The USS Kidd and Pirate Flags

Apparently, the destroyer USS Kidd has perpetual permission to fly pirate flags, looking back to both Rear Admiral Kidd of USS Arizona fame and Captain Kidd the pirate / privateer.

Also, from the same place, the appropriately named destroyer USS Stout has just set a new Navy record for continuous days at sea: 215.

5 comments:

Harmon Ward said...

Thanks for that. In the weeks and months after the battle, there were questions of where Admiral Kidd was during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The situation aboard the USS Arizona was difficult to sort out after the explosion. Eventually, the remains or Admiral Kidd's Navy Academy class ring was found on the the bridge, welded to the steel by the heat of the explosion. I am glad his widow approved of Jolly Roger. You have written in the past on the history of that pennant.

I tried to find something online that corroborated my memory on that class ring detail, but all of the links I found we expired.

Harmon Ward said...

I forgot that Grim is sort of semi-retired, Thomas Doubting. I think it was his post that mentioned the Jolly Roger a few years ago.

sykes.1 said...

The record set by the Stout is shameful. The Navy bureaucracy is destroying our ships and their crews by wantonly excessive deployments, deployments that serve no purpose. Should war break out, ships like the Stout will be unable to fully perform their assignments.

Some in the bureaucracy will argue that the Stout had to stay at sea so long because we have so few ships. We're not going to get to 355; we are going to get to 200. The Navy needs to face reality and act accordingly.

Tom said...

Hey, Harmon, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yes, sykes, although it's an impressive achievement for the Stout's crew, something is really wrong here. Part of it, according to the article, was the pandemic, but the Navy needs either to cut back to what it can do, or expand to do what it's being tasked to do.

douglas said...

Here's hoping somehow they implement the plan to build the Navy back up to *500* ships.