Are digital cameras allowed on Navy ships?

Delarege -

My experience is in the Army, so this is a SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess, more reliable than a WAG but not by too much). I would imagine a sailor could have a camera on board ship, but there would be parts of the ship where photography was not allowed. Off the top of my head, the reactor, magazine, Operations center, and hangar (if the ship carries aircraft) would probably be off limits.

They do have email, and I think full Internet access on most ships these days. They would be using government computers, so it is probably monitored, but to what degree I don't know. I would not think it would be too far-fetched for a sailor to email a picture of a "phenomenon at sea" to a friend. Of course, depending on the nature of the phenomenon, he might have to move quickly to avoid a comms lockdown.

As far as photos of damage, I would guess any damage to the ship would result in a lockdown of all but official comms channels (especially if sailors were injured or killed). Photos of the damage would be classified, so they would go through a secure channel to the ship's higher headquarters. The Navy would control (as much as it could) the release of any photographs to the media.

Perhaps one of our squids/former squids can enlighten us further.
HN, former grunt

Histry Nerd said:

Delarege -

My experience is in the Army, so this is a SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess, more reliable than a WAG but not by too much). I would imagine a sailor could have a camera on board ship, but there would be parts of the ship where photography was not allowed. Off the top of my head, the reactor, magazine, Operations center, and hangar (if the ship carries aircraft) would probably be off limits.

They do have email, and I think full Internet access on most ships these days. They would be using government computers, so it is probably monitored, but to what degree I don't know. I would not think it would be too far-fetched for a sailor to email a picture of a "phenomenon at sea" to a friend. Of course, depending on the nature of the phenomenon, he might have to move quickly to avoid a comms lockdown.

As far as photos of damage, I would guess any damage to the ship would result in a lockdown of all but official comms channels (especially if sailors were injured or killed). Photos of the damage would be classified, so they would go through a secure channel to the ship's higher headquarters. The Navy would control (as much as it could) the release of any photographs to the media.

Perhaps one of our squids/former squids can enlighten us further.
HN, former grunt

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Yep, and if us former grunts can figure out how take pictures, oh inside, North Korea, and other places we weren't supposed to have cameras. (I'm not admitting to anything. It's just something I've heard.)

I'm sure some enterprising swabbie could manage the same thing.

Camera

Have you seen all the soldier/sailor pics and video on MySpace and YouTube?
Must of it right from the front lines.

You don't even need a regular camera. These days, a cell phone tacks pics and video.

Good point, James. Of course, that doesn't mean the cameras are authorized--just that the chain of command either doesn't know (they have better things to do than search YouTube for videos) or turns a blind eye.

But the pictures get out, authorized or not.

HN

Delarege said:

Would it be permissible for any sailor to carry a digital camera onboard their battleship?

And do seamen have regular access to the internet from the ship?

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Yes and yes.

My husband is at sea right now, and has his digital camera with him. He sends me pics on and off the ship all the time. There's places he can't shoot, of course, but he has taken pictures inside his shop, etc. In fact, right now, he's waging a battle with the ship's safety dept about some recurring issues. He's using his digital camera to document things.

And yes, he has regular internet access. He e-mails me on a very regular basis. I just got an e-mail from him about ten minutes ago. LOL

I wouldn't have thought cell phones would be allowed on Navy ships at sea...even so, I can't imagine getting even a stray signal when you're hundreds of miles from shore.

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Yes, you can bring a cell phone onto a ship. You cannot, however, use it except when the ship is in port, and completely moored. On one of the last exercises my husband's ship went on before the current deployment, they were apparently fairly close to shore...close enough to pick up a signal. Someone went outside and made a call. When he got off his phone, his phone rang. The caller said, "Is this (name)? Congratulations on finding a cell phone signal. Now please report for your Captain's Mast." (Mast is, to make it really short, similar to a court-martial -- you can be passed on to a court-martial after mast). SO...yes, sometimes you can get a signal. Yes, you can bring the phone on board. No, you are not allowed to call from the ship.

Is shipboard internet (regarding email) freely accessible or is it regulated?

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Heavily, heavily regulated. My husband can't access his webmail, myspace, etc. As far as ship's e-mail, you just have to assume everything is read by someone else, because it is. Always. When we planned my trip to Guam during the last deployment, we had to be WAY careful what we said in the e-mails, because he wasn't technically allowed to say where they would be and when. People have gotten in trouble for revealing where they are, where they're going, etc.

Hope that helps.

