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Fitzgerald navy ship crash investigation
copy right problems ^ | 1-14-19 | naval investigation

Posted on 01/15/2019 12:59:06 PM PST by dynachrome

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.


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: fitzgerald; investigation; navy
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Political correctness kills

due to copy right complaints, cannot post from Navy Times.

www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/01/14/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read/?

1 posted on 01/15/2019 12:59:06 PM PST by dynachrome
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To: dynachrome

Women should not be on ships!! This is a sad story of living a total lie.What is the hell is going on in our NAVY.? My God what a horrifying story. People DIED!! Total incompetence!! She should be in PRISON. Get women out of there or we are going to lose the next war!!


2 posted on 01/15/2019 1:04:52 PM PST by Mikemurphy
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To: dynachrome

I don’t get this, you don’t navigate the ship from the CIC so why would the VMS be in there and why would the bridge have to rely on CIC for safe navigation?


3 posted on 01/15/2019 1:08:24 PM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: dynachrome
ya gotta be kiddin me... these frunts should spend the rest of their lives in Leavenworth!!!
4 posted on 01/15/2019 1:09:44 PM PST by Chode ( WeÂ’re America, Bitch!)
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To: dynachrome

“he soon discovered crew members who didn’t know how to use them anyway”

WELL, - I’d say that just about covers this one!


5 posted on 01/15/2019 1:18:42 PM PST by EnglishOnly (eWFight all out to win OR get out now. .)
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To: pepsi_junkie

“you don’t navigate the ship from the CIC so why would the VMS be in there and why would the bridge have to rely on CIC for safe navigation?”

A complete Red Herring.

Surface Search radar and lookouts are on the Bridge, and safe navigation has absolutely NO reliance on CIC.


6 posted on 01/15/2019 1:20:00 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: dynachrome
So does constant underfunding and personnel reductions. This has been going on since the Clinton administration. Maintenance backlogs, undertained personnel being used as fill ins. Virtual watch and watch manning requirements. Add to this sort of environment key officers with blood in the eye for each other who have so little professionalism as to not be able to stuff the personal dislikes until back on shore. These events were long foretold and sure to come about.

If you think we are alone check how recently the Norwegians effectively lost a frigate as big as a WW2 light cruiser. Both the collision and the incredibly incompetent salving efforts beggar belief.

7 posted on 01/15/2019 1:21:48 PM PST by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: dynachrome

For a ship to get in that bad a shape, that comes down from above. The division CO, the fleet CO, all have to have failed in their duties. For the radar to be non-functional, for the crew to be that derelict, that has to be systemic, not limited to that one ship.


8 posted on 01/15/2019 1:21:58 PM PST by rstrahan
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To: dynachrome

My God read this. What a disaster. They hid this from the American people because they were afraid of LAW SUITS!! This is unacceptable. The President must tend to this very quickly. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/01/14/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read/


9 posted on 01/15/2019 1:22:17 PM PST by Mikemurphy
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To: Mikemurphy
Women should not be on ships!!

Have you read the story? Based on that men shouldn't be on ships.

"Fort determined that Fitz’s crew was plagued by low morale; overseen by a dysfunctional chiefs mess; and dogged by a bruising tempo of operations in the Japan-based 7th Fleet that left exhausted sailors with little time to train or complete critical certifications..."

"...they also appeared to be led by officers who appeared indifferent to potentially life-saving lessons that should’ve been learned from other near-misses at sea, including a similar incident near Sasebo, Japan, that occurred only five weeks before the ACX Crystal collision..."

"FTZ’s command leadership was unaware of just how far below standards their command had drifted,” wrote Fort, a surface warfare officer with more than a quarter-century of experience. “Had the (commanding officer) and (executive officer) critiqued the near-collision, they may have identified the root causes uncovered by this investigation."

"But Fort’s investigation pointed to a disturbing pattern of watchstanders failing to follow standing orders from a skipper and XO who often were inexplicably absent from the bridge, even when the warship was transiting potentially dangerous waters at night."

"Benson and predecessor Shu spent little time on the bridge during nighttime transits and Benson was asleep in his quarters on the fateful night the Fitzgerald collided with the ACX Crystal, Fort wrote.

10 posted on 01/15/2019 1:33:56 PM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Mikemurphy
Fort’s report casts doubt on whether watchstanders on board the Fitz and sister warships in the 7th Fleet had sufficient knowledge of them to safely navigate at sea.

Appears that way Admiral. It was an accident waiting to happen. Hang them from the yardarm

11 posted on 01/15/2019 1:34:02 PM PST by csvset (illegitimi non carborundum)
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To: Mikemurphy

Welcome,Mikemurphy, to FR. Thank you for the link. tbr.


12 posted on 01/15/2019 1:39:47 PM PST by The Westerner (Protect the most vulnerable: get the government out of medicine, education and the forests.)
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To: dynachrome
Ah yes, the navy,

I bet they were all up to date on their diversity training classes. Pissing in buckets on the bridge?

It is to laugh...............

13 posted on 01/15/2019 1:41:21 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: doorgunner69

On the old Fram II destroyers we had a urinal on the bridge wing. Guess that no longer works. Even used it once when the NVA was shelling us.


14 posted on 01/15/2019 2:04:19 PM PST by Oldexpat (Jobs Not Mobs)
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To: DoodleDawg

And all of those things come back to women in the fleet. Do you have any idea how much time and effort is spent of sensitivity training, EEOC training, homo training? etc.

Not only did this soak up valuable training time, it caused a mentality where no superior officer dares offer the slightest discipline or correction to a female subordinate officer. Then this attitude trickles down as they do not demand anything more from their subordinates. In addition, women are promoted beyond their capability for political/sexual reasons.

And then of course, senior enlisteds leave the minute they can, they guys who used to make things run.

And then you have a ship with kettle bells and bottles of piss, broken and canibalized equipment, and OOD who have personality conflicts with others as they navigate Tokyo Bay shipping lanes at night.


15 posted on 01/15/2019 2:04:30 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: DoodleDawg

Have you read the story? Based on that men shouldn’t be on ships.”

Feminized men. In the pre girl Navy only men were on the ships, the enviroment was a a proper meritocracy and things ran well. The meritocracy is the first thing that went out when the girls came in, on account of the fact that if it didn’t the girls couldn’t hack it. How far would any WWII admiral get in today’s navy? He wouldn’t survive, period.


16 posted on 01/15/2019 2:09:12 PM PST by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: DesertRhino

Kettle bells ??


17 posted on 01/15/2019 2:10:57 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: dynachrome

But, to misquote a certain Rush parody song ... “they sailed with pride”

What a shame. Makes the “USS Caine” seem downright shipshape.


18 posted on 01/15/2019 2:13:08 PM PST by Kommodor (Terrorist, Journalist or Democrat? I can't tell the difference.)
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To: Mariner

Yup, that’s what I thought to. So why make up a silly story? Shifting blame away for someone I suppose.


19 posted on 01/15/2019 2:19:29 PM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: tet68

Those workout weights. They look like cannonballs with a handle. The investigator who entered the CIC found kettlebells and bottles of piss. And the Officer in charge of the CIC was a youngish black female and had a massive stack of unfinished paperwork on her desk. She and the female OOD didnt get along apparently.


20 posted on 01/15/2019 2:20:27 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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