Posted on 08/17/2017 4:57:34 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
“Bull” Halsey ran his fleet into a typhoon and around 800 died with ships sunk. He got a slap on the wrist.
They are lucky not to face criminal charges....CO and XOs career was over no matter what....its the Navy way.
They are lucky not to face criminal charges....CO and XOs career was over no matter what....its the Navy way.
my suspicions are that the OOD, JOOD and CICWO actions or inactions are responsible for the collision. Since there is no word out of their part in the collision, that means that the investigating board is still looking into their performance on that night.
That’s who I suspect will face NJP. The CMC was relieved for failure to ensure the enlisted were adequately trained so I don’t think any other enlisted will face charges.
For something like this to happen, there’d have to been a cascade of screw ups committed by multiple people.
The only other enlisted I think may be party to the investigation is the CIC watch supervisor.
Having been a helmsman on merchant ships, I obeyed the commands of the deck officer on watch. I asked captain about a command that would have put us on a collision course. He saw his mistake-after that I could do no wrong!
That has always bothered me that such little attention was paid to this disaster. That’s a lot of sailors that had to watch their ships sail away.
I agree.
Kennedy was hailed as a hero
a reasonable assessment of the situation.
They should be court marshaled and severely punished for dereliction of duty— total FUBAR!!Make a mockery of these over paid bureaucrats!!
That could be the fate of the officers on the bridge and in combat that night. We will have to wait and see.
Total boobs. What a disgrace. The Navy is humiliated with this. They must be made a huge example.
He (the investigating Admiral) said that disciplining Fitzgerald sailors does not indicate the destroyer’s crew was solely at fault.
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As I’ve posted before, I’ve been on watch on the bridge of a destroyer in much more crowded water than the Fitzgerald was in that fateful fatal night.
In my opinion, and with all due respect, the Admiral is dead wrong. I say this based on “some” experience in a similar ship, on the bridge and under similar conditions (clear night, light seas), it should not be possible under any imaginable circumstances for that huge and heavy ship to collide with the USS Fitzgerald. It’s roughly like a Cruise Ship trying to run down a cigarette boat out on the open ocean!
Something was going on. The sailors on the bridge were either distracted by something, unconscious, held hostage or “something”.
I have to agree with you. Deployed to Yokosuka for 6 months in the mid 70s. Have stood a lot of bridge watch at night headed Tokyo Bay. Lots of ships, have to stay on you toes and think. I cannot visualize any way this could happen at an alert, experienced watch.
Agreed. I’d like to know who qualified the OOD on watch at the time. The Senior Dept Head normally writes the watchbill, and should have ensured the team on the Bridge and in CIC had some experience for a transit in congested waters that close to land. I’ve witnessed an entire NAV team lose SA transiting the Rosario Strait at night; so close to land one could easily see red and green traffic lights. The OOD recognized nobody knew where they were and stopped the ship a couple hundred yards from running aground.
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