XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Shipboard Firefighting

At sea, everyone is a firefighter. Because there’s nowhere to  run, and no one else to do it. Sure, ships have dedicated Damage Control teams, but everyone has to  know the basics.  

At sea, everyone is a firefighter. Because there’s nowhere to  run, and no one else to do it.

Sure, ships have dedicated Damage Control teams, but everyone has to  know the basics.

 

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Responses to “Shipboard Firefighting”

  1. Quartermaster

    When I was on Sylvania, everyone was required to go through the week long firefighting and damage control course annually. You never can tell what is going to happen in combat, and you may find yourself dragooned into another assignment during damage control operations.

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  2. Captain Ned

    The lessons learned by the crews on Franklin, Bunker Hill, Forrestal, and Enterprise (both 6 & 65) must still be taught these days.

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  3. Quartermaster

    Two of the films that used to be shown at DC/FF School were of the Franklin and Forrestal fires. I don’t recall seeing anything about the Enterprise fires, however. Perhaps that’s been added since the early 70s.

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  4. LT Rusty

    Well, I mean, you need to do DC / Firefighting only when you’re on those silly old-fashioned ships.
    LCS is so transformational that you’ll never need to fight a fire or anything.
    Also, Ned? Don’t forget ORISKANY.

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  5. John in Philly

    I served aboard Forrestal six years after the fire and the ship took firefighting very seriously.
    Forrestal would announce suspected fires on the 1MC as “Operation Ranch Hand,” and if it turned out to be a fire they would go to GQ. I was at chow on the after mess decks when the 1MC blared out, “Fire in Hangar Bay Two General Quarters This is no drill.” Turned out to be a very small fire of spilled jet fuel, but the average pulse spiked quite a bit.
    Long periods of boredom, small periods of not boredom.

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  6. Captain Ned

    Ranch Hand?? As in the Agent Orange deforestation project?? Seems like a really odd codename to reuse.

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  7. Quartermaster

    We used to call Forrestal “USS Zippo.” Sylvania was tied up across the same pier as Forrestal a couple of weeks. And they had a real fire daily while we were there.

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