Histry Nerd said:

Good point, James. Of course, that doesn't mean the cameras are authorized--just that the chain of command either doesn't know (they have better things to do than search YouTube for videos) or turns a blind eye.

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They're allowed. Just not in certain places, of certain things, etc.

Histry Nerd said:

Off the top of my head, the reactor, magazine, Operations center, and hangar (if the ship carries aircraft) would probably be off limits.

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No, the hangar is ok.

As far as photos of damage, I would guess any damage to the ship would result in a lockdown of all but official comms channels (especially if sailors were injured or killed). Photos of the damage would be classified, so they would go through a secure channel to the ship's higher headquarters. The Navy would control (as much as it could) the release of any photographs to the media.

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E-mail would undoubtedly be shut down immediately. As slow as the military is, I highly doubt a sailor would have time to snap a pic, upload it, and e-mail it before communications were shut down. He would also need to have a damn good reason for doing it: sending pictures lke that would get him into a LOT of trouble, depending on the situation, especially if it's of damage to the ship or some such.

Perhaps one of our squids/former squids can enlighten us further.
HN, former grunt

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Will a squid's wife be sufficient?

thethinker42 said:

E-mail would undoubtedly be shut down immediately. As slow as the military is, I highly doubt a sailor would have time to snap a pic, upload it, and e-mail it before communications were shut down. He would also need to have a damn good reason for doing it: sending pictures lke that would get him into a LOT of trouble, depending on the situation, especially if it's of damage to the ship or some such.

Will a squid's wife be sufficient?

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Thanks, thinker. Sounds like the Navy does it a lot like we did it in Iraq--when we had somebody hurt, comms were blacked out immediately until the family could be notified. We could not shut down the unofficial channels the way they can shipboard, but we posted guards to keep soldiers from using them. Anybody caught breaking the blackout would be in big trouble.

I hope your squid--er, husband--comes home safely. We like to rib each other, but in the end we're all on the same team.

HN

Histry Nerd said:

Thanks, thinker. Sounds like the Navy does it a lot like we did it in Iraq--when we had somebody hurt, comms were blacked out immediately until the family could be notified. We could not shut down the unofficial channels the way they can shipboard, but we posted guards to keep soldiers from using them. Anybody caught breaking the blackout would be in big trouble.

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Yeah, same basic idea.

I hope your squid--er, husband--comes home safely. We like to rib each other, but in the end we're all on the same team.

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Thanks. And I call him a squid all the time. There's plenty of ribbing on his ship: it's a Gator Freighter, so lots of Marines as well as sailors. I'm a third generation Navy wife...believe me, I have heard ALL the jokes ribbing the different branches (every branch of the military is represented in my family...I'm sure you can imagine the sh!t-talking at family gatherings!!!)

I always like:
MARINE - My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment
ARMY - Aren't Ready for the Marines Yet
NAVY - Never Again Volunteer Yourself
Didn't really have one for the Air Force...just "Chair Force". LOL

I think the sotry about being close to shore fits Delarege's bill, unless the story requires you to be far out at sea.

See something, snap a pic on your phone, shoot it off, get a call back that your comm was intercepted but not prevented.

There are no more battleships in service in the US navy (or any for that matter). The last Iowa class battleships were used during Gulf War I, but decommissioned shortly after.

Delarege said:

I need some way to jumpstart the panic on the mainland.

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Hmmm - how about satellite intel losing track of the ships? Analyst leaks to press buddies in Washington?

You've got a toughy...

Delarege said:

I need some way to jumpstart the panic on the mainland.

(drumming fingers)

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Have someone on the bridge radio the beach; they're usually in constant communication with shore. You could also use satellite images, or a submarine that was in contact with the vessels in distress.

As someone else mentioned, battleships are no longer used. Destroyers and frigates are, as are various supply ships, etc.

If an aircraft carrier is involved, chances are there's a sub nearby. Carrier battle groups include one, if not two, submarines. Are the involved ships on a deployment or a training exercise?

As far as the mechanics of your scenario...the people on the ships are the only living souls that know what's up...that's easily 5000+ people (on the carrier alone) unless you've killed a LOT of them. Also, if it's the carrier that gets stuck, whatever manner of storm or disturbance got it stuck would probably do some wicked damage to a smaller ship. If the other ship is stuck, chances are the carrier can either a) contact the beach for help, or b) if all communications are down, they can sail back to shore.

