For me the whole “Navy had plans to do away with all electronic navigational systems” points to the terrible state of training in our fleet.
“when I was in and the ships were wood and the men were steel” da da da da dah....we had to demonstrate through a week of refresher training that we could fight the ship without any of the electronics. So we would be doing an activity and they would say... your satnav just went down (switching to xxx)... your xxx just went down.... switching to visual triangulation and/or celestial navigation. Had to show it for almost all our systems: navigation, tracking and weapons control, engineering, auxiliary systems, damage control....even made the Disbursing Officer and Classified materials guys go through their evacuation and destruction protocols.
The culmination of the week was “killing off” all the senior officers and NCOs to see how the crew handled things for about 15-20 minutes prior to the abandoning ship drill.
Reed13k...
That brings back memories of being in during the transition from the M60A3 (dinosaurs) to the M-1 (starships). During gunnery the starship guys would do okay (although the sights and computers were actually more advanced in the M60A3).
Where the dinosaurs really shone was during degraded gunnery (i.e. no ballistic computer and shooting through the M105D telescope with the Mark 1 Eyeball...).
A really neat trick was to use the coax (the machine gun next to the main gun) as a spotter for the HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds...
I'm curious now. Did they abandon the project allowing the crew to handle the ship with out the officers? I can see how the first drill would end in complete failure. Though the concept in my opinion should be continued. Not doing does nothing but boost the self worth of the commanders does nothing to improve over all performance of the ship.
Reminds me the time when a Navy SEAL team came out to a paint ball match against us. The SEAL team was destroyed. They came back a few weeks later with similar tactics as we played and did very well. They didn't give up.
***The culmination of the week was “killing off” all the senior officers and NCOs to see how the crew handled things for about 15-20 minutes prior to the abandoning ship drill.
I wonder if this is one of the reasons?
“...During the battle with HMS Shannon in June 1813, (acting Lieutenant) Cox served in charge of gun crews. Captain James Lawrence was wounded, and Lt. Cox took him below deck. However, all other officers had been seriously wounded or killed, so Lawrence’s incapacitation left Cox, the senior non-wounded officer, the ship’s commanding officer. It is unclear whether he realized that he was now the acting commanding officer. While he was below the ship was boarded. Returning from below, Cox and Midshipman Russell saw that two 18-pounder cannon, right aft on the port side, still bore on the enemy ship. Working between them, they managed to fire both. While he was working the guns there was a rush of American seamen bent on escaping the British boarders by going down the main hatch to the safety of the berth deck. Seeing this, Lt. Cox called to them, “You damned cowardly sons of bitches! What are you jumping below for?” When asked by a nearby midshipman if he should stop them by cutting a few down, Cox replied, “No sir, it is of no use.”[2] On the Chesapeake being taken by the British he was made prisoner. After being exchanged he was promoted to third lieutenant.[1]...”
(He was convicted in 1814 by court-martial of dereliction of duty and unofficer-like conduct for abandoning his watch station while under fire. He was discharged from the Navy in disgrace.[1] - cleared later By President Truman in 1952)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sitgreaves_Cox
And of course the USS Johnson during the Battle of Samar....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Johnston_(DD-557)