Posted on 11/02/2017 7:14:15 AM PDT by Enchante
Poor decisions and lax standards made by the crews of the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain contributed to the deadly collisions last summer that killed 17 sailors, according to a new Navy investigation.
"The collisions were avoidable," said Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, in the executive summary to the report.
"Both of these accidents were preventable and the respective investigations found multiple failures by watchstanders that contributed to the incidents," he added in a statement accompanying the report's release. "We must do better."
On June 17, the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine container ship off the coast of Japan, killing seven sailors and injuring three others.
On Aug. 21, the destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker just outside the port of Singapore. That collision killed 10 sailors and injured five others.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I cannot decide if I should bone up on my Russian or start studying Mandarin.....
And along the same lines as the comment I read at Instapundit.com, I bet those ship drivers got 100% on their diversity training test and they also know how to handle the situation when a transgender person comes into the bathroom with them.
JoMa
What if these investigations revealed that a protected special class of citizens purposefully and deliberately done actions that caused these accidents ?
Who says that these were accidents ?
Was what happned on the USS Iowa a accident ?
Sorry, no comparison — If I get inattentive while coding, I can make an error that can be corrected later. If I got inattentive while standing an underway watch, people could die.
We are a Navy that learns from mistakes and the Navy is firmly committed to doing everything possible to prevent an accident like this from happening again,”
We are now issuing corrective orders. TO ALL SHIPS: LOOK OUT THE WINDOW. END.
He was not complaining. It was in response to specific questions. I AM complaining men working long hours SHOULD BE FED.
I was on active duty after Vietnam. The Army severely lowered standards to get people into the Army after the draft ended. Because of the Vietnam war, the protesting, etc., good people did not come in. We got men with very low GT scores (that is the general aptitude test that you do when you do testing as you enlist). Used to be you had to have a score around 100 if I remember right. A score of 90 basically meant you were a dummy. I had a soldier with a GT score of something like 75. He could not remember how to do anything. Show him something and in 15 minutes he had forgotten how. It was not until the 1980s that good, smart, competent troops started coming back to the military. After Nam, it was called the hollow Army because we were so short of troops. My unit in Germany was suppose to have like 150 men in our company. We had less than 100. So, obammy screwing with the military brings back those years to me.
Being an ex-Airdale on the flight deck, I don't know what Lee Steering is nor Aft Steering. However, it sounds like modern ships have redundant systems in place to steer the ship by computer.
Am I reading that correctly? Are modern warships so computerized that it takes a computer geek to realize when they just missed a couple of ships, but then run into another? The radars in CIC were not calibrated correctly in one collision? That's there friggin job! Yet they were at 20 knots? What was the OOD thinking?
I'm glad the CNO fired the Captains of both ships. One was asleep in a congested sea lane (unacceptable), another was on the bridge who refused to set the Sea and Anchor detail as suggested by his OOD and EO. Two Captains failed their duties along with many others. This is so unsat, I'm flabbergasted.
I don't give one shit if those on watch were tired. Sheesh, been there done that but still fulfilled my duties.
Does this really have anything to do with Obambi? I think not. Both Captains failed big time according to the report and are responsible for the deaths and injuries on their ships. Read the report. I don't see one sentence that is looking for excuses for those who caused these incidents.
I'm embarrassed for my Navy.
This is not your daddy’s navy.
I stood lots of after steering watches underway. Not much to do except in training or drills or problems, but handoff from the bridge was always seamless, instantaneous, and “just worked.”
We had a little wheel and a gyro with which to steer, and sound-powered phones to relay the connng officer’s commands, so we steered just like the helmsman on the bridge.
After all, he didn’t have much time to look out the window, either; he was watching his gyro to keep from being yelled at.
"daddy's navy". Huh? Did I say something wrong?
This 24 year Navy Chief is embarrassed by this as well. It’s been 15 years since I’ve been on the bridge of a Navy ship but can’t imagine how many people had to fail at their job for these collisions to happen. The crews I was a part of took pride in our ability to sail or fight our ship in any situation. From my vantage point, I see a major lack of leadership. #GundeckQuals
They need to go back to the system where your class, level of education, and IQ determine what your duties are in the military. It used to be that officers were usually college graduates, and the enlisted were high school or lower. Officers need to do the critical, decision on the fly duties, and the enlisted need to do the formulaic duties they are trained for and assigned.
One big problem is that “college graduates” ain’t what they used to be. They need to depend on cultural background research and intelligence testing to discriminate between officer candidates and enlistee material.
But they won’t.
Ship command is regarded only as an afterthought these days. Just another 2-year ticket punch.
Some sailors were trained and prepared for years before they assumed command of capital ships, and it was not their first “at-sea” posting. Multiple division head tours and a good turn as an XO were mandatory.
Surface warfare training has suffered as well. Naval aviation and nuclear power schools still have their specialized programs, but apparently, somewhere along the way, even basic seamanship is being left deficient.
- Outdated, unsupported systems (at all levels of the Navy)
- Lack of training and discipline
- Unstable, poorly-bagged gunpowder
These are what led to the explosion in Turret #2 about Iowa.
The slander of GM2 Hartwig, his ship, his fellow sailors, and the Navy as a whole was a disgrace.
No, it was commentary on the sad state of our current navy.
Pregnancies onboard? Do these people not bother with condoms and/or pills?
Obama and that cross-dressing diversity Secy of the Navy Mabus legacies. Lots of dead and injured sailors as well as two ships put out of commission.
The US Navy under Obama and Mabus really did become “The Queens Navy”.
It is a double problem with the basic war time footing that our sailors have been under since 9/11 which can put our sailors into being mind numbed robots like your nephew.
Also, that war time footing and exhaustion cuts into or eliminates the necessary seamanship training needed from the CO/XO, other officers down to the enlisted sailors on watch while the ship is underway.
The lack of good underway training and being dead tired is a deadly combination.
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