My gCaptain editorial on the USS Fitzgerald sparked a firestorm of both negative comments (mostly from US Navy officers) and praise (mostly from mariners and journalists)… making it THE single most controversial article I’ve ever written. Here is my official response: Why The USS Fitzgerald Is At F…

[image] ombugge: What is the purpose of spending millions of taxpayers money on making warships stealthy if they " in NO way shape or form are hard to see on RADAR"?? Defense contractors need to feed their children too, you know. They also need to keep funneling our tax money to the politicia…

[image] ombugge: What is the purpose of spending millions of taxpayers money on making warships stealthy if they " in NO way shape or form are hard to see on RADAR"?? The point? Seriously? One reasonable assumption would be standard, run-of-the-mill defense contractor fraud. Historically, pl…

[image] captjacksparrow: And sometimes things are honestly done with the best of intentions but the technology just doesn’t work, or ultimately works but much less effectively than was initially hoped/thought to be the case. There is a tendency to have blind or excessive faith in fancy new dazz…

Ok I guess you guys have your wooden spoon out and are doing some more stirring of the hornets nest. fine and dandy. A Quote from an editorial. “You do not lash out, and you do not become defensive. You stand tall, accept the facts and drive on. So much protesting from the Navy, and maybe from th…

[image] Steamer: I wrote off the Navy completely after they adapted the “you are all special” thing and handed out what look like wings or dolphins to any and every skimmer. Shipmate, dolphins and wings are not the same thing and I can’t imagine a skimmer having dolphins (skimmer is the derog…

[image] BK05: While anyone on the ship can earn it, it takes most close to a year to earn them. The program is run by the Chiefs Mess and they make the enlisted memorize a large amount of facts about every single area of operations on the ship, and then have a board with the entire Chiefs Mess. …

What part of “what look like wings or dolphins” was confusing? Look like, as in appear to be or might be confused by appearance to be something they are not is the meaning of that phrase. As one who is looking at a small framed display of both my well earned gold wings and silver dolphins I can sa…

[image] Uricanejack: Based on precisely what? Based off of forum posts and interviews with Marines and naval officers and mariners who where naval officers and harbor pilots who are civilian mariners that work on both civilian and navy ships. Bases off documents the navy has published and rep…

[image] Steamer: As one who is looking at a small framed display of both my well earned gold wings and silver dolphins I can say that Ah, ok. I misunderstood your post. So you are a fellow submariner! Nice. :slight_smile: Respect, shipmate. :slight_smile: Not that I can’t or don’t respect s…

Excellent descriptions of merchant and naval bridge watch keeping. Thank you.

USS Fitzgerald Editorial - gCaptain has stirred the hornets nest - #163 by KPChief - Marine Incidents

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