Also, are you using a nuclear carrier (there are still a couple of non-nukes...the shitty kitty -- er, I mean, Kitty Hawk -- is being decommissioned soon, and I THINK the JFK is not a nuke, could be wrong)? You could use some sort of problem with the reactor -- a radiation leak, an explosion, whatever -- to expose a large portion (if not all) of the ship to dangerous levels of radiation, making rescue operations difficult. Anyway, just a thought.

That's enough thinking about potential ship catastrophes for me for one night...LOL...these kinds of things give me nightmares when he's at sea. LOL

Maybe they have a press crew on board for something? A press crew with a Sat Phone? Just a thought.

HN

Suggestion 1 - Use a destroyer or missile cruiser for your other vessel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga_class_cruiser

Suggestion 2 - I was thinking about your panic problem. What if the carrier had a few fighters up during the storm, one gets blown off course, crashes into near a civilan vessel? Still doesn't get pictures out, but it could be one piece of evidence...add in some garbled comm from the ships, loss of trans-oceanic communications (are hard cables still used?), and maybe a leak or two.

Delarege said:

Why are there no more battleships? I was sort of finding that out on my own. I kept hitting dead ends.

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Because of the rise of aircraft carriers and torpedoes. No matter the range of the gun on a battleship, an aircraft carrier can easily launch an aircraft out of the gun's range, arming the aircraft with some goodies that go boom to take out the battleships without the carrier itself ever be in danger.

Also, with the rise of torpedoes, lighter vessels can easily pack as much punch as a battleship, and being fast as well as smaller (harder to hit), render a battleship easy target.

Or so I've been told, staightleg ground-pounding grunt here.

When I was on a Tiger Cruise, 10 days on maneuvers as a civilian guest aboard a Nuclear Missile Cruiser, I could have cameras on deck and under supervision. I was not allowed to take pictures in the engine room, the command or operations rooms, steering or missile sections, 1996 if that makes a difference.

When I was aboard a Nuclear Sub, cameras were absolutely prohibited (1986).

Recently-retired Mustang

I just retired after 23 years in the Navy. I enlisted in 1984 and retired as an officer, what is called a "Mustang". Specifically, I was a Communications Officer, and I was also 30 miles east of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. I joined just to reply to this because a lot of the questions and answers show a basic misunderstanding of the Navy that would cause me to close your book in disgust after the first chapter.
The military are public servants, first and foremost. The first thing the Commanding Officer would do in response to a storm bad enough to damage a ship or endanger shore is to send messages to warn everyone. The ship's photographer would document it, and those pictures would be sent to the staff ashore immediately. The staff ashore would release those pictures to the news media within hours (1 or 2 if it's a bad storm) through their Public Affairs Officer.
When there is an incident, the Navy does secure unofficial communications, and please understand a Navy ship at sea is made of steel. Radio signals don't go through the hull or bulkheads so the degree of control by the Navy COMMO (Communications Officer) is much more extreme than in other services. When I tell the CO that comms are secured, they're down. There won't be a leak. Visitors or a news crew with a SAT phone would be escorted at all times, and they would not be allowed to use their phone (which they can only do from the weather decks) at all.
If someone is injured or killed, would you as a Navy wife want to hear about it from an email? Or worse, hear about it in the media before you even know about it?
But also understand the Navy does want good PR. Being the first to warn others about a danger is good PR. There would be little delay.

I could go on and on (e.g., one ship close enough to see another damaged but remain unharmed: no way!), but here's your best bet to "jumpstart the panic", in my opinion.
A Navy Strike Force (a collection of ships surrounding a carrier) gets a distress call from a merchant or private vessel. (The vessel lost power and were stranded in the path of the storm.) They immediately send jets followed by helicopters to investigate as they steam toward the area. The aircraft take pictures, and the carrier sends it ashore to COMPACFLT. At the same time, the ship's CO would automatically send a message to warn all military and civilian ships and aircraft of the storm.
COMPACFLT notifies the Secretary fo Defense and then COMPACFLT's PAO releases the pictures and details to the media.

What kind of storm is this? It must be a freak storm because the first warning would be from the civilian media anyway.

Is that helpful? Anything else I can do for you?

Welcome to the retired ranks, Mustang! The water's fine & the pay is good...!

And Lori, a squid's wife is a blessing to the world - hang in there (my mother was a Navy wife for 23 years)

Kate (CW3 USA ret.)

Kate Thornton said:

And Lori, a squid's wife is a blessing to the world - hang in there (my mother was a Navy wife for 23 years)

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Awww, thanks!

I'm a 3rd gen Navy wife...5th gen military wife...I guess some of us don't learn from the mistakes of others... (kidding! kidding!)