Random News and Notes 12 April

There are a couple of significant historical notes associated with this date. On 12 April 1861 the first shots of the US Civil War were fired at Ft. Sumpter. Confederate shore batteries under the command of General Pierre G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

On this date in 1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. While at his Warm Springs, Georgia, retreat, Roosevelt sat in the living room with his paramour Lucy Mercer, two cousins and his dog Fala, while the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff painted his portrait. According to presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, it was about 1 p.m. that the president suddenly complained of a terrific pain in the back of his head and collapsed, unconscious. One of the women summoned a doctor, who immediately recognized the symptoms of a massive cerebral hemorrhage and gave the president a shot of adrenaline into the heart in a vain attempt to revive him. By 3:30 p.m., though, doctors in Warm Springs had pronounced the president dead. Vice President Harry Truman – who had mostly been kept in the dark by Roosevelt – was sworn in as President at 7:09 p.m. on the 12th in the West Wing of the White House, by Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone.

Our first news story brings us to the Virginia Capes where the newest US destroyer was commissioned. The USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG-124) came to life in a ceremony held at Norfolk. The Flight IIA Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer’s Namesake – Medal of Honor recipient Marine Colonel Harvey C. Barnum – was present for the festivities. He was awarded the Medal for his actions on 18 December, 1965 — for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty”. He had taken over command of a rifle company when its commander had been killed in action, and reorganized it for defense and successful evacuation after destroying the enemy.

The Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers are the backbone of the US fleet with 75 currently in commission and another 25 on order. They are designed around the AEGIS system. With an overall length of 505 to 509.5 feet (depending on flight), displacement ranging from 8,300 to 9,700 tons, and weaponry including over 90 missiles, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are larger and more heavily armed than many previous classes of guided-missile cruisers.

It appears negotiations with the retards running Iran have broken down. VP Vance held a presser detailing the failures.

“We have been at it now for 21 hours. And, we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that’s bad news for Iran, much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America, so we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement, we’ve made very clear what our redlines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on. And we’ve made that as clear as we possibly could. And they have chosen not to accept our terms.”

Things in the region had already started to heat back up. I told you in a comment yesterday that two Burke class guided missile destroyers, the USS Michael Murphy and the USS Frank E Peterson, made the passage into the Persian Gulf. Well, the Iranians didn’t like that and threatened to fire, what I don’t know, at the vessels. They claim the US destroyers turned around after the threat.

One problem though, the pair were visually confirmed to have completed the transit and what’s more, the Murphy had it’s AIS transmitter on the entire passage. This is a lot like when the Iranians said they “targeted” American and Israeli fighters and showed video of them tracking the planes but not showing any intercept or even a missile launch.

Anyway, CENTCOM says they are going to de-mine the sealanes and have started the shaping process and are setting conditions to sweep.

U.S. Forces Start Mine Clearance Mission in Strait of Hormuz

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began setting conditions for clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, April 11, as two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations.

USS Frank E. Peterson (DDG 121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) transited the Strait of Hormuz and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM.

The Strait of Hormuz is an international sea passage and an essential trade corridor that supports regional and global economic prosperity. Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days.

It is only a matter of getting all the DDGs and SSGNs cycled through the reload process before the missiles start flying again. It is an unfortunate truth that the VLS systems on US vessels cannot be reloaded at sea. The vessels must be alongside somewhere with the proper crane to do the reloads. Fortunately, 5th Fleet HQ is in Bahrain and has all the necessary equipment.

Updating the Ireland protests story from the past few days, the Gardaí forcibly dispersed the protesters in Dublin, Cork and Galway overnight. The use of force seems to have backfired though. There are protests breaking out all over the country now.

I said it before, but this really isn’t going to end well for those at Leinster House.