Posted on 07/11/2018 10:49:45 AM PDT by servo1969
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – The former commander of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) has pleaded not guilty to charges he committed criminal acts leading up to the collision of the guided-missile destroyer, in a Tuesday arraignment.
Cmdr. Bryce Benson is now set to face a general court-martial on charges of negligence and hazarding a vessel, after entering his plea during a brief hearing before a military judge today. The trial is set for Jan. 28.
Benson was in his stateroom asleep when merchant ship ACX Crystal collided with Fitzgerald on June 17, 2017, off the coast of Japan. The collision resulted in the death of seven sailors. The collision also crushed Benson’s cabin and left him hanging on the side of the ship for 15 minutes before the crew rescued him.
While serious, the charges Benson faces do not include negligent homicide charges that were initially announced by the Navy in January.
The Navy pared back criminal charges against Benson and two junior officers aboard Fitzgerald last month. The move from Adm. James F. Caldwell, the officer in charge of overseeing accountability actions for the collisions of Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain (DDG-56), followed a recommendation from an Article 32 hearing officer who recommended the junior officers not face any criminal charges for their roles in the collision.
[Embedded Document]
For his part, Benson waived his right Article 32 hearing.
Caldwell elected to bring the charges of negligent hazarding a vessel and dereliction of duty resulting in death against Benson and Lt. Natalie Combs. Combs was serving in the destroyer’s Combat Information Center during the collision. Caldwell also determined that Lt. Irian Woodley, who was also on duty in CIC, not face court-martial but be separated from the Navy via an administrative board.
All three received non-judicial punishment soon after the collision, USNI News has learned.
The officer of the deck at the time of the Fitzgerald collision, Lt j.g. Sarah Coppock, pleaded guilty to a single count of negligence for her role in the collision as part of a deal with prosecutors in a special court-martial in May.
McCain’s former commander, Cmdr. Alfredo Sanchez, pleaded guilty to a single count of negligence in a special court-martial. Former McCain Chief Boatswain’s Mate Jeffery Butler, who was responsible for training enlisted watchstanders, pleaded guilty to one count of negligence in a summary court-martial.
In addition to the courts-martial, Caldwell has overseen 18 non-judicial punishments related to both collisions.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald sits in Dry Dock 4 at Fleet Activities Yokosuka to continue repairs and assess damage sustained from its June 17, 2017 collision with a merchant vessel. (U.S. Navy photo/Christian Senyk)
Pleaded?
Plead.
OK I recently read an article that said there were two FEMALE officers in charge that night, in positions that normally involve nearly constant communications between those two posts- but there was nearly none that night because they were not speaking to each other...
This commander was ASLEEP... wtf?
May 8, 2018
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – Lt. j.g. Sarah B. Coppock was contrite and quiet when she pleaded guilty on a single criminal charge for her role in the collision between the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and a merchant ship that killed seven sailors.
Before a military judge and almost a dozen family members of the sailors who died, she pleaded guilty to one violation of Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Coppock was the officer of the deck when Fitzgerald collided with ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan on June 17. As part of a plea arrangement, she told military judge Capt. Charles Purnell her actions were partially responsible for the deaths of the sailors who drowned in their berthing after the collision.
“My entire career my guys have been my number one priority,” she said.
“When it mattered, I failed them. I made a tremendously bad decision and they paid the price.”
In her plea, Coppock admitted that she violated ship commander Cmdr. Bryce Benson’s standing orders several times during the overnight transit off the coast of Japan, violated Coast Guard navigation rules, did not communicate effectively with the watch standers in the Combat Information Center, did not operate safely in a high-density traffic condition and did not alert the crew ahead of a collision.
Purnell sentenced her three months reduced pay and issued a punitive reprimand.
While Coppock did admit to wrongdoing, both the prosecutors and defense attorneys painted a picture of a difficult operating environment.
When Fitzgerald collided with Crystal, the malfunctioning SPS-73 bridge radar was tracking more than 200 surface tracks – a mix of large merchant ships and fishing vessels near the coast of Japan, according to the findings of fact in the trial. Coppock was under orders for the ship to cross a busy merchant shipping lane – a so-called traffic separation – that wasn’t labeled on the charts provided by the navigation team. She was also ordered to keep the ship moving at a high-rate of speed during the transit – 20 to 22 knots. The high speed lowered the time the crew could react to ships around them.
Coppock said she didn’t rely enough on the officers on watch in the ship’s combat information center (CIC) to help keep track of the surface contacts as a back up to her crew on the bridge. Prosecutors and defense attorneys that the conditions aboard Fitzgerald made the collision more likely.
“Coppock failed in her duties, but she received very little support,” prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Paul Hochmuth argued during the sentencing portion of the trial.
“Being complacent was the standard on USS Fitzgerald.”
During the sentencing portion of the trial, lawyers for the defense outlined the gapped billets and inability to complete training on Fitzgerald. For example, the ship had been without a chief quartermaster for two years before the collision, and the SPS-73 navigation radar was unreliable, defense attorney Lt. Ryan Mooney said, quoting from the Navy’s investigation into the collision. The watch stander in the CIC who operated the SPS-67 search and surveillance radar was unfamiliar with the system.
