Posted on 10/17/2016 7:00:13 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
The head of the surface Navy on Thursday fired the commanding officer of a littoral combat ship that damaged one of its main propulsion diesel engines in July.
Vice Adm. Tom Rowden cashiered the CO of Crew 106 of LCS Freedom, Cmdr. Michael Wohnhaas, “due to loss of confidence in his ability to effectively lead and carry out his assigned duties,” Naval Surface Force Pacific said in a Friday release announcing the removal.
“The loss of confidence followed an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding damage to the ship's number 2 main propulsion diesel engine (#2 MPDE) that occurred in the operation areas off the coast of southern California on July 11,” the SURFPAC release said. “No final decision has been made yet on the options for follow-on repairs to Freedom related to the July 11 engineering casualty.”
(Excerpt) Read more at navytimes.com ...
They make it sound like he put sand and sugar in the engine.
Strange.
Water in the bio-diesel?
And people wonder why good men never consider joining a group like the military.
It sucks to be captain when something goes wrong, even if it wasn’t your fault, you are responsible....................
The CO of the ship is responsible for anything that happens, regardless of who else was involved. This is why Captains lose their command if the boat runs aground, even if they weren’t on the bridge at the time. In this case, the responsibility for ensuring the engineers were properly trained falls ultimately to the ship’s commanding officer; either he signed off on readiness reports that claimed the crew was trained, or he didn’t issue the appropriate orders to effect such a process. About the only time the Navy possibly wouldn’t remove the CO is if they can conclusively determine that everything was done correctly, and that something failed anyway, and even then, I’d guess it depends on the situation.
What a FUBAR project. 4 month rotations on board are barely enough for good qualifications. They are already relieving commanders for crew errors in the engine room.
An LCS aint no floating tin can. Sea water in the lube oil will destroy a hi-tech engines faster than last generation. Tighter tolerances mean less room for mechanical or human error.
They are taking the blame for BAD engineering...............
The firings will continue until morale improves...............
Maybe. But naval officers are in a rare environment where they have 100% authority and are therefore 100% responsible and accountable.
Think about how stuff goes to hell and lower enlisted and NCOs take the brunt of the damage and punishment. Think about how bad that is for morale.
A certain level of respect is accorded when the crew knows that the CO’s head will roll.
Forgot to check the oil?
Spinning donuts is never a good idea, even in water.
It looks cool until someone blows an engine.
LCS the Houthis dream of it
I had a VW sedan, bummer: I had to add oil about every time I gassed up.
But except for cleaning the filter, didn’t have to change the oil. Cool.
Sounds like an abused engine or the valve guides were shot. Should have run Castrol 20W50?
I would guess one of 3 things was involved in the decision:
1) A decision not do scheduled maintenance due to a scheduling conflict or other CO priority
2) An attempt to cover up in the logs, etc
3) Conducting operations outside the limits of standard procedure or failure to ensure personnel were appropriately trained and/or supervised by those trained.
Dealer made me do an oil consumption test where they checked the oil consumption each week. I had to drain a quart of oil before every Dealer check to increase the oil consumption in order for them to repair the rings and cyllinders.
Worn rings I’m guessing. I ran the wheels off that Bug.
Rowed across the Rockies, back and forth across the country.
One time I was on I-70 Kansas turnpike and it was very windy. I had it topped out at about 80+ mph.
Crested a rise and the wind pushed me into the other lane—skittered like a water skate.
I thought about dropping the engine, honing the pistons and new rings, but an uninvited foreign guest ran a stop sign at LAX and boogered the front end.
So had to let go for $1500. Paid about 2K nine years earlier.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.