Since we’ll never be able to read the full report we are left in the dark as to what they should have been doing/not doing given the parameters they were working with or if this was just a case of you hit something so it’s your fault whether you could see it or not. I wish politicians, high level bureaucrats and political appointees were all under the same rules; this got screwed up, so, goodbye!
I see the report is out now and as usual, the navy has a long list of people to blame and has carried out the sackings and humiliations and has absolved itself of any responsibility for what seems to be an accident.
Should the navy not take a leaf out of aircraft accident investigations and find the cause but ease up a bit on the hangings and public flogging to “encourage the others” as has been done for all time?
As someone who once also hit an uncharted rock and suffered the retributive consequences (no fault was found in my navigation - just minor unrelated trivia sufficient to justify being issued a punishment) I feel for those aboard the submarine who failed to see a rock unknown until then.
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Let’s all remember a proverb that was ancient when I was enlisted (1960’s) -" there is the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy Way." Well, they are doing things the Navy way, with the usual expected results.
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As much as it grieves me to agree with the Navy in this kind of thing, the whole management team appears too have gone out of its way to put the boat in a bad area while ignoring all the red flags. If this were an aircraft accident it would be labeled “controlled flight into terrain” while not following procedures.
The problem with being 70+ years old, a 1970’s destroyer man, and a Naval History buff, is one remembers things like the GREENVILLE grounding in Guam [ignorance of buoy system at Guam], SAN FRANCISCO plowing into a seamount, and now this! ! Same command & control problems in all three; same command & control problems in surface fleet. Apparently that is the NEW NAVY’s culture! Both submariners and skimmers [McCAIN & FITZGERALD].
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From the article: “In the year leading up to the casualty, the sub’s commander had been cited twice and investigated once for allegedly poor performance, to include “inadequate supervisory oversight, ineffective accountability practices, and superficial self-assessment,” as well as “lack of improvement and reluctance to accept feedback.”
It is a pretty sad commentary if they Navy is so short of people qualified for sub command that this guy could not have been fired and replaced long ago.
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These photos of rusted ships are indicative of the navy’ downward spiral. This was unthinkable at the time of your service in the tin cans.
The money not allocated to support maintenance is likely spent greasing the palms of the “Admiral/mega contractor/retirement gig” supply chain gang. They are adept at peddling wonder weapons of dubious quality that are too expensive to maintain.
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Having clicked the article in Task & Purpose, and looking at the picture of the Chris Cavas tweet pictures of DDG-51, taken in December, I kinda feel like we have to give them a pass. . . It was, after all, winter. And I don’t think one can do surface preparation and epoxy painting when the temps are too low. And the Black Sea area is indeed cold. And rough. And if the ship was at condition 2, there just ins’t a lot of energy for “routine maintenance” between GQ drills, and UNREPS, and FLT QTRS.
My tin can days were in much warmer climates!! LOL
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That Task & Purpose article isn’t an explanation as to why. It’s a political ‘hat-n-hand’ job pretending to be an explanation. We know the reason those ships are rusty has less to do with crushing operation tempo. It’s environmental concerns, safety (man-over-the-side), the “liberty as a mission” and crew moral/ manpower.
I agree that the article’s focus on op tempo is an oversimplification. Does appearance reflect morale and combat readiness? I suppose that’s up for debate but I have to say I’ve never seen the US fleet rival the sloppy appearance of the Russian fleet to the extent it does now.
This recent gCaptain piece is more comprehensive and I agree with its premise that systemic issues are the actual factors.
If the US Navy had used the money wasted on the LCS fiasco for ship maintenance they would shine like yachts. But of course the big bucks to made are in new shiny things not maintaining. Perhaps there is a method to this madness. Poor maintenance eventually leads to poor availability for ‘missions’ so…design and build new ships! More money for contractors,lobbyists, congressmen, retired navy captains and admirals. Win, win, win
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Taxpayer and poorly trained sailors, lose, lose, lose.
Face up to it folks, campaign funding, corruption, and mentally ill political “influencers” have metastasized a cancer that is destroying American society.
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Yes, WHY give command to an officer with so many “red gigs?”
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Should the navy not take a leaf out of aircraft accident investigations and find the cause but ease up a bit on the hangings and public flogging to “encourage the others” as has been done for all time?
Are you seriously suggesting that nukes give up public flogging? That’s their elixir of life.
I agree that leaving him in command was odd. Then again they hit an uncharted mount. The careerist political officers then and only then took action and only to cover their own rear ends. The sackings should have gone all the way up the line, but as usual did not, and that is the true crime.
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