At the beginning and end of these collisions stands a clueless officer of the deck. There is no excuse for being run into by a merchant when you are driving a Burke class DDG. It's like being run into by a combine on a 27 lane freeway when you are driving a Ferrari. Into his hands are entrusted all the powers he needs. He can order the ship to go faster or to go slower or to do an emergency crash back. He can turn right and he can turn left. Beyond those choices nothing is needed to avoid colliding with lumbering oafs of merchants, however carelessly, recklessly or negligently navigated.
Obviously one needs to look at the training of our officers. One will discover incredible amounts of time on equal opportunity, and safety administration (are low overheads marked with signs at the appropriate height and in the designated color and letter sizes). Obviously they are deficient in the most important skills of all, doing their job driving a warship.
Exactly!
Who needs the conspiracies?
Conspiracies are ridiculous when we only must understand reports all along have been true.
Our military was halted. Training and function was decimated.
There is a price to pay for that, regardless of high tech and extraordinary equipment.
>>>At the beginning and end of these collisions stands a clueless officer of the deck. There is no excuse for being run into by a merchant when you are driving a Burke class DDG. It’s like being run into by a combine on a 27 lane freeway when you are driving a Ferrari.<<<
Exactly.
Don’t know the Navy that well.
Know about the OOD. but is there also a “CPO of the Watch?” If not, that might be a good idea.
In ‘nam, we ALWAYS has a mid-experience to senior NCO with all officers, especially the young ones. As a 2LT, I was told by the Lt. Colonel that for the first 30 days I was “Sergeant First Class Williams’s messenger boy!”
As a young Captain, even in Base Camp, I would drink a lot of water (well, usually water) at night to ensure I would wake up a few times to pee, and also check the guard mount on the berm/perimeter.
I had ordered that the First Sergeant, XO and I were never to be within 10 meters of each other during a tactical situation or at night, so one mortar or rocket could never take out all of us, but when I would go out to check the guard mount, some how, “magically”, SFC Browne, the #2 NCO in the unit, would always appear beside me after about 30 seconds.
Just by watching his facial expressions, I could see if my decisions were headed in the right direction.
Williams and Browne; Two great soldiers. RIP.
It is called seamanship 101!
FOX had an interview with a navy type who said ‘the current level of training is no where near as intense as it used to be’ ...
Maybe: New guys need to be coddled and allowed lots of leisure time to recover from the strain of working ...
Had not all of the officers in the chains of command on the DDG’s received fitness reports judging them to be competent in their roles?
Who passed them up the career ladder?