Posted on 01/18/2019 4:28:53 PM PST by daniel1212
.. so much worse than previously thought.
A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted.
Obtained by Navy Times, the "dual-purpose investigation" was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and completed 11 days after the June 17, 2017 tragedy.
Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways.
The probe exposes how personal distrust led the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock, to avoid communicating with the destroyer's electronic nerve center — the combat information center, or CIC— while the Fitzgerald tried to cross a shipping superhighway.
When Fort walked into the trash-strewn CIC in the wake of the disaster, he was hit with the acrid smell of urine. He saw kettlebells on the floor and bottles filled with pee. Some radar controls didn't work and he soon discovered crew members who didn't know how to use them anyway.
Fort found a Voyage Management System that generated more "trouble calls" than any other key piece of electronic navigational equipment. Designed to help watchstanders navigate without paper charts, the VMS station in the skipper's quarters was broken so sailors cannibalized it for parts to help keep the rickety system working.
Since 2015, the Fitz had lacked a quartermaster chief petty officer, a crucial leader who helps safely navigate a warship and trains its sailors — a shortcoming known to both the destroyer's squadron and Navy officials in the United States, Fort wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Strange, i am not seeing that column at all.
When Navy Rear Adm. Brian Fort stepped aboard the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald in the aftermath of the 2017 collision with a commercial cargo ship, everything was off. Any warship would seem a little off after a catastrophe that claimed the lives of seven sailors, but this was different.
“It didn’t look right, smell right, sound right,” Fort said during a hearing last year for a Fitzgerald officer facing court-martial in the wake of the June 17, 2017, disaster.
“There was debris everywhere,” Fort said under oath. “Food debris, food waste, uneaten food, half-eaten food, personal gear in the form of books, workout gear, workout bands, kettlebells, weightlifting equipment, the status boards had graffiti on them.” and, worse, sailors who had no idea how to use the technology.https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/01/14/the-ghost-in-the-fitzs-machine-why-a-doomed-warships-crew-never-saw-the-vessel-that-hit-it/?utm_source=clavis
Agree, the Captain was grossly negligent in the execution of his responsibilities and apparently oblivious to the internal frictions between officers in his wardroom.
This is the guaranteed results you get when allowing women to serve in the military - especially on board naval vessels.
WOMEN DO NOT BELONG IN AMERICA’S ARMED FORCES. PERIOD!
And I really don’t give a rat’s a$$ if there are women on FR who object to my stating so.
Someone care to clue me in on why there was a female acting as OOD while this tin can was underway?
Adm. Grady warned about readiness at the Surface Navy Association meeting, specifically noting that junior officers need to be able to step into command positions *immediately* in the absence of senior officers. He mentioned the incidents.
Sent this to my son who is a Navy pilot. Asked him, “Is the whole Navy this screwed up? I hope not. But I have to wonder……Lord help us if we ever have to fight a war……..but I suspect that if the USN is this bad, the Russians have to be worse…..Chinese?
They are the scary ones - Asians are incredibly disciplined, hard-working and not spoiled……..
And Trump has not lifted a finger to correct these travesties. His Obama Generals fed him crap about how good the integration of females has been when anyone with an ounce of common sense knows better. Those Ranger tabs should be stripped from the women who did not earn them but not a single politician has the balls to do it. (Retired Army Officer)
The women who were in charge of different parts of the ship that night were pissed at each other and not talking. People died because women were in charge and would not talk to each other and were not trained due to lower standards being implemented.
Consider the perspective of the Skipper. He wanted be promoted to be Captain and to be set on the path to a Flag. Having females on the bridge and in the key positions in the CIC was essential elements of his success. The problem is that female line officers had been selected on their basis of gender rather than on leadership or seamanship. Many females are capable of sea at command or technical seamanship, but those numbers are insufficient to meet the political requirements. The result is disasters like this.
Perhaps a good way to select good politicians like Alexandria Ocasiso-Castro, but not a good way to select competent Naval seafarers.
What was the failure rate for the men in the class with the women? If it wasn’t comparable to previous classes, the standards were changed.
Reading about the Army Ranger School lowering their requirements has made me literally ill.
The Army leadership should be hung and quartered and those women who are taking credit for passing that ‘school,’ should be thrown out of the army. It is beyond hope that those women would have enough integrity to be ashamed at the fraud they committed with the assistance of the Army’s leadership.
Sheesh.
Nothing in this report surprises me. All I had to see was the rust running down the sides of the ship from the scuppers.
No money, no maintenance, no morale and no consequences.
Lowered standards. Socialism.
And even saying that could cost you a promotion, or worse.
And do what Recon Marine?
Meaning being politically correct. That is not success.
Right arm rates ended in 1946. Can’t recognize left arm rate. Hair much too long. Doubt these are even real sailors.
Period! Exactly. People are getting killed needlessly all for PC bull spit.
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