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USS Fitzgerald Combat Team Unaware of Approaching Merchant Ship Until Seconds Before Fatal Collision
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings ^ | May 10, 2018 | :Sam LaGrone

Posted on 05/13/2018 2:59:41 PM PDT by Retain Mike

The sailors who were manning the combat nerve center of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) did not know they were on a collision course with a ship almost three times their size until about one minute before impact, according to new information revealed in the preliminary hearing for two junior officers accused of negligent homicide for their role in the collision that resulted in the death of seven sailors.

Lt. Natalie Combs, the tactical action officer, and Lt. Irian Woodley, the surface warfare coordinator, were both on duty in the windowless combat information in the belly of the guided-missile destroyer on early on the morning of June 17 as the ship moved southwest from the coast of Japan less than a day out of port.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: collision; fitzgerald; navy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Weren’t there any lookouts on deck?"

That's the third question. Do warships no longer have human lookout watches, especially in high traffic areas? Either these two are being made scapegoats or more heads will role as these preliminary findings progress.

The 7th Fleet Admiral has already been fired for two such incidents due to poor training standards. How ships manage to pass sea trials anymore is beyond me. Definitely not my Navy anymore (75-86).

21 posted on 05/13/2018 3:23:04 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Plus LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
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To: Retain Mike

I have been informed by senior leaders and recently retired senior leaders that all of the services, especially in pre-commissioning programs and officer qualification courses have adopted standards that put an end to “washing out” in favor of mentoring, encouragement, or nudges toward resignation. Additional training is seldom the choice because of the additional expense.

The ugly reality is that substandard officers are overrepresented among minority and female officers even though that some minority and female officers are clearly outstanding and are performing at a very high level.


22 posted on 05/13/2018 3:23:32 PM PDT by centurion316 (Back from exile from 4/2016 until 4/2018.)
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To: A Navy Vet

None of this story ads up.


23 posted on 05/13/2018 3:23:44 PM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: Forgotten Amendments

That’s an interesting observation. You can ‘muscle’ your way through sleep deprivation in some situations, but not all.


24 posted on 05/13/2018 3:25:04 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: Retain Mike

Maybe it’s not good to name ships Fitzgerald, what with the Edmund Fitzgerald fate.


25 posted on 05/13/2018 3:25:36 PM PDT by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: Retain Mike

I agree with the defense attorney that the real problem was higher up the chain of command.


26 posted on 05/13/2018 3:27:36 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: Retain Mike

They were probably so busy retrofitting it for LGBTs that no one looked outside to see what was going on.


27 posted on 05/13/2018 3:27:39 PM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's...I just don't tell anyone)
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To: Retain Mike

They were just having a friendly hand of poker ... nickle and imes really what’s the problem? /s


28 posted on 05/13/2018 3:30:47 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: dblshot

I feel secure knowing that the U.S. Navy looks like America!

*spit*


29 posted on 05/13/2018 3:32:36 PM PDT by clintonh8r (Truth is hate speech to those who hate the truth.)
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To: doorgunner69

Great! But you have to turn it on first, or barring that actually look at it.


30 posted on 05/13/2018 3:32:52 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: neodad

I agree with you; as a LTjg OOD (one of three) on a Nimitz class in the late 80s, this is just embarrassing. We used to steam across the entire Pacific with NO radar operating. This entire crew appears to have been a disaster waiting to happen. If that XO didn’t particularly trust that OOD, HE should have been on the bridge if the CO couldn’t be bothered to.

At any rate - the OOD could have just stopped the ship to sort things out. As my first CO said - you can’t hit anything if you’re DIW.


31 posted on 05/13/2018 3:33:44 PM PDT by GreyHoundSailor
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To: Retain Mike

As the discussion here shows. There is seldom just one cause of the problem.

What is the solution?


32 posted on 05/13/2018 3:38:37 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: YOMO

Thanks. In case you have not found it yet this site can be fun.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/160532.htm


33 posted on 05/13/2018 3:41:43 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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To: Retain Mike

Agree that diversity is not our strength, merit is.
However, there is likely more than meets the eye.
Our windowless bridge ships solely dependent on electronics, are terrible vulnerable to GPS / radar / comms jamming and location spoofing...
Official navy incident reports would never reveal extent of vulnerabilities that can be exploited:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/08/23/could-hackers-behind-u-s-navy-collisions/594107001/


34 posted on 05/13/2018 3:47:08 PM PDT by MarchonDC09122009 (When is our next march on DC? When have we had enough?)
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To: Retain Mike

An army rots when its officers are incompetent. Unless the officer corp is a strict meritocracy, brave men die needlessly. Navy ships in the modern technological era of stealthy missiles and drones are floating coffins unless their defensive systems work perfectly. Incompetence in the name of diversity will result in even greater disasters. Wonder how many senior commanders who objected to the affirmative action nonsense were forcibly silenced or retired. If Trump has a second term, he will need to mercilessly purge the military and restore a warrior ethos.


35 posted on 05/13/2018 3:48:13 PM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: Retain Mike

I have a nifty little fish finder on my boat. Surely, the military has something called a big @ss ship finder aka radar. If all else fails, stand out on deck and pay attention or is that asking too much?


36 posted on 05/13/2018 3:49:00 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Retain Mike
p07

She looks competent, make her OOD.

37 posted on 05/13/2018 3:49:20 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Steely Tom
Perhaps Lt. Combs and Lt. Woodley were distracted by something. will be Senators from Arizona someday.
Or FBI "special" agents?
38 posted on 05/13/2018 3:50:22 PM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Weren’t there any lookouts on deck?"

Iceberg! Wait, wait, wrong ocean...

39 posted on 05/13/2018 3:52:37 PM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: PAR35
looks like I agree with the attorney too when I say, "I now have little difficulty imagining a 7th Fleet staff bureaucrat taking satisfaction in entering the names and sex of these officers into a report to DOD about their efforts to push diversity in the destroyer squadron to new levels".

I will speculate that during the court martial proceedings is the first time they realized how deficient preparation for their duties had been.

40 posted on 05/13/2018 3:54:27 PM PDT by Retain Mike
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