Posted on 04/04/2020 7:07:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Looks like a bunch of kids at a concert - so much for social distancing
I think he was fired for giving them shore leave in an Asian country in early March
That guy was begging to get canned. What military officer would do such a thing? There’s a chain of command & you follow it.
I’m wondering why they are cheering, too.
Are they cheering because they support him for trying, or because he’s being canned?
The USN has an entire branch of medicine that does nothing but counsel leaders on how to preserve the force from medical issues, to include the Office of Naval Intelligence. You know, the TITLE X responsibilities each Service has.
Where the heck were these people in advising CNO, BUPERMED, and fleet commanders on mitigation and force protection?
The good captain, knowing everyone was asleep at the helm, went for the jugular to wake people up in order to preserve his crew, and we're criticizing him? He gets sacked because a whole truckload of people didn't do their jobs?
If they’re cheering for a disgraced commanding officer and not for the arrival of packages from home or the new version of Bob Hope, then it indicates that the same leadership corruption and rot that resulted in US sailors surrendering themselves and their equipment to Iran late in the Obama admin is still very much present and has not been excised. You can bet our enemies are paying close attention to our present lack of discipline and exploit it to the fullest.
“He’s not losing his rank or being drummed out of the service, by the way. The Navy has taken enough of a PR beating already over this episode. It doesn’t want to invite a worse one.”
He’ll retire if he is smart. He has no career left and will never see another promotion. OTOH he will likely have a fine career as a pundit for MSNBC or CNN who will glorify this shameless ignorant as*shole of a Naval Officer.
He’s lucky not to be given a General Court Martial and executed.
He deserved to be canned! He didn’t do his job well and didn’t accept his superior officers right to give him orders he disagreed with. You cannot command when you don’t accept being under command.
Stinking Navy. Just like the military to cut someone’s throat to get the blame off those who are REALLY at fault and blame. I spent 20 years in the Army. I can tell you nightmares of officers and even senior NCOs who screwed the troops in the ground so they would not look bad or throw blame, or make rank, etc. I had a master sergeant who kissed the ass of a major in our office to get good efficiency reports and did not protect his people. I got on his case even tho he was two ranks above me. I told him flat out he had let us down, let all the enlisted folks in the office down. He must have had a heart after all, because he looked at his feet and actually agreed that I was right. I was shocked. But, the damage to all the troops was done. No one, including me, ever trusted him again or went one inch to support him. We did our jobs but did nothing for him or the back stabbing major. I saw lots of cases like this in my years in the service. When it came time for me to re-enlist and stay longer in the Army, I just decided that I was totally fed up with the STINKING POLITICS of the military. People kissing ass to get good efficiency reports, etc. Just doing your damned job didn’t seem to be good enough anymore. I did my job and did everything I could for my people. It was my DUTY to help the kids who I had in my section. I got in trouble a couple of times standing up for my kids. I had a captain get on my case because I came into his office, he was the company commander, and stood up for one of my troops who was getting screwed on the duty roster. It is every soldier’s right to inspect the duty roster with the first sergeant when he thinks there is an error, like being on duty too much, too soon since the last time, etc. This spec four complained he was pulling weekend duty too much. He asked to see the roster and the first sergeant went to the CO and had him bring in my guy and I of course went with him. After the CO looked at the roster he admitted the first sgt had made mistakes with the roster and my guy was correct. He dismissed my guy then jumped me for coming in with him and standing up for him and making the first sgt look bad. I told the CO that THAT WAS MY JOB!!! To take care of my people. They looked to me when they were wronged, had problems. If I did not do my job then they would not come to trust or respect me as their senior NCO. He kind of backed down, but still had a real hard on for me because I did that. But, that is the type of crap that I was tired of. Sick of it. I had two daughters and they did not want to go back to Germany for a 5th time, so I took that into consideration also and called it a career. POLITICS in the military with this crap is why we lost a lot of good people who said they simply got tired of the CRAP!!! They liked the military like I did, but the CRAP AND POLITICS destroys moral of the troops. So, I retired and left. Happy it was all freaking over with.
