Navy ship runs aground on coral reef – Was it looking for more ‘lost drones’ in the Philippines?

By Mario Andrade

DeadlineLive.info

January 17, 2013

My old ship, the USS Guardian, ran aground yesterday at the Tubbataha Reef in the Palawan Province, The Philippines . According to a local news source, the Philippine Star, it hasn’t been ‘officially’ determined yet if the ship actually hit the coral reef or simply the shallow bottom.  This disaster comes after a recent incident when a lost navy drone was found by villagers in The Philippines. The drone, a Northrop Grumman BQM-74, is used to test aerial targeting and fire control systems.

The Guardian -an Avenger Class MCM or Mine Countermeasures Ship-  had just finished refueling in the Philippines. It is still unclear as for what its mission is in that region. However, based on my experience onboard the Guardian, the ship was either conducting a joint exercise with the Philippine Navy or looking for ‘lost equipment’ and retrieve it.

During my service onboard that ship, which is stationed in Sasebo, Japan, we would sometimes get deployed to find and recover lost ordnance, equipment, and even sunken amphibious landing craft anywhere from the Korean coast, Sea of Japan or even further south to The Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

The navy often loses equipment during exercises or other operations, and sometimes it’s difficult to find it during high seas and bad weather. That’s when the minesweepers get called to action. These ships are equipped with sonar, underwater vehicles with cameras, and other equipment capable to locate underwater objects as small as the size of a football.

Was it a coincidence that after the drone was found in The Philippines, this ship was deployed there? Perhaps the Philippine Government found more ‘lost equipment’ and told Barak Obama to go and clean up this mess.

I feel terrible for what’s going to happen to the Guardian’s Commanding Officer; not only he’s responsible for this incident and has brought the attention of media outlets from all over the world. There’s a chance that he caused permanent damage to the ship. Minesweepers, which are nowadays called Mine Countermeasures ships are made out of wood so they don’t attract magnetic mines. Because of the heavy weight of the equipment onboard, they are very fragile and the keel  is prone to crack or break if they run aground, rendering the ship useless. This C.O. may not only just get ‘relieved from duty;’ he may very well go to court martial. Good luck, skippy!