Telstar Logistics

Radioactive Hulk of Aircraft Carrier USS Independence Located Off San Francisco Coast

Sixty years after it was scuttled off the coast of San Francisco, the bomb-scarred, radioactive hulk of the World War II-era aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) has been located on the seafloor near the Farallon Islands.

NOAA, working with private industry partners and the U.S. Navy, has confirmed the location and condition of the USS Independence, the lead ship of its class of light aircraft carriers that were critical during the American naval offensive in the Pacific during World War II. 

Resting in 2,600 feet of water off California's Farallon Islands, the carrier is "amazingly intact," said NOAA scientists, with its hull and flight deck clearly visible, and what appears to be a plane in the carrier's hangar bay.

Independence (CVL 22) operated in the central and western Pacific from November 1943 through August 1945 and later was one of more than 90 vessels assembled as a target fleet for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in 1946. Damaged by shock waves, heat and radiation, Independence survived the Bikini Atoll tests and, like dozens of other Operation Crossroads ships, returned to the United States. 

While moored at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Independence was the primary focus of the Navy's studies on decontamination until age and the possibility of its sinking led the Navy to tow the blast-damaged carrier to sea for scuttling on Jan. 26, 1951.

This is a remarkable and fascinating discovery, because it's no exaggeration so say that the nuclear history of San Francisco and the USS Independence have long been intimately connected — and remain so to this day.

San Francisco is still grappling with the complex and messy task of cleaning up radioactive contamination at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, in no small part because of the massive (and massively unsuccessful) effort undertaken there to try and decontaminate USS Independence after the Operation Crossroads detonations. 

Independence was originally laid down as a cruiser, but during construction it was converted into a light aircraft carrier as an emergency wartime measure. Light carriers had short flight decks, and they were mostly used to transport aircraft between ports, but Independence saw combat too, sustaining torpedo damage at Tarawa in 1943. In January 1944, the ship came to Hunter’s Point for repairs.

Here's how Independence looked when it was moored near Hunter's Point in 1944:

After the war, Independence was sent to Bikini, where it became a target for the Operation Crossroads nuclear detonation experiments:

A fleet of 95 target vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon. At the center of the target cluster, the density was 20 ships per square mile (7.7 per km²), three to five times greater than military doctrine would allow. The stated goal was not to duplicate a realistic anchorage, but to measure damage as a function of distance from the blast center, at as many different distances as possible.[34] The arrangement also reflected the outcome of the Army/Navy disagreement about how many ships should be allowed to sink.

The target fleet included four obsolete U.S. battleships, two aircraft carriers, two cruisers, eleven destroyers, eight submarines, numerous auxiliary and amphibious vessels, and three surrendered German and Japanese ships. The ships carried sample amounts of fuel and ammunition, plus scientific instruments to measure air pressure, ship movement, and radiation.

Although heavily damaged by the force of the the 1946 atomic tests, Independence survived the blasts at Bikini. Here's how the ship looked while still smoldering in the immediate aftermath:

A closeup look at the blast damage to her stern (notice the two sailors on board the ship at the far right):

After Operation Crossroads, Independence and several other surviving ships were towed to San Francisco. These were the very early years of nuclear weaponry, so the goal was to investigate techniques that could be used to decontaminate navy ships after a possible nuclear conflict. 

Here's how Independence looked when it was tied up at Hunter's Point, beneath the massive crane that remains a prominent local landmark today:

Much of the effort focused on the use of sandblasting techniques to decontaminate the major components of exposed ships.

By and large, this effort was deemed a failure. However, the Navy generated significant amounts of contaminated sand along the way, and much of this sand was collected and stored on metal barrels. In turn, many of those barrels were loaded onto the hulk of the Independence, which effectively turned the battered ship into a floating nuclear waste repository.

Writing for SF Weekly in 2001, Lisa Davis compiled a definitive history of the nuclear decontamination efforts at Hunters Point:

At some point, [National Radiological Defense Laboratory] scientists determined that there was no hope of ever cleaning up the Independence, and began to use the mighty ship as a floating laboratory. The theory behind this plan was elegantly simple: Because the ship was already contaminated and scheduled for disposal, it was the perfect place for high-level radiation experiments and storage. "Large quantities of fresh fission products were introduced on board and drained into empty tanks for stowage," one memo from the time says. Correspondence between shipyard personnel also shows that samples (including sea life and plants) from Operation Crossroads were moved on board the Independence. Finally, in January 1951, the mighty Independence -- apparently full of nuclear waste -- was towed underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and sunk at sea, apparently near the Farallon Islands.