That is part of it. The greater sin is not taking the initiative to solve his own problems. He had enormous resources at his personal beck and call, and yet he did nothing except wail for guidance. He is CO of a massive ship with a lot of really great, knowledgeable, resourceful creative people. Anything that is needed to be made can be made on an aircraft carrier. Between is officers and senior enlisted he has a superb leadership team. He has the best mechanics and maintenance personnel on planet earth.
Before asking for help from someone else, he needed to help himself.
And I am not saying he should not have been asking for a list of items he needed, expertise he wanted to consult, some of those 5 minute testing kits, etc. He could have sent off a plane - well asked his immediate superior to send one off to go pick a couple up.
But he had no plan other than evacuate the ship.
He might as well retired, his CAREER IS OVER!!! He will never see a good assignment or promotion again. He will be in charge of the mess kit repair company or some type of worthless job like that.
It looks more like a photo of one of the rare events when they’re being allowed 2 beers and a BBQ because the Dallas Cheerleaders are putting on a show for morale.
On the other hand maybe their entire laundry crew fell ill.
The sailors on that ship, assuming their average age is between 18-40, are in a very LOW RISK group. The chance of fatalities was very low.
Why not simply bring on board: swabs to test everyone, enough HCQ+AZT to treat everyone, and a few extra ventilators, and even an extra couple nurses - just in case. The ship could easily continue its mission, and within 21 days, the ship would have achieved “herd immunity”
Instead, it will be decommissioned for several months while it is “cleaned” (an impossible prospect) and we face the huge national security implications of America’s most expensive weapons system being neutralized for a long time by a simple virus and a pussy captain.
That piece and the accompanying visuals are wrong in so many ways. If those sailors were cheering the man’s departure, it is indicative that the USN has failed the country in training men and women for combat, although pronouns are almost certainly in order aboard that vessel. That captain should have been taken off in civilian clothes (he’s not worthy of wearing an officer’s uniform) at night and most importantly, in an atmosphere of disgrace, perhaps even in handcuffs.
No investigation needed, Allahpundit, you dope. This is not a PR disaster but a total breakdown in discipline by a commanding officer. Every service member learns in basic training, boot camp, etc., the chain of command. That captain put the national defense of the United States in jeopardy. Rather than risking the health of a hundred sailors, he risked the lives of every one of the 5,000 aboard to enemy action.
The bright side to this disgraceful incident? The man revealed his total incompetence in the face of the virus instead of in the face of the enemy. It is not too farfetched to project that this panicked, despicable coward would have surrendered his ship to an enemy at the first threat of attack.
Every single recruit learns that taking care of the men and women is important. But never as important as accomplishing the mission. Otherwise, for sh*t’s sake, why would anybody ever fight?
Look up the casualty stats the battle of Midway among pilots who continued to fly out on missions when 90 percent of their fellow pilots from the previous waves of bombers never returned. Commanders kept sending pilots out to almost certain death and pilots flew and fought bravely. Officers like this jerk and the sailors who cheered him are not worthy of such a courageous heritage.
He was not fired for “pleading for help.” And being a great Captain does not necessarily mean he was a great officer in the eyes of Navy higher ups.
And you know this how? You said you were taking the counter-argument, meaning your opinion (assumption) is worth no more nor less than anyone else's opinion.
“You can bet our enemies are paying close attention to our present lack of discipline and exploit it to the fullest.”
Exactly, and thats the bottom line.
PR? That carrier represents about 10% of our at sea defense capabilities. He sent an email rather than using the proper secure channels. He did that on purpose. I guess most people don’t think about an enemy leveraging this information to their benefit so they want to support this commanding officer. I retired from the Navy and had my share of CO’s who were incapable of making sound decisions. I was at risk of bodily harm several times because the captain made a poor decision. This captain went out of his way to cause embarrassment to the United States and deserves whatever comes his way.
The risk is still there. At .2%, that would mean 10 dead sailors. If it’s half that, still five dead sailors.
That is another thing. One thing that the Navy knows how to do is clean its ships. You have sailors and bleach and buckets and mops. You can clean it top to bottom a dozen times in a week, while operating.
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