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The number of captains being removed is at levels that has some here wondering if there is a purge going on. It seems to be monthly if not more frequently, now.

I just looked and the average for the last 10-15 years is 12 commanders. In 2010, there were 17 fired, and 11 were for personal misconduct. That's 17 out of just over 1,600 commanding officers in the Navy - both ship and ashore, so only 1%, which is not that much.

The highest in the last 10 years was back in 2003 when 26 commanders were fired. 2003 is the year we invaded Iraq, which would have put a lot of stress and strain on commanding officers. Some incompetent officers that had made their way through the system in far less demanding times probably ran into situations that were well above their capabilities and they were found out.

The stuff many are being removed for is stuff that has always gone on.

I think you've got something here. It seems like a lot of the folks being fired, word gets out on their misdeeds and so the Navy feels pressured to respond. Thanks to videos, emails, Facebook, etc., this crap gets out, and stuff that in the past would have gotten a slap on the wrist gets turned into a public scandal that they Navy has to deal with. We're talking about stuff that would never have ended up in the public spotlight 20 years ago.

The alternative could be that it's easier to prosecute these days because of emails, Facebook, etc. leading to evidence that's hard to cover up. It seems like quite a few officers get the boot because of sexual misconduct.

As an example, in the past, if an officer was sleeping with an enlisted crew member, it could be easy to cover up and easy to deny - I had to do a few investigations in the Air Force for similar issues. If both parties clam up, unless you have direct eyewitness testimony, rumors and allegations are going to remain just that - rumors and allegations.

Now these dumbasses have their photos on their Facebook accounts or they leave an email or text message trail. You can't ignore it and they can't cover it up.

Given that for the past 10 years, we've been at war, and for several of those years at war in two countries in addition to smaller conflicts, I actually find it speaks highly of the Navy that they only have to fire on average a dozen commanding officers a year. I really would have thought the average would have been more than 12 a year.