Here are some of the last photos of the Independence ever taken (until now). In January 1951, loaded with its radioactive cargo, Independence was towed out to a point near the Farallons for use as a gunnery target:

The ship took a few direct hits:

And then, it keeled over and sank:

This map identifies where the wreck of the Independence was just found:

 And here's a sonar detail of the wreck:

 PHOTOS: Historical photos of USS Independence via Navsource.org. Hat tip to Jeremy Crandell

Purgatory Station: Inside San Francisco's Vintage Streetcar Boneyard

Recently, Telstar Logistics had an opportunity to take an authorized tour of the San Francisco Municipal Railway's Marin Division yard, thanks to our friends at Market Street Railway. 

The Marin Division Yard is home to San Francisco's derelict streetcar storage facility — a kind of purgatory for old streetcars as they await either restoration or piecemeal destruction as parts-donors for the active streetcars in Muni's thriving vintage streetcar fleet.

Most of the old streetcars here are streamlined PCCs built roughly between 1940 and 1952. Some survive as spooky time capsules of the day when they were removed from service:

Much of the original signage remains:

There's a PCC from Philadelphia here, looking just as it did when San Francisco snatched it up as surplus from Septa, Philly's mass-transit agency:

Some of the old PCCs were left exposed to the elements — and vandals — for years until they finally found refuge inside the boneyard fence. They're now painted blue, but the scars from those feral years are still clear to see:

There's a even retired California Street cable car parked among the hulks:

 

There's also a streetcar from Hamburg, Germany. After retirement in Hamburg, it was imported to the United States and operated in San Francisco during a series of Trolley Festivals held during the 1980s. Now, after years of inactivity, it awaits rehabilitation:

The good news is that as hopeless as some of these old streetcars seem, they are stored here because they remain valuable. Many will enjoy better days again — eventually. Consider this rather grim photo of ex-Muni PCC streetcar No. 1040, as it looked in 2009:

Shortly after that photo was taken, 1040 was fully rebuilt and restored. And here's how streetcar No. 1040 looks now:

Good as new.

Until Restoration Day comes, then, here's a photoset of streetcar survivors preserved at Muni's Marin Division yard. PRO TIP: Embigged to fullscreen.

PHOTOS: All photos by Telstar Logistics, except restored exterior of streetcar 1040,, by Kevin Mueller.

Telstar Logistics Races Battered Volvo During Ridiculously Wet 24 Hours of LeMons

We took to the track last weekend. The automotive circus came to town, in the form of a 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race at Infinion Raceway just north of San Francisco. LeMons (Pro Tip: It's pronounced "lemons") is the nationwide auto racing series for crappy race cars that cost $500 or less. It's car racing for hackers, basically, in a spectacle of self-parody that's equal parts Burning Man, NASCAR, and Click and Clack.

Telstar Logistics participated as part of Bernal Dads Racing, a LeMons team from the neighborhood where our Global Headquarters is located. The Bernal Dads foolishly put us in a driving suit, then strapped us in the driver's seat of "The Whale," No. 245, the team's battle-scarred1984 Volvo 240 station wagon.

Don't let the appearance fool you though. The Whale is kind of like the Millennium Falcon; It may not look like much, but its got it where it counts. Sure, the body has taken a lot of hits during its impossibly long LeMons career. But after so many races and so much tinkering, "the car is properly sorted," as one Bernal Dad put it. 

I drove The Whale during a driving rain that soaked the racetrack so thoroughly that many of the 170 cars on the track took turns spinning off helplessly into the grass while trying to navigate the curves. But The Whale was in its element. It tracked firmly in the wet, revved-up enthusiastically on the straights, and braked reliably when diving into corners. The fun began after we spent a few laps getting to know the feel of the car. After that, there was rubbin', and there was racin', and it was a blast.

The next day, when the checkered flag fell the end of the weekend, The Whale had finished fourth in B Class, and 19th overall. Not too shabby!

The winner in A Class (least-crappy) was Team Cerveza, driving a Dos Equis-themed BMW that they dubbed "The Most Interesting Car in the World." The car was emblazoned with fake quotes written in the voice of the brand's Most Interesting Man in the World advertisements. (eg. "If it ran you off the road, you would thank it.")

But the really interesting part appears on the car's backside. "FREE BEER, my friends," it says, with a beer tap mounted on the trunk lid. After Saturday night's race, Team Cerveza pushed their car around the paddock, dispensing free beer via the tap from a keg they installed in the trunk. Interesting!

