American History

... a lanyard on the hatch dog. When it went off he tossed it back into the locker and dogged the hatch thinking it would smother the flare. Unfortunately, it was a magnesium flare and magnesium makes it's own oxygen. Compounded horribly by the fact that when the space was turned into a flare locker, the ventilation to the space was not blocked. This put fumes throughout the ship and almost all the dead died beneath deck and from the smoke.

We have a saying in the Navy, a sailor is a someone you can put naked into a completely dark round room with a ball bearing and he will lose it, trade it or break it.

We do screw up and we go down trying to save the ship, which we do save 99% of the time.


Ask the Russians how difficult it is to keep an aircraft carrier at sea. They gave up on their last one a few weeks ago, the US has 16, most nuclear. And another five on order or being built or being fitted out.

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