Posted on 01/16/2018 12:33:11 PM PST by oh8eleven
The officer in charge of the Navy’s Pacific fleet is expected to step down this week following several high-profile incidents under his watch, including the separate crashes of two US destroyers that ultimately left 17 sailors dead, according to a report.
Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, who heads Naval Surface Force Pacific, will submit his resignation ahead of a formal recommendation that he be relieved of command, according to DefenseNews.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The guy is obviously a no-integrity bum. He should be kicked-out this afternoon.
This old Army guy knows just about nothing about the Navy but it’s easy to see why questions would be asked about incidents like those collisions.I just don’t know how far up the chain of command such questions might go.
That alone is reason for him to be relieved.
....in a Jack Nicholson voice...”Do we have to ask?”
ping.
It is my understanding that untrained Officers were put in charge of steering those ships.
If so, they’ll probably have to dig some Admirals out of retirement and reduce their retirements.
You mean he hasn’t already resigned?
Was this admiral responsible for assigning ship’s captains and deck officers or was that the responsibility of “higher ups”. If it was his responsibility, was he subject to any pressures to assign certain percentages of certain “protected” groups?
Old Army guy here, too. The tough part about all of this is that the guys wearing the stars are totally at the mercy of some anonymous 19-year-old E-3 following orders and using proper procedure at all times to ensure safe operation in an inherently dangerous atmosphere/situation. Of course, the E-3 has a chain of command that should be checking behind every move and conducting training in all operational procedures to be certain of proper execution of orders. Sounds good but people are still people and absolute perfection is tough to be achieve.
In my Army time, I know I put my lieutenant bars on the line with every round shot from a howitzer where I was responsible as either a Safety Officer or Executive Officer. I never had an incident but certainly heard of rounds being sent out of the impact zone or a battery being aimed 180 degrees wrong. I have no knowledge of a general officer being brought to grief over such incidents.
He’ll be going out at the top of his game. Our Pacific Navy probably leads all others in sensitivity training, combatting microaggressions, intersectional seminars, and lactation rooms.
We have almost forgotten that we have a Navy and that it's mission is sea power. The Atlantic and Pacific are very different places, but if you forget that you are operating at sea, then you can save money by combining the Atlantic and Pacific and one guy can cover all the training and support for most of the world. It's sort of like having a unitary governor for the States of NY and California = come to think of it...
Once you have lost site of the fact that you are talking about two different huge oceans, finer details like not playing bumper cars with billion dollar warships get overlooked. Professionalism bans M/F hanky panky while tolerance turns a blind eye to any other kind of hanky panky.
Priorities for the force, including training priorities go right to the top of the chain of command.
The surface fleet is the only part of the Navy where new ensigns are sent to ships to get trained on the job. Both submariners and aviators are trained before reporting for duty.
Seems that they had to work their way up deliberately. After multiple collisions and loss of life, I could see no way that he would survive in the position. Like you I thought it was a little slow in coming, but those of us who have or would have been held accountable in our careers could see no other ending.
Commanding officers are first screened for command by a board, then screened for a particular command. OODs are designated by a command’s CO and lapse when reassigned.
That was just so wrong.
It was a disservice to the young Officer and all the Enlisted.
Search for “Surface Warfare Officers School” and discover what training precedes assignment to a vessel.
The feeling in the navy is that this is institutional for surface and sub warfare people; going back to basics. Years ago much of the training was moved to CBT’s and away from hands on training.
For a single incident, questions might only be asked of the commanding officer involved. The Pacific Fleet had numerous incidents, two of them deadly, and all of them will cost millions, even hundreds of millions to repair. Given the seemingly systemic issues, a much higher degree of accountability is required, and the Fleet Commander should be rightly punished.
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