Posted on 01/03/2009 10:58:05 AM PST by SmithL
A CO of a boomer (Trident) is the 3rd most powerful nation so they need to have most of the act together its much better for all of us.
If in fact that were the case, there would have been a lot more people going away, not just the CO. Something tells me it might actually be worse than an SBA on ORSE. I’ve seen CO’s who have failed (or SBA’ed) one, got a BA on the next, and still managed to keep their commands.
That is not true at all. You have made it through training and subordinate positions, but command at sea is a separate calling to itself. Some folks cannot handle the pressure. Some micromanage and cannot trust their people. Some get concerned about the small stuff and cannot set priorities, which for a CO are a fit and trained crew and a well maintained ship and a focus on mission effectiveness. Others turn out to be slack and don't maintain operation discipline, or may care more about self promotion than the welfare of crew, ship and mission.
Some of the folks who do best in subordinate positions are totally unfit for command.
If it were for an ORSE / NTPI or some such, the XO and engineer or weps officer or ops officer would be gone as well. My guess is that this is about command and not just some lesser thing.
My guess is that he did something which improperly hazarded the vessel. That could include things like diving too deep or revealing your position to the enemy.
Loss of Confidence would have to be related by some of the other officers aboard ship. Certainly, the XO or COB would have some input in the decision or information pertaining to the incidents.
You have to have the right mentality to be a bubblehead in the first place. Maybe he couldn't cut it.
If it had to do with the ORSE, 1—it would be a LOT more than just the CO going away, 2—there would be an even BIGGER story about compromising nuclear safety. Remember, the Houston leaked a little bit of water (probably from the DRT) and CNN, et al, went ape over it, despite the actual amount of radioactivity being quite literally next to nothing. If someone was falsifying check chemistry (which got another CO canned last year), they would have said as much.
I had the opportunity to serve with CDR Hill. This news comes with little surprise. I am sure the Commodore took action to stave off a modern day Mutiny on the Bounty.
*perk*...care to elaborate?
I served with CDR Hill on a shore tour prior to his at sea command tour, he was my immediate superior. I know CDR Hill has nothing but the best intentions in mind. Unfortunately the manner in which he executes those intentions is of a bygone era that fails to promote team/consensus building. Shortly after his arrival the already shaky moral completely collapsed taking the trust and initiative of the staff as well. I know CDR Hill possessed the capacities, in their individual state, to command a submarine, but lacked the binding agent to bring them all together. In the two years I served with CDR Hill much was reinforced in the principles of leadership: praise in public, punish in private, loyalty up the chain of command is equally important to loyalty down the chain of command and the secret to leading a crew is the individual sailor-because sometime we are all that sailor. The tragedy here is not one man’s career but the crew that lost a Captain and the others churned in the wake.
Twenty four ballistic missiles.
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