When Telstar Logistics wasn't driving, we were taking pictures. Here are a lot more:

PHOTOS: Telstar Logtistics

A Remake of "The Road Warrior"... on Bicycles

San Francsco's Cyclecide has released "The Loaded Warrior," a clever remake of The Road Warrior:

A remake of the greatest action movie ever, The Road Warrior, A.K.A. Mad Max 2. San Francisco's Cyclecide replaces cars with bikes and gas with beer. A film by Jay Broemmel, Taylor Fitzgerald, and Steven Bellesiles. Warning: contains violence, nudity, drunkenness, & exploding Pomeranians.

San Francisco Orders New “Super Pumper” Fireboat

San Francisco is preparing to order a handsome new "super-pumper" fireboat, and if The Big One ever strikes, the new boat is likely to play a starring role in saving the city from unspeakable destruction.

The salty dogs at gCaptain carry the details:

Seattle-based Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc.announced today they have been chosen to design a custom “super pumper” fireboat for the City of San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) that will enhance the departments marine fire fighting and response capabilities on water.

This high-volume water and foam pumping NFPA Type II fireboat will feature six fire monitors and 26 manifold valves, allowing for more than 16,000 gallons of water and/or fire-fighting foam per minute to be thrown from a distance of 300 feet to extinguish flames quickly and safely.  Typically NFPA Type II fireboats are equipped with four fire monitors and eight manifold valves, and can pump 10,000 gallons per minute.

The availability of so many monitors and valves means that the fireboat will be equipped to provide water directly from the bay or ocean should shoreside fire mains be damaged by an earthquake.

Meeting NFPA standards, Jensen will design the boat primarily for high-volume water pumping, firefighting, rescue, emergency medical service and patrol in the waters of San Francisco and San Pablo Bay’s and the Pacific Ocean within five miles of shore and the adjoining inland waterways.

If all goes as planned, the new fireboat will arrive in San Francisco in 2013. In the meantime, the city's existing fireboat fleet stands ready.

PHOTO: Jensen Maritime Consultants

 

 

It's a Hemi: Meet the Army's Badass Backhoe

While on a recent survey of the industrial waterfront in Oakland, California, Telstar Logistics spied a most unusual vehicle: A heavily armored backhoe strapped to an open-sided shipping container.

Moving in for a closer look, we observed that the vehicle was built in an unusual configuration, with four equally sized wheels on each corner. "It wants to go fast," we theorized.

Upon returning to headquarters, our reasearchers quickly identified the odd vehicle as a High Mobility Engineer Excavator, or HMEE. (The troops call it a "Hemi.")  Built by JCB and first fielded in 2009, the HMEE was designed to provide military engineers with a piece of front-line construction equipment that can keep up with fast-moving convoys of Stryker armored fighting vehicles. Toward that end, the HMEE has a backhoe. It has a front-end loader. It has an armored, air-conditioned cabin. it has four-wheel steering, and it goes 60 mph on paved roads. In other words: It hauls earth and it hauls ass: 

The JCB HMEE-I is designed for excavating, earthmoving and loading. Its heavy-duty backhoe loader can self-deploy at speeds of up to 60mph and is designed for blast and ballistic protection. The vehicle is ROPS (rollover protective system) and FOPS (falling object protective structure) approved, and extra plates of appliqué armour can be fitted to the cab. It also has a blackout facility for night operations.

Here's a clean photo of a HMEE in action:

This promotional video from the manufacturer shows what the HMEE can do.

Impressive!

And here's a video that shows a HMEE deployed to Afghanistan:

 

Lastly, this photo provides a reminder that HMEEs are required to work on some very unforgiving jobsites:

Here's what happened:

The Army's new High Mobility Engineer Excavator saved the life of a Soldier in Iraq May 29, [2009], when an anti-tank mine exploded as he was digging a culvert trench near South Balad Ruz.

The device exploded and immobilized the Army's replacement to the Small Emplacement Excavator, the HMEE. Sgt. Adam Smith Jr., 9th Engineer Battalion, 172nd Infantry Brigade, walked away from the wreckage.

"I'm thankful I was in the HMEE and not the SEE," Smith said.

"I am extremely happy with the blast protection offered by the HMEE; it saved my Soldier's life," said Capt. Andrew Maxa, Company B, 9th Engineer Battalion commander.

PHOTOS: Top, Telstar Logistics. Below, US Army.

Metaphor Alert: Sun Sets Over the California Highway Patrol's Fleet of Ford Crown Victorias

As you may have heard, Ford has ended production of the venerable Crown Victoria, the mainstay vehicle of American police and taxi fleets for decades.

