These were the bridge positions on the Fitzgerald. Manned slots at the time of the collision are green. Unmanned slots are gray. Notice the lookout slots on the right and left.
Posted on 06/19/2018 3:34:19 PM PDT by Rummyfan
An anonymous email came in over the transom this morning:
Hi, Stacy.
During the early weeks after the USS Fitzgerald was speared by a lumbering Philippine container ship, it was noteworthy that the captain and a couple of admirals were publically named, but not the actual officer in charge, the officer of the deck. (OOD) The other person who should have kept the Fitz out of trouble is the person in charge of the combat information center, the Tactical Action Officer. That individual is supposed to be monitoring the combat radar, which can detect a swimmer at a distance of two miles. Not until a year later, when the final reports are made public and the guilty parties have been court-martialed, does the truth come out. The OOD was named Sarah, and the Tactical Action Officer was named Natalie, and they weren’t speaking to each other!!! The Tactical Action Officer would normally be in near constant communication with the OOD, but there is no record of any communication between them that entire shift!
Another fun fact: In the Navy that won WWII, the damage control officers were usually some of the biggest and strongest men aboard, able to close hatches, shore up damaged areas with timbers, etc. The Fitz’s damage control officer was also a woman, and she never left the bridge. She handled the aftermath of the accident remotely, without lifting a finger herself!
Look it up: The OOD was Sarah Coppock, Tactical Action Officer was Natalie Combs. . . .
When I noticed last year that they were doing all they could to keep the OOD’s name out of the headlines, I speculated to my son that it was a she. Turns out all the key people (except one officer in the CIC) were female!
Indeed, I did some searching, and Lt. Coppock pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty. Lt. Combs faced a hearing last month:
In an 11-hour hearing, prosecutors painted a picture of Lt. Irian Woodley, the ship’s surface warfare coordinator, and Lt. Natalie Combs, the tactical action officer, as failing at their jobs, not using the tools at their disposal properly and not communicating adequately. They became complacent with faulty equipment and did not seek to get it fixed, and they failed to communicate with the bridge, the prosecution argued. Had they done those things, the government contended, they would have been able to avert the collision. That two of the officers — Coppock and Combs — involved in this fatal incident were female suggests that discipline and training standards have been lowered for the sake of “gender integration,” which was a major policy push at the Pentagon during the Obama administration. It could be that senior officers, knowing their promotions may hinge on enthusiastic support for “gender integration,” are reluctant to enforce standards for the women under their command.
This was the story of Kara Hultgreen, the Navy pilot who died in a 1994 F-14 crash. Investigation showed that Hultgreen had been allowed to proceed in her training after errors that would have meant a washout for any male pilot. But the Clinton administration was pushing for female fighter pilots, which resulted in a competition between the Navy and Air Force to put women into these combat roles. It is not necessary to believe that (a) women shouldn’t be fighter pilots, in order to believe (b) lowering standards for the sake of quotas is a bad idea. Of course, you may believe both (a) and (b), but it is (b) that gets people killed.
It seems obvious that the Pentagon (and the liberal media) sought to suppress full knowledge of what happened to the Fitzgerald in the immediate aftermath of the June 2017 incident that killed seven sailors, in the same way the details of Kara Hultgreen’s death were suppressed. It took investigative reporters like Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times a lot of hard work to find out what actually happened to Hultgreen. Let’s hope other reporters will dig into what’s happening in our military with the “gender intergration” agenda at the Pentagon now.
Yeah, and he started the Forrestal fire.
Yeah, and he started the Forrestal fire.
********U***********************
Ahh ... no, he didn’t.
Or airplanes.
Some years ago, there was a study comparing female airplane accidents to male.
The major findings were:
We had eight years where meeting goals on affirmative action for minorities and women was a big factor in promotion decisions, over things like competent ship handling. It will take YEARS to weed out the politically correct "perfumed princes" and restore competence and discipline.
These were the bridge positions on the Fitzgerald. Manned slots at the time of the collision are green. Unmanned slots are gray. Notice the lookout slots on the right and left.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the ships anchored at Pearl thought themselves safe. Until the attack. The pattern, from then, thru the USS Cole, to Fitzgerald, is that complacency kills.
Exactly what I had in mind...those men in the USS Oklahoma that capsized, killing around 400 of them were likely just relaxing in their racks, thinking about liberty that night only a few minutes before.
Wow, no lookouts on watch! I’d also be interested to see what staff was located in the Combat Information Center (CID) where they are plotting potentials collisions from radar data.
ok - was worried things had change a lot more than I thought they had.
Fair wind, following seas.
On the navy brass did not have the gonads to publicly admit the real problem - “diversity” over merit.
Which I assume means that in the McCain collision male officers almost sank another ship? What do you proposed to do about make ship drivers?
While stationed “ditto” at Cubi Pt. Philippines, we enjoyed the company of a variety of Navy Waves. They were Base Administrators and Medical/Nurses. No problem.
