Old Milwaukee

There are so many things to say about this CNN story:

The 388-foot, 3,400-ton [USS Milwaukee, one of the U.S. Navy's newest littoral combat ships] broke down in the Atlantic Ocean on December 10, less than a month after it was commissioned. The ship had to be towed 40 miles to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia. 

The Navy said at the time that metallic debris was found in filter systems in the ship, causing a loss of pressure in lubricant to gears that transfer power from the ship's diesel and gas turbine engines to its water jet propulsion system. 

...The Milwaukee "is designed to operate with gas turbine and diesel engines, which can operate in tandem or independently," Navy Lt. Rebecca Haggard said. "In the case of Milwaukee, when switching from one system to the other, a clutch failed to disengage as designed. Instead, the clutch remained spinning and some of the clutch gears were damaged."

So now that this story is in the news, I can proudly say "it's the clutch that made Milwaukee famous".

Pun intended.