The Crown Vic assembly line shut down last September, so we found ourselves wondering: What will replace the Crown Victoria in the California Highway Patrol's fleet? Hoping to find an answer, we dropped by the CHP's Fleet Operations facility in West Sacramento, California last weekend, hoping to see what the CHP has purchased now that the Crown Vic is no more.

On one level, our visit was a failure: Instead of finding the CHP's replacement vehicle -- the Interwebs say the Dodge Charger is a likely candidate -- we instead discovered that the CHP is hoarding hundreds of Crown Victorias for future use. (Notice that the ones in the background still have the manufacturer's inventory stickers displayed on the windows.)

 

But as metaphor, the trip was a stunning success. We happened to arrive in West Sacramento at dusk, just as a firey sunset was exploding in the sky behind the CHP's motor pool parking lot. It was oddly beautiful.

 There are still be plenty of Crown Vics on hand at the California Highway Patrol. But no more are coming, and the demise of the type is now a question of when and not if. Sunset, indeed.

 

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Navy Plans to Scrap Sea Shadow Stealth Warship

Since no one seems to want to take the thing, the US Navy has announced plans to scrap its Sea Shadow stealth warship prototype, which was built during the 1980s. Until recently the ship was in mothballs at Suisun Bay, near San Francisco, but its future now looks bleak:

Navy spokesman Chris Johnson told FoxNews.com the ship's fate is all but sealed: To the junk heap it will go.

"The next disposition is dismantling and recycling," he said.

Johnson said that from 2006 until this year, the Navy made the Sea Shadow available for donation. "While several letters of interest were received, only one organization submitted an application, which was determined to be non-viable,” he said.

The ship is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the stealth ship in the 1997 James Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies." Johnson said he couldn't give a time frame for its actual demise, but he said the decision is based on the lack of interest from any viable taker. “A ship that pristine is too expensive,” Johnson said. 

The Sea Shadow, made in secrecy, stored in secrecy and constructed for secrecy, once cost the United States Navy $195 million to build and operate. 

Completed in 1985 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Lockheed Martin, it was the Navy’s first experimental stealth ship. The Sea Shadow is 160 feet long and 70 fee wide, has a maximum speed of 14 knots and has the ability to operate in Sea State 5 conditions, or winds from 17 to 21 knots. But it was never intended for missions, just for testing.  

“The craft was built to examine application of stealth technology on naval missiles,” Johnson said.

Hat Tip: SF Citizen

 

 

Ridiculously Cool New Map Shows Live Location of San Francisco's Vintage Streetcar Fleet

This is geeky, but for San Franciscans or visiting tourists, it's also way cool. There is a new, live data feed available via San Francisco's NextBus and Market Street Railway that offers a realtime visualization of which vintage streetcars are operating on the F Line, and where exactly they are along the route. 

The map is even animated, so it's basically like having a dashboard for San Francisco's vintage streetcar fleet. In fact, here's a photo of the new map in actual use inside the Telstar Logistics Mission Control facility:

For normal civilians, the new map means if you want to go streetcar-spotting (it happens), you can efficiently collect the whole set. Even better, the map works like a charm on the iPhone. Bookmark!

Harried parents will love it when their precocious children say, "But, but... I want to ride on a GREEN ONE!!"  (Been there.) Railfans will know if they can hop on one of the rare super-bonus streetcars, and where they'll want to be when to make that happen.

Check out the map! (NextBus)

Check out the current in-service fleet! (Market Street Railway)

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Evil, Embittered AMC Autos Menace the Innocent in Pixar's "Cars 2"

By the end of summer you will no doubt be sick of hearing about these two. Until then, however, we were amused to learn that the thugs in Pixar's upcoming "Cars 2" are both American Motors vehicles from the unfortunate 1970s. Ridiculed as failures, the duo are part of an evil Axis of Lemons.

Telstar Logistics Senior Automotive Analyst Phil Patton brings the details in the New York Times:

Early screenings of “Cars 2,” the sequel to the 2006 Pixar film, opening nationwide on June 24, suggest the truism holds for CGI-variety baddies, too. Upstaging the Owen Wildon-voiced hero car, Lightning McQueen, are the new miscreants, Professor Z and his flunkies — two American Motors-inspired sidekicks, a Pacer with bad attitude and a Gremlin who could hail from the Kremlin.

Grem is a beat-up orange AMC Gremlin, which Pixar said in a news release “has a big chip on his fender that has led him to the underworld of international espionage.” His partner Acer, an AMC Pacer, “joined forces with fellow ‘lemon’ cars as henchmen for the devious Professor Z.”

