Exactly, they didn’t do it because it would’ve invited armed retaliation.
Now that the attacks have already happened, and that any moral high ground the U.S. could have is lost, and that that loss of moral high ground makes it impossible for the U.S. to organize the titanic alliance that would be needed to wrest control of the Strait for them they just took the opportunity to do it.
Island. Aircraft carriers have islands. Submarines have sails.
Regarding military deaths: There could be a larger number of deaths that aren’t being reported as combat related. This is likely a game of Whack-a-Mole to make the war casualties looking like less than they are. If someone dies at a rear echelon facility like a supply depot, is that a combat death? Wellllll. . .he was killed when a palate of metal widgets destined for the Lincoln fell off a fork lift and crushed him, so we’re going to call that a non-combat related accident even though it was in support of the mission.
So Much Winning! I’m tired of it!
The problem is that America builds shitty, overpriced, incapable hardware as a military boondoggle for a number of companies that would be better off completely destroyed. It’s been true for at least 35 years now, probably longer, and has shown with our great victories starting with Korea. You know, a stalemate, a loss, a meaningless win, a twenty year loss, another meaningless win, and this latest crap.
And regarding aircraft carrier islands, here is a gift link to a Washington Post article that Trump wants new aircraft carriers to look more like the older, World War II era carriers, with the island at the rear of the ship. God forbid that he leave the design of warships to the people who actually know what they’re doing.
Yeah, I thought about posting that. It’s pretty much an encapsulation of everything wrong with Trump as a day-to-day leader even if you could ignore the grift and amoral decay. Trump isn’t just a bad president, he would also make for a spectacularly incompetent king.
This also makes me wonder if any suicide attempts are being reported as accidents. The Lincoln has a low number of mental health cases. They didn’t see fit to mention how many cases of “the sailor fell over the side of the ship in a manner that is accidental and in no way connected to the sailor’s mental health”.
The speculation here is getting increasingly stupid.
A lot of good information here.
A tiktok video? Is this where you’ve gotten the idea that hundreds of servicemembers have died and yet somehow no one noticed?
Reported for trolling.
Why the fuck are people continuing to disagree with long time well known Dopers with actual lived experiences that are completely on point?
Literally, in this case, I suppose. 
Didn’t he say he wanted existing carriers to be retrofitted with steam catapults? Then there’s his Trumpclass battleships. Hopefully these projects can be slow walked until a semblance of sanity returns.
I think a bunch of dopers go off and have conversations with AI about stuff, and then come back with weird ideas.
ISWYDT.
Do you have anything useful to add, or are you just here to play sad little gotcha games? I promise you, I’m not gonna play.
Well, C’mon! That’s what we do here! Can’t Fight Ignorance 24/7!
From Facebook:
Chet Lane
17 August at 08:25
The USS Lincoln and it’s task force made a lot of headlines over the past week and I’ve had a couple friends reach out to get my thoughts. I’ve read a few news articles and seen a few people’s opinions online - but none of them seem to either understand and/or properly explain what life can be like on a Navy vessel - so I’m going to try and fill in a few gaps.
Deployments are usually planned out in detail long before you leave port. Weeks ahead of time you usually (not always) know where you are going, where you might stop and the exact date of your return. This is important for a lot of reasons.
Maybe most important is psychological. As soon as the lines are cast off…the crew starts counting down the days until they can return. Being at sea is difficult. The hours are long. The work is often hard and dirty and prisoners have better living conditions. Having that date of return gives you an anchor…a goal to just keep working towards. When you’ve been at sea for months - getting extended even one day is mentally challenging. Getting extended months is unimaginable. And being out at sea for months with no fixed end date? Holy cow man - I can’t even comprehend. In my 5.5 years of sea duty I was extended a few times and it wasn’t fun. But in a sense I was lucky to be on a submarine because it was impossible for us to stay out for 6 months straight - we would run out of food. If I recall properly - my longest non stop time at sea was 84 days.
But maybe as important is logistics - both personal and shipwide. From a personal perspective - when you know the details of your deployment - you can provision yourself accordingly. So you know how much soap, toothpaste, razor blades, deodorant and other things to bring. If you wear contact lenses…you need to bring enough to last. If you have prescription meds - you need to bring enough to last. If you are a woman and need feminine hygiene products…bring enough. You get the idea. On a submarine that’s all you have. And you don’t get a lot of space to store it. Most Navy enlisted crew get a ‘bunkpan’ that locks under their bunk (see attached photo). That is about 2 inches deep and 6 feet long. We called these ‘coffin racks.’ On the sub - we also had a small individual drawer and a small shared wardrobe to hang up jackets. In that space you have to put underwear, socks, dress uniforms, working uniforms, at least a change of civilian clothes, a couple pairs of shoes and whatever else you felt was important. It was not uncommon for me to share clothes with shipmates. Point being - it’s not a lot of space.
So what happens when you get extended is that you start to run out of stuff because you didn’t plan on being out that long. Running out of deodorant is one thing…running out of contact lenses or prescription meds is more serious.
On larger surface ships…there is a ships store where you can buy some of these things. Smaller ships and submarines you are just out of luck.
So far this mostly seems like an inconvenience - but allow me to connect a few more dots.
The Lincoln was out at sea non stop for over 200 days. Their ship’s store ran out of ‘stuff.’ The smaller ships in it’s task force never had ‘stuff.’ The Lincoln is nuclear powered so it doesn’t need fuel for itself- but it can only carry about 3 days worth of aviation fuel. So the carrier and the rest of the task force needs to be re-fueled while underway every few days.
The headquarters of the US Navy 5th Fleet is (was) in Bahrain. Specifically ‘Naval Support Activity’ Bahrain handled all logistics for ships in the Persian Gulf. I use past tense because Iran has destroyed key command buildings and communication terminals, forcing the U.S. military to relocate core regional logistics operations over 2,200 miles away to Diego Garcia…which is pretty much a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere, San Diego is over 10,000 miles away.
So now - there is no place for a ship to stop and re-supply in the Persian Gulf. Supplies are loaded on USNS ships that have to travel over 2,000 miles to make a delivery.
United States Naval Ships (USNS) are non-commissioned auxiliary vessels owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Military Sealift Command. Manned mostly by civilian mariners, they provide vital underway replenishment, transport, rescue, and repair support to keep combat warships fueled, armed, and operational worldwide. (link in comments)
So now you have to ship supplies >10,000 miles to Diego Garcia, load them up on a ship…then that ship travels over 2,000 miles…and then connects to another ship while underway and transfer supplies over by cable. This is a dangerous, tedious, expensive and time consuming process. Because of the risk and effort involved…they transfer only the minimum supplies needed to keep the task force operating. Things like fuel, munitions, food, spare parts and maybe water. Mail, care packages, toiletries, magazines, etc - are often left behind. I’ve seen reports where it’s taken 5+ months for a package to be delivered to a sailor on board. This distance is also why there are reports of no milk or produce on board - it can’t survive the transit.
Meanwhile…work goes on. Hot, dirty, sweaty work that grinds you into a nub 14+ hours a day.
I’ve seen a lot of people try to denigrate these sailors and marines or minimize their challenges. All I can say is this…go spend 200+ straight days at sea and give me a call. If we are incapable of providing our troops proper support and respect then we shouldn’t send them into harms way in the first place.
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