“My guess is that the OOD was not there...for whatever reason.”
What about the JOOD? He should certainly have caught this.
I think when all the dust settles...there’s just two guys standing there...some junior-junior Petty Officer and some mid-grade Petty Officer. Maybe the OOD had some brief reason to step out for fifteen minutes....maybe to take a smoke even. But I suspect we will find that there was no element of leadership standing there and reviewing actions.