OLD DIARY

The U.S.S. Milwaukee


USS Milwaukee 1There have been 5 naval ships to have been named the U.S.S. Milwaukee.  We here in Milwaukee are welcoming the 5th such vessel in town this week, prior to it’s commissioning.  The boat has already made notoriety, having been involved in an incident in which 40 some private boats were damaged following a high speed run near Sturgeon Bay, WI — part of the Acceptance Trails that a new boat goes through to assure that it does what the Navy Department ordered.  This new LCS ship is capable of top speeds of 52 mph — almost unheard of in a ship this size.  It’s a “littoral combat ship” which means it’s designed to operate near shore.  It can be equipped for anti-mine operations, as well as two other duties — but can only perform one of them at a time — needing to go into port and be refitted for a change in duty.  In reading about this ship I was curious to note that since designing this boat there is a new revision to the frigate spec’s making it slightly slower, more heavily armed,

“…the follow-on frigate will instead be optimized for lethality and survivability…  — USNI News

That last troubles me as this ship hasn’t even gone into service and they are already redesigning to make it safer for sailors?  Sounds like the HumVee fiasco all over again.

Anyway…. she’s here in town for a few days. The lakefront has been reconfigured for security — we attempted to do our usual Sunday walk along the lake and found cyclone fencing barring us from the area. There are numerous large event tents set up for the commissioning — I’m sure a great party will be had by all who have tickets.

You all know I’m not a military man; I am, rather, a pacifist.  But I do love ships.  Big ships, little ships, in between size ships.  And one that can get on down at 52 mph is pretty awesome.  And I can say, there go my tax dollars, being a good tax paying citizen.  I truly wish, however, that we could fix homelessness, care for our veterans better, and maybe that we could pay more attention to the problems in our own house instead.

The Previous 4 USS Milwaukee’s

Uss_Milwaukee_1864

Monitor Class USS Milwaukee — 1864 (sunk)

USS_Milwaukee_(C-21) 1906

1906 USS Milwaukee

USS_Milwaukee_(CL-5) 1943

1943 USS Milwaukee

USS_Milwaukee_(AOR-2)_Mar1969.jpeg

1969 — USS Milwaukee

Anyway… Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.  Maybe by the end of the week we’ll be able to get to the lakefront and take our walk.  🙂

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19 thoughts on “The U.S.S. Milwaukee”

  1. Linda Sand says:

    “I truly wish, however, that we could fix homelessness, care for our veterans better, and maybe that we could pay more attention to the problems in our own house instead.”

    Amen.

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    • > OH LINDA,

      I SO AGREE! We spend so much money on war to fill greedy pockets all the while we ignore so many local problems. It makes me sick. However — when I listen to the ignorance and cruelty expressed by average people about such things as refugees I begin to realize that it’s not JUST the politicians and bankers — there is a vein of arrogance and militarism that speaks to where the politicians get their power. And why they keep getting re-elected.

      > >

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  2. Mrs. P says:

    Did I ever tell you that my grandfather was a ship builder?…and built ships just like the ones shown in the 60s? He was originally hired by the Maritime Commission which was given the task to build a new ships for the Navy whose WWI era ships were falling apart, literally.

    During WWII he would retrofit ships to make them cargo crafts to carry supplies and men overseas. Though I would have preferred a world where war was not the solution…imagine the outcome of WWII had the Maritime Commission not built all those ships. The Commission was put to rest in the 60s and then my grandfather worked for the private sector building ships. Most of his were part of the “President” series. I have some movie clips of him supervising one of his ship projects. 😀 And photos of ship christenings for some of the ships he built. Sadly, I found out how cool he was AFTER he died…but it made me respect him even more.

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    • That touches on something I have pondered for decades. Could we support another war the likes of WWI or WWII. I don’t think there is enough will in this country to join together and work as cohesively as we did in the Big Wars. We are so antagonistic towards each other that joining against an enemy seems a bizarre ultimatum that we might not agree upon.

      I can’t say that the only war fought on our own soil was the Civil War, because our warfare against the First Nations took place here and we don’t even honor them by admitting they WERE a war.

      No shipbuilders in my family. I had a carpenter — in Poland — but he was also the casket maker.

      > >

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      • Mrs. P says:

        I think there might have been a possibility of working together after 9/11 but that whole military action got so botched there is a huge mistrust of our leaders…I really can’t say for sure whether we would or would not pull it off. I still hope we would.

        There was a time when a casket maker had great job security…not so much anymore.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Mrs. P says:

    I thought you’d enjoy a couple posts I wrote about my grandfather’s time in the shipping industry. The story was written in parts so if you click on the “next in series” you’ll see the actual ships he did work on. To get what a remarkable man he was you need to realize that when his mother died he was place in an orphanage when he was about five until he was in his teens when he reunited with his father. Up until this point he received no education and he was fortunate to have some very wise connections who mentored him and convinced him to go to school.

    https://mpozzanghera.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/the-second-of-three-remarkable-people-joseph-part-4/

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    • Yup — it’s MIGHTY fast. Not sure I’d want to be ON one moving that quickly.

      But then the military does things no one else would do. I know when I was working for a Detroit Diesel distributor I was told they were putting twin 600 hp engines in attack tanks and seeing one of those things moving at top speed is sheer panic! But then war has no ‘normal’ rules, does it?

      > >

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      • jdawgswords —

        Well, you see, that was why I inserted the little comment about the Acceptance Trials. The Navy has been taking delivery of ships for a long time — they know what happens when one of theirs puts the juice to the turbines. The fact that some cowboy got behind the wheel (as it were) and juiced the throttle so much that they sent 5 foot waves into a civilian harbor is unspeakably rude. There just isn’t any excuse for that kind of ‘behavior’.

        That has nothing to do with the military. That is all about one person feeling his power and exercising it without regard for others. There’s a whole lake out there — they did not have to do what they did so close to shore.

        It’s good and wonderful that we have men and women who stand guard for us against the forces of evil (no sarcasm intended). It’s good that there are legal provisions like the one that life long beliefs allowed me to object to the war. But whether in or out of uniform we are supposed to be a nation of laws and rules and when either civilians or military forget about the rules and let their egos loose then it’s time to take action.

        And accidental isn’t always accidental. There are objectives we know nothing about. And the U.S. has been responsible for plenty of civilian deaths over time.

        Thanks for the comments my friend. >

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      • sorta like the story of the farmer who complained about F16s flying so low they scared his cows to death…he goes to prison for damaging an F16 with gunfire…a 22 rifle…

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