Posted on 01/09/2009 11:48:26 PM PST by GATOR NAVY
TOKYO — A ship commander and executive officer at Sasebo Naval Base were relieved of command due to a loss of confidence, the Navy announced Friday.
Cmdr. John Zuhowski was relieved Thursday of command of the USS Tortuga, an amphibious assault ship, by Rear Adm. Richard Landolt, of Commander Task Force 76, according to a news release. Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Burke, the ship’s executive officer, was also relieved, the statement said.
Both Zuhowski and Burke remain on active duty and face no loss of rank or punishment, according to Lt. Denver Applehans, spokesman for the task force. Applehans said he could not release any details about the change in command because of “privacy issues.”
Capt. Mark Weber, the deputy commodore of Amphibious Squadron Eleven at Sasebo, temporarily has assumed command of Tortuga. Weber is a former commanding officer of USS Fort McHenry, another amphibious landing ship.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Grant, of the Commander Task Force 76 staff, has temporarily assumed the duties of executive officer, according to the release.
They haven't it's simply a title."
See my post #19
I suspect they failed a major inspection of some sort.
Maybe more under funding of needed ship yard work also? That would explain no further action. Some things ships company can fix and some things simply can't be done without the yards help and equipment.
With the XO being a LCDR, he may not even get to 20 years. The Commander should be able to retire but his 20 is in 2011. Of course that all depends on what really is behind the story. The CMC most likely did get fired too, but we will never know unless someone has the inside scoop.
hanky-panky?
or something else?
Could be. Maybe they’re run out of crypto-lesbians.
Thanks for the info. Must be a big amphibious group if it requires a Commodore and a Vice-Commodore.
Maybe they are going to take Omaha Beach again.
I had an Army Captain that had his command yanked for what amounted to lack of confidence. He had too many congressional complaints lodged against him actually and it got him sent to an academy somewhere to teach supposedly. He was a real ass too.
I've never heard the term either but I'd presume that it's the squadron commodore's equivalent to a ship captain's executive officer.
Back in the early 1980s, a real-live Commodore complete with a single star on his epaulette, commanded the Attack and Electronic Warfare Wing, Pacific Fleet (COMATVAQWINGPAC), based at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington.
His name was T.W. Zirbel or some such. And he was a gen-yoo-ine commodore, single star and all, I kid you not. I met him many times. He was a helluva nice guy, as I recall. The man even had his muscle car custom-painted with the Navy aircraft color scheme of gull-gray/white with insignia. On the front quarter panel of the car was painted "000" (or 'triple nuts') to designate his status.
He was the Command Inspector at my NJROTC annual gala. The guy had a killer sense of humor, could set a scared-spitless cadet at ease, and was very much an officer and gentleman as far as my personal experience with him is concerned.
I was the Cadet Senior Chief Petty Officer at the time. I did ALLLLL the yellin'. It was great fun.
My understanding is that the term "commodore" (or "deputy commodore," as appearing in this article) now only refers to a position and/or function, and not to an actual rank.
Regards,
there was a PC purge to the top ranks when the clintonistas took over around ‘93... although, this is too soon.
either way, IMHO, sounds like house cleaning either before they are forced to take on new ‘rules’ or the new ‘rules’ are already going into effect
Did he cut back on rations of rum?
Sailors had the best of everything, while half-starved Marines prowled the bars of Sasebo, looking for cheap Asahi beer and packages of dried squid and kaiso. It was a tough life.
When I was in the fleet, we usually deployed with a battle group on our WestPacs...
The BG was commanded as a whole by a one star...
A sub-group (Destroyer Squadron) was commanded by a 4 striper (Captain) but was usually termed Commodore in the organization chart...
Funny thing, when we deployed, the BG commander liked to take “vacations” off the CV and hang out with the screening ships like ours...You’d be on watch in CIC and he’d come up and stand a mid-watch with us...Those were some really good days I remember...
One of our BG CO’s, went on to become Vice CNO a few years later...Good things happen to good people...
Unfortunately, this replacement of the CO and XO of this command smells like a serious failure on a few different levels...They just don’t do this on a whim unless it is just so obvious...Running aground, collisions etc etc...
The value of this is that it sends a clear message to other commands to tighten up and get things done right...All the way up and down the chain of command Navy-wide...
Second time in a short period of time. Sounds fishy.
I hope the socialists are not injecting politics into our military.
Knowing the Navy today compared to yesterday, my guess is that a woman or women were involved in the loss of confidence by the top brass. This is a sad state of affairs, especially with the new administration coming in; they will have many dollars to experiment with more detrimental social engineering on our military. We may see more failed policies being implemented with the Obama administration.
The first responsibility of a Captain of a ship is morale of the crew. The second responsibility is command of the ship. Whatever brought this to happen likely involved the morale issue. The strange thing about all this is someone remaining on the ship after dismissal.
Commodore is not an official Navy rank. Essentially it is a temporary title awarded to a senior captain for the duration of any given mission, and has never gone out of vogue since the birth of the U.S. Navy in 1798.
Other than disgrace and the end of their careers.
Ronald Reagan appointed some commodores (O-7) in 1982, as part of his naval expansion, but the rank was unpopular and reverted to Rear Admiral (lower half) within a few years.
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