
up again.
In a decade or so, scenes such as this at Norfolk
could become quite rare, as the fleet is in the midst of a gradual shift from
the Atlantic to Pacific. Within a few years, about sixty
percent of the U.S. Navy's ships will be homeported at a Pacific base -
virtually a mirror image of the Cold War emphasis on the Atlantic.
The Navy also says the story about this being the first time
so many carriers were moored together since Pearl Harbor
is untrue.
Not surprisingly, the story was changed, the picture was
attached, and the Internet did its thing.
Comments:
For those that are wondering,
there are 2 more flat-topped military ships in the background. These aren't
aircraft carriers, technically - they're
amphibious assault
ships. "Amphibious assault ships are the centerpieces of
US
amphibious warfare and fulfill the same power projection role as aircraft
carriers except that their striking force comprises land forces instead of
aircraft. They deliver, command, coordinate, and fully support all elements of
a 2200-strong marine amphibious unit in an amphibious assault using both air
and amphibious vehicles."
Posted by Tyler
|
I do remember seeing this around
the beginning of the year as a "Wow, this is cool!" thing rather than
something to be freaked out about. Sad that the internet lens of distortion
took effect.
Posted by Ryan V. |
STILL a violation of law, regardless.
Posted by gma215 |
Which law? I assume you're
referring to the law requiring the Navy to maintain 11 aircraft carriers. It
now has 10 but Congress granted the Navy a waiver until the USS Ford comes
online.
Posted by Bob Collins |
"The Internet did its
thing"???
There is a culture of fabrication on the right that is not
an "internet" thing. It's a traditional Southern Democrat (now doing
business as the Republican Party) thing: feeding outrageous lies into the news
cycle for political gain.
The people who did this knew exactly what the truth was, and
deliberately altered it so as to inflame the GOP's hyper-paranoid base.
Posted by Mark Gisleson |
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