A U.S. Navy ship struck part of the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor on Thursday morning, according to a woman whose husband witnessed the accident.
Photos submitted by the woman, who declined to be identified because her spouse serves in the Navy, show the naval hospital ship USNS Mercy sailing dangerously close to the USS Arizona Memorial.
“It went right over the dock,” she told Military.com. “You could hear the metal crunching. My husband said you could see mud and water being kicked up. It backed up to within feet of hitting the white memorial building.”
Tug boats were guiding the USNS Mercy from its port at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham at around 7 a.m. local time.
via Witness: US Navy Ship Struck USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii | Military.com.
Oh dear. First, it’s never good to hit anything with a ship. It’s especially bad to hit a war memorial. And to make matters worse, the material condition of the Arizona is such that any impact could be disastrous, including the possibility of a major oil leak.
It should be noted that the USNS Mercy is operated by civilian mariners. The medical personnel are military. I suppose the Military Sealift Command can fire civilian captains much as the active Navy might do.
XBradTC 
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