This is a very hazardous place to navigate. You've got huge containerships and supertankers passing through. And at night, it's hard to figure out what's happening.
I was on the destroyer, the USS Turner Joy DD-951, and we were with a small task force heading home to San Diego -- yeah, the long way around -- from a brief visit to Bandar Abbas, Iran. This was when the Shah was in power and we were allies with Iran.
I was one of two Junior OODs assigned that night for this passage. And our skipper made sure to be there to oversee what was happening.
At one point the Skipper noticed that a merchant ship was on a collision course with a cruiser in our group.
And for a moment, he and everyone else on deck with a pair of binoculars peered our eyes onto the dark scene.
At the last moment, the cruiser changed course, and our Skipper ran over to the radar and exclaimed, "They were so close, their radar blips merged!"
I put together an infographic about the qualities of a good skipper...
Scary.
Hey...thanks for your service! Ah, you were on the Turner Joy! There is some history there...:)
Love the infographic...just love it (especially including Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab!)
I would not be in the least surprised to hear that one of your favorite movies is “Master and Commander”. It is certainly one of mine.
Of those five qualities you listed, the one I think that I would value the most in a hot situation is “Calm in the Storm”. Over the course of my life, I have found that the most impressive people when in a hot situation are those who keep their head when others are losing theirs. I know this, because I tend to be emotional, and have to deliberately and constantly fight it in myself when a situation arises.
In a hot situation (family, corporate, military, you name it) fear and heated emotion is contagious, and can become destructive to clear thinking and chances for successful resolution.
My wife is a critical care RN. One of the things that can become a “hot” situation, even among experienced nurses or physicians, is when a situation begins to become unwound during a code on a patient. Things get confused, people begin speaking louder and faster...you hear the urgency (and anxiety and even fear) in their voices...people begin talking over each other and shouting. The situation can degenerate quickly and put a patient’s life at stake. Anyone who has been part of more than a few patient code situation knows this.
My wife is the one, who would walk into a room with people running around and casually walk over to a conscious patient and say in a calm, almost joking tone “Having a little chest pain, are you? We’re going to take care of that for you.” And she would turn around and say “Okay. Everyone who doesn’t need to be here, leave. You, make sure you have the intubation kit ready if it is needed...you, get out in the corridor and direct the code team in here...” She knew that dynamic very well and was used to it.
I have been in a room where people took charge and did just that, and the effect is electric. Everyone comes down a notch...the noise decreases, speech slows down, things become less chaotic and more orderly, everyone’s training kicks in, and your chances of a successful rescue shoot up dramatically.
I work in a different field now, and a crisis carries the same dynamic. I am often the one who is called to take lead, but even if am not, before I enter the situation, I have an internal dialogue that says “Stop. Breathe. Relax. Think. Keep calm. Arrange your face to appear calm.” and so on. That way, when I get into it, I can help others who have more knowledge than me or may be more necessary in their role to relax and think more clearly.
So you can see, even though I readily admit that one thing without the support of other four items in your list is not going to be enough, being the calm in the storm is in my book, the most important one, and I am always duly impressed when I see that in someone. I always view those people in a different light.
The longest I ever worked without sleep was from turn to Friday morning till close to midnight Sunday. The chief, bless his heart, allowed us to sleep in till 1000 Monday morning. On my last ship, we were short one guy in the work center so the watch was 12 on and 12 off. During the off time, I put in a 8 hour shift of regular work.
“the watch was 12 on and 12 off. During the off time, I put in a 8 hour shift of regular work.”
A very generous 2 hours a day to eat, shower, and sleep.
Been there, done that, stank up the T-shirt.
“Which I assume means that in the McCain collision male officers almost sank another ship?”
I just went over the official report:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/CHINFO/USS+Fitzgerald+and+USS+John+S+McCain+Collision+Reports.pdf
I didn’t see where people who screwed up were identified by sex or rank. The CO, of course, is ultimately responsible, but the report didn’t identify the OOD, JOOD, helm, lee helm, or any of the snipes.
According to the official report, which may or may not be honest and accurate, they were steaming through the straits with no lee helmsman on watch. The helmsman seemed to be having some difficulty handling both the helm and the engine-order telegraph, so they ordered up a lee helmsman.
Control of the engine order telegraph was supposed to be shifted from the helmsman’s station to the lee helmsman’s station. Instead, both engine control and steering were shifted, but nobody was notified of that. In addition, the two shafts were not coupled.
The helmsman reported loss of steering control, and it looks like people lost it at that point. Two reductions in speed were ordered, but because of the error in not linking the two shafts, only the speed of the port shaft was reduced. This had the effect of causing the ship to come left into oncoming traffic.
Do you know where the people who were on watch are identified? Or the snipes who screwed up the transfer of control to the lee helm?
ANY job requiring physical strength to save others. . ANY job in combat!
Although.. with more and more men becoming WIMPS.. women will have to pick up the slack and do the jobs men used to do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.