“Lt. Coppock was not put in a position to succeed,” Mooney said.
“She was set up to fail.”
As part of her statement to the court, Coppock described a tattoo on her left wrist that she got shortly after she returned to shore after the incident. The tattoo includes the coordinates of the location of the collision; the motto of the ship, “Protect your People”; and seven shamrocks, one for each of the sailors who drowned in the flooded berthing.
“I’ll never forget [the coordinates],” she told the judge.
“I spent two hours yelling it in a radio trying to get help.”
The trial now supersedes a non-judicial punishment issuance by then-U.S. 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin for Coppock shortly following the collision. Her case was reconsidered for court-martial following the assignment of Adm. James Caldwell, director of Naval Reactors, as the Consolidated Disposition Authority who was appointed to oversee additional accountability actions for the Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) collisions.
One military attorney told USNI News that trying a service member at court-martial after assigning punishment at NJP was an unusual move.
“It’s unusual to follow [non-judicial punishment] with a court-martial,” Rob “Butch” Bracknell, a former Marine and military lawyer, told USNI News on Tuesday.
“So the increased punishment is effectively a couple thousand dollars fine and a misdemeanor conviction on a charge of dereliction resulting in death? What was the point?”
The charge Coppock faced on Tuesday as part of the plea agreement was less severe than charges announced by the Navy in January, in which Coppock and two other unidentified junior officers on Fitzgerald faced a combination of charges that included negligent homicide and hazarding a vessel.
While not specified in the trial, the nature of the plea agreement suggests Coppock will likely be a prosecution witness against the upcoming courts-martial of then-Fitzgerald commander Benson or the two other junior officers who have been charged, two military lawyers told USNI News last week.
The two watchstanders who were in the CIC during the collision will face a judge on Wednesday for preliminary hearings on criminal charges for their roles in the collision that include hazarding a vessel and negligence.
This captain was assigned an incompetent untrained crew of female officers. At the time of the collision, the two female officers running the ship were having a hen fight and not talking to each other.
Their incompetence caused this collision.
If this captain had clamped down on them with more training or had them reassigned off the ship the diversity police and the cowardly Navy command structure would have thrown him out of the service.
Welcome to the world of a diverse, women and minority led Navy.
Pray that the Chinese or Russians or Iranians don’t attack.
I believe that even Captains of a Ship of War is required to sleep at some point. The trick is to ensure that you are not sleeping when your ship collides with another ship. The key to success in command involves good timing.
“In her plea, Coppock admitted that she violated ship commander Cmdr. Bryce Benson’s standing orders several times during the overnight transit off the coast of Japan, “
But Benson is a white male, so he will be the one going to jail.
Pleadeded.............
A coverup for the incompetence of the female officers forced upon him.
Notice that the males involved are being roasted and the females are not. That should tell you the mind set of the modern military and Navy. And I have also heard or seen what you mentioned about them not speaking to each other. Diversity and women in combat positions, how well it works! Right???
Captains of warships do sleep - but they remain responsible while asleep.
Benson was in an untenable position. He was dealt a bad hand by fate, starting with a politically correct crew.
Actually, pleaded is correct.
“A coverup for the incompetence of the female officers forced upon him.”
Which is why when people ask if they should join the military, I usually only recommend it for enlisted looking for the VA education benefit.
“Purnell sentenced her three months reduced pay and issued a punitive reprimand.”
Just wow. And it is claimed she was set up to fail.
So much about this doesn’t make sense, but I will bet that the CO’s standing orders says to wake him for all CPA’s less than 2 to 3 miles.
If you knowingly violate the CO’s standing orders, then it makes perfect sense he’d still be asleep.
Times may have changed, but if I had violated the CO’s standing orders I’m pretty sure one of my enlisted watchstanders would have dropped a dime that minute. Of course, we had QM’s keeping a paper plot at the time.
What about CIC?
The whole thing stinks.
In New Speak we are purging archaic forms like strong conjugation and the subjunctive from our language. It is too hard to find teachers who understand these things or SAT graders either.
“...with a politically correct crew.”
And it will cost you nearly every time...BTDT, back in the affirmative action 70s when my platoon received an administrative in-battalion transfer of an NCO who was being kid-gloved towards retirement. He was a 17-years-in-service E-6 Staff Sergeant who was never going to make E-7. Screwed up a live missile technical inspection and neither I nor the platoon sergeant could stop the screw-up before the observers had marked down the error. I was not allowed to make reference to the incident nor greatly impact the scoring on his Enlisted Efficiency Report due to decisions made above me about sending him toward the door at 20.
soebarkah’s navy
I was thinking, also, that “pleaded” is incorrect, but look at this:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/is_it_pleaded_or_pled/
What were the standing orders violated?
You can’t tell me there wasn’t some intimation of the radar failure, the lack of training of the crew, or the unprofessional demeanor of the officers involved. This didn’t happen in a vacuum, but I do have some sympathy for the Captain trying to lead sailors in the undermanned and ridiculous PC environment in force at the time of the incident.
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.