U.S. Navy orders Second Fleet to sea ahead of hurricane

[Earth_First]

The U.S .Navy has ordered the Second Fleet to move out to sea from its home port at Norfolk, Va., to keep protect the ships and piers from Hurricane Irene, the Associated Press reports.

The order applies to 64 ships at Naval Station Norfolk in southeastern Virginia. Twenty-seven ships are already beginning to move out to sea, while another 28 are being moved to other places such as repair shipyards that are safer than the piers at Norfolk.

Nine ships are already at sea, the AP says.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/us-navy-orders-second-fleet-to-sea-ahead-of-hurricane/1

[MADem]

1. Way to screw up everyone's liberty!

But hey...now we have a decent sense of where that hurricane is headed!

[Earth_First]

3. Yep!

My brother in law was due back today from at sea training exercises on the Donald Cook.

[lpbk2713]

5. New sign ...

"Dogs, Sailors and Hurricanes ... keep of the grass"

[WAFS]

2. Little bit of irony here...

the actual 2nd Fleet staff will probably stay at home.

[MADem]

4. Of COURSE!!! And the truth is, the Flagship's ship's company prefer it that way!

Who needs the damn admiral and his minion-fussbudgets underfoot? If you're going to be dealing with strong wind and rough seas, you don't need to be catering to a bunch of critical whiners on top of everything else!

[WAFS]

6. I don't think 2nd Fleet even has a flagship any more. n/t

[Obamanaut]

7. Generally speaking, if the fleet commander is on one of the ships, it

is a flagship.

[WAFS]

8. True.

I don't think there has been a dedicated flag ship since the Mt. Whitney moved to Italy to host 6th Fleet. 2nd Fleet really doesn't need one.

[MADem]

9. Sure they do--the "flagship" is any ship upon which the Admiral is embarked.

They run his flag up and there ya go.

Usually, the guy picks his favorite, which is always the one with the best stateroom for him, and a good comm department. And of course, if his protege is the CO, well, that seals the deal.

The old single-purposed 2nd Flt flagship went to 6th Flt, IIRC, to replace BELKNAP....some wags used to opine that the "LCC" designation stood for "Large Cabin Cruiser."


Examples:

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=51809

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=44792


Are you down that way and wired into what's going on? I remember hearing a rumor a while back that they were going to disband 2nd Flt and pump up assets in other units and apply the savings to other endeavors. Is that still a 'go?'