Funny coincidence: Telstar Logistics was oogling an AMC Gremlin survivor we spotted recently in San Francisco. In case you're wondering how a showroom-stock Gremlin looks after soldiering on for three decades, wonder no more. It ain't pretty:

A NASCAR-Style Preview of Coming Attractions at the 2013 America's Cup

The 34th America's Cup will be held on San Francisco Bay in 2013. It will be a grand spectacle, and Team Oracle has been promoting the event out on the water -- in the heavy winds that have buffeted the Bay Area in recent days. But yesterday, their show-off cruise took a NASCAR turn:

A 45-foot catamaran owned by Oracle Racing capsized Monday afternoon during a practice race in San Francisco Bay, injuring a crew member.

The crew member, Shannon Falcone, fell through the boat’s sail. He did not appear to be seriously injured.

The accident happened during an event promoting the America's Cup Races, which are being held in San Francisco. The two boats on display today were running practice races at the Golden Gate Yacht Club. The vessels, both owned by Oracle Racing, will be used in the first two seasons of the America’s Cup World Series.

The boat tipped over before the practice race even began as the vessels jockeyed for position, sources said.

Accidents are not uncommon in boat racing. In March, Craig Thompson, CEO of the America’s Cup Event Authority, even boasted that the high-speed action would make for good TV.

“It’s dangerous, and television is going to love it,” Thompson said. “These guys are getting catapulted into the air, big time.”

Indeed! Here's the video:

Goodyear Blimp Crashes in Germany, Heroic Pilot Killed

This is so unfortunate. A Goodyear blimp caught fire and crashed in Germany on Sunday, killing the pilot.

From the Cleveland Plains Dealer:

The German newspaper Spiegel reports that the blimp was about to land at an airfield in Reichelsheim in western Germany when fire broke out in both engines.

The blimp was about 6 feet above the ground when the pilot told his passengers, all journalists, to jump to the ground while he tried to land safely. The blimp, part of an advertising campaign for the Goodyear tire company,was returning from an appearance at a local music festival, and the journalists had been taking aerial photographs.

The Daily Mail reports that as soon as the passengers jumped to safety, the pilot, an Australian, took the airship rapidly to a height of around 150 feet, making it impossible for the pilot to escape, eyewitnesses said.

Here is the video:

 

Look at the Amazing Habitat for Humans We Built in Outer Space

Sorry for the recent spate of NASA-related items, but with the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, we really should enjoy all this while we still can.

In that vein, NASA has released a superb video that affords an amazing, up-close perspective on the amazing, improbable structure that our species built to serve as a semi-permanent habitat in outer space. The footage was captured a team of astronauts as they undocked from the International Space Station on May 23, and  one commenter on NASA's website put it, "Kubrick would have been proud."

So true! Of course, on some level, we'd expected the whole shebang to look a bit more like this:

Nevertheless, the detail on the real thing is mighty impressive. Let's zoom in (click to embiggen):

Serious wow.

So let's not quibble about the visual aesthetics. Here and now, NASA's wonderful original video did not include a soundtrack, so Telstar Logistics remixed it with the appropriately Kubric-esque "Blue Danube" and uploaded the whole thing to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. 

Nicely done, humans.

PHOTO: NASA

Mexican Drug Cartels Building DIY Armored Vehicles

The militarization of Mexico's criminal cartels continues, as authorities have seized an increasing number of home-built -- and sophisticated -- armored vehicles.

From today's New York Times:

MEXICO CITY — Rhino trucks, narco tanks, Mad Mex-inismos? No one can agree on what to call the armored monster vehicles that Mexican criminal groups have been welding together in recent months, but this much is clear — they are building more of them.

Over the weekend, Mexican authorities found two more of these makeshift road warriors in Tamaulipas, the same northern border state where the first armored vehicle appeared in April after a battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas gang. In the latest case, the Mexican Defense Department said, the armored trucks were found in a metalworking shop in Camargo, which also held at least two other partly modified monsters and 23 additional trucks.

The completed versions were bigger than what has been found before. Built on three-axle truck beds, they had room for 20 armed men, one official said. They were covered with inch-thick steel, which could withstand 50-caliber fire, and each had been equipped with insulation.

Here's a modified Ford F-350 that was captured in May:

And another:

Aaaaand yet another:

Video: First Air France A380 Arrives at SFO

Air France began Airbus A380 service to San Francisco International Airport yesterday, joining Lufthansa, which inaugurated SFO's first regularly scheduled A380 service a few weeks ago. 

Here's a good video of yesterday's Air France arrival, including a runway-side view of the landing and the airport's celebratory fire truck waterworks display. Apologies for the musical soundtrack... it's not our fault.