This San Francisco Article Has The Right Focus

Originally posted 0956 13 Jan:

I wrote yesterday about the NYT article that I felt had the wrong "tone" -- trying to highlight the "Navy withheld information" part rather than the bravery and skill of the crew. An article today by Robert Hamilton of The New London Day (who I discussed earlier here) does, in my opinion, a much better job. This article (registration required) begins as follows:

"It is increasingly clear that the submarine that hit a seamount in the Pacific Ocean last week came close to being lost and that only the valiant efforts of its crew kept it afloat, Navy sources said Tuesday.
"With uncontrolled flooding in its forward ballast tanks, the USS San Francisco had to run a low-pressure air pump for 30 hours straight to maintain buoyancy on its trip home, Navy sources said. The pump is rated for only intermittent use.
"In addition, the submarine ran its diesel engines, channeling the exhaust into the forward ballast tanks in an effort to force out more of the water and make the ship lighter.
“Based on the information I've seen so far, they're very lucky this ship didn't sink,” said retired Navy Capt. John C. Markowicz. “Only through the heroic efforts of the crew did that ship survive.”

Thanks, Mr. Hamilton.

Staying at PD...

Update: Alexander, another submariner (there's no such thing as an ex-submariner) has a blog, and he provides some excellent comments on the grouding here.

posted by Bubblehead @ 9:40 AM