RIMPAC “Sinkex”: Using Hawaiʻi’s seas a garbage dump

PHOTO: U.S. NAVY
A live-fire exercise, part of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012, sank the ex-USS Niagara Falls (T-AFS-3) in waters 15,480 feet deep, 63 miles southwest of Kauai about 11:31 a.m. on Saturday, July 14.

The RIMPAC assault on Hawaiʻi continues.  This time, the Navy uses our seas a  dump for their old ships. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported “RIMPAC crews sink former Navy ship Niagara Falls off Kauai” (July 15, 2012).  The USS Niagara Falls was shot full of holes and sunk in waters 15,480 feet deep, 63 miles southwest of Kauai.

The Navy always tries to make the so-called “Sinkex” sound really important:

“These exercises provide important opportunities for realistic at-sea training with live ordnance, conditions that cannot be duplicated otherwise,” Vice Adm. Gerald Beaman, 3rd Fleet commander, said in a statement Sunday.

[. . .]

The Navy says a sinking exercise or SINKEX gives crews the opportunity to gain proficiency in tactics, targeting and live firing against surface targets, which enhances combat readiness of deployable units.

But we all know what is really going on, right?: Boys (and some girls) getting off on firing their big guns in a shoot-em-up, blow things up orgy. It is a climax to their war games before coming back to port and being set loose on Honolulu.

 

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