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To your point, I have seen what were supposed to be reasonably intelligent and supposedly qualified people simply drive an operation onto the rocks and not exhibit a single shred of remorse or alarm. They apparently just don’t understand or care about the cascade of horrible events that can follow their failures.

Secondly, that the identity of the real person responsible for this collision or that of the McCain has not already been leaked out is a testimony to intimidation of the very impressionable youngsters of the crews. The OOD will be known to those who pay attention.

I have seen the same thing more than once. In search of an explanation, I found my way to the psych literature. It holds that caring about the harm done to others is simply not in the nature of many people. It is a fairly common trait and is a defining feature of the sociopathic personality, which is formally known as antisocial personality disorder.

Notably, some of the features, such as lack of nervousness, are helpful in organizational leadership and command positions. If one knew nothing else about them, most people would be intuitively inclined to pick as officer on deck a cool, collected type instead of a fidgety, nervous sort. Yet the hand-wringing worry wart might be the better choice to get a ship through waters that had the risk of collision or other mishap.