That was some excellent information!

SynapticJam on Toast - hhhmmm... tastes like chicken (aka PUVJK) #3 in crack hits (Special?  Ain't I just)

S.H.I.T. Award Recipient and all-around uberjunkie! 

does anyone know how fast and how much weight one of the USCgaurd helicopters can fly with?

The Irishman from Ohio

Here is a link to a CBC story that should help you FDO.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/03/15/coastguard-060315.html

The Irishman from Ohio

So when a 1 in a billion event happens there is going to be a  prototype warship just around the corner? I love Scotts writing and would never question his knowledge and experience in writing a book but doesn't that seem overly convenient? Like I said at the start sorry if I offend by questioning this little plot point, but it reminds me of a Crichton scenario.

Neverless, I cant wait to read it!

Festina Lente (Make Haste Slowly)

Dark Knight Marine General

Jayguana

Saaa-Lute!

Why yes, apples. How did you know? [flickr-photo:id=4347154616] Pusher and member of the Gutter Sistren

i wouldn't worry about plausability.

warships are in the water and ready prior to Jians call because:

1. west to east winds have polluted at least lake huron. the ships are useing some radiation scrubbing tech to clean the water

2. there are also patrols to keep civilions off lakes untill decontamination acheived

3. many suspect terrorsts for detriot. military presence in michigan is gonna be heavy

 reason for a strong milatary presence in the Great Lake region after the demise of DEEEEETROIT. So I don't think there would be any kind of conflict for a "special" navy vessel to be on the waters of the lakes. You got my vote, and I can't wait to read Decendant. More please....

Wolfpack quarterback.....Richno3.......out

I don't know what island our FDO based "Black Manitou Island" on, but I checked a map of Lake Superior and there's 

an island that looks a lot like Black Manitou, but it's called Isle Royale. Isle Royale is U.S. soil, and the ferries that go 

out to her come from the American side, but geographically the island is closest to Canada.

What I'm wondering about is this. If the ancestors cross over the ice over to Canada, the U.S. military can't just go over 

there unless they have permission from the Canadian government. Will this play a factor in Descendant, or will the action 

take place in the Upper Peninsula?

Well, this may be way too late for you, but I thought I would throw it up here anyway since I haven't seen or heard anything regarding Descendant in a while.  For what it's worth...

I served on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 right after it was commissioned.  The ship had just undergone Sea Trials and I was onboard during Shock Trials.  Sea Trials would have the ship's full contingent of men on board along with civilian engineers as did Shock Trials.  The crew itself would consist of seasoned vets along with any new crew assigned to the ship, but no cadets of any kind.  At least from my experience.  Cadets only came on board during the summer as a type of internship.

Shock Trials for my ship were conducted in the Atlantic off the coast of Cuba somewhere.  Shock Trials consist of three "shots" or explosive charges set off in the water.  Each being closer to the ship with the third being the closest.  Civilian engineers have equipment everywhere monitoring the impact to the ship with each shot.  It's purpose is to see what damage is sustained in a "near miss" scenario.  We had a raffle for the last shot and the winner got to actually detonate the explosives.  Picture of the third shot is here:  http://www.zazzle.com/uss_theodore_roosevelt_cvn_71_poster-228839774610080892

As you can see in the picture, no aircraft were on board at the time.  We were in full battle stations during each shot.  This means we were in condition Zebra.  Condition Zebra means every door, or "hatch" if you will, is to be shut and locked down.  The idea being if the hull is breached for any reason the water would only be able to fill up the compartments immediately exposed to the breach as all X-Ray, Yoke, and Zebra doors are water tight when closed. 

If I remember correctly, the shots were done over about a 6 week period with about 2 weeks in between each shot for the engineers to study the data they gathered.  I also remember Jean Dixon predicting the TR would break apart on the third shot and sink. 

To answer your other questions:  No arms would have been on board at the time.  Should something go wrong during either trial, you certainly don't want armament getting mixed into the fray.  Plus, you wouldn't want to lose any of your bombs and missiles should something really go wrong.  That could easily be millions of dollars lost, then think about the cost of trying to recover all of that from the bottom of the sea or in your case a lake.  To see how armament can complicate matters, just Google the fire on the USS Forrestall when a missile somehow fired while planes were parked on the flight deck.  A chain reaction took place as plane after plane blew up along with any armament on them, a lot of people died that day.  Video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chuiyXQKw3I

You know what might be cool for your book though would be to arm the USS Freedom with what the US Navy is really wanting to put on their ships - Rail Guns.  See the article here:  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/10/navy-railgun-shoots-bullets-electromagnet/  Heck, if you're going to take down some unknown biological freak of nature, you might as well blow it up real good!!