Was the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) attacked?
The more I learn about and study this, the more murky and smelly it gets.
The USS Fitzgerald was struck on its starboard (right) side by a loaded Philippine flagged (Japanese owned) container ship, the ACX Crystal, at sea on June 17th in heavily traveled sea lanes off of the coast of Japan, about 60-miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan (80 +- miles from Tokyo Harbour. The warship ship is based at the American Navy’s base at Yokosuka.
Seven American sailors were killed, the captain was crushed and critically injured, other crew members were injured and the surviving crew worked very hard to save the ship which had a huge hole in the hull below he waterline where the bulbous bulb located below the water line of the freighter rammed the Fitzgerald, causing great damage and nearly sinking it.
The “bulb” is similar to what was used by warships in the Mediterranean centuries ago to ram and destroy opposing ships.
The reported time of the "crash" varies, but it apparently occurred at about 0130 AM. Prior to the collision, the ACS Crystal had been moving erratically, changing speeds, making sudden sharp turns, going one way, then another (each turn bringing it closer to the Fitzgerald), and then reversing its direction before making yet another sharp turn into the USS Fitzgerald, striking her obliquely.
The weather was clear.
The ACX Crystal’s GPS transponder was reportedly turned on, and the Fitzgerald should have been receiving the ACX Crystal’s location every six seconds. We can assume the ACX Crystal’s information was being sent out and more than likely being received by the Fitzgerald’s sophisticated monitoring equipment (satellite data, radar, sonar), but we don’t know much else at this point. Automatic alarms should have sounded to alert people to the closeness of the ACX Crystal. What happened? Was someone negligent, asleep at the switch?
By design, Navy warships do NOT travel with a position revealing transponder turned on. Yet, the ACX Crystal seemed to be tracking a position revealing device as she seemed to stalk the fitzgerald as the attack unfolded. Was there a surreptitious transponder or GPS locating device on the Fitzgerald that led the ACX Crystal’s ramming the Fitzgerald?+
SPECULATION: There was a rumor on the internet that vanished just hours after it appeared suggesting that the ACX Crystal’s crew were all Moslems and that this was a terrorist attack. There is another rumor that a Chinese warship was 30-50 miles away (could the ACX Crystal’s electronic/computer controls have been taken over to cause the collision)? There is a claim (a rumor) that the ACX Crystal’s guidance and control computers were hijacked by North Koreans who drove the ACX Crystal into the Fitzgerald.
The Navy’s CincPac headquarters in Hawaii said that all would come to light after the investigation. The collision occurred in Japanese waters, so it is officially a Japanese Coast Guard investigation. Japanese maritime authorities work very closely and in close cooperation with American maritime and military organizations.
If everything will “be brought to light” as promised by the Admiral at Pearl Harbor, why did the Navy issue a command, a direct order to all of the Fitzgerald’s crew sign “non-disclosure” agreements, effectively muzzling the sailors (just like the CIA did to contractors and employees in Benghazi after Ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered)? This smacks of a coverup already underway, keeping us from learning the truth.
There are too many unanswered questions, intentionally unanswered at that. This is a bad smelling and very fishy deal keeping we, the people in the dark.
James E. Horn is a Retired American Diplomat
He is an activist, a writer, and a speaker who knows his subject
He can be reached at james@portervillepost.com
