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.
“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.
“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.
soebarkah’s navy
“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?”
Exactly - this was pure show, which should be the LAST consideration in deciding whether to bring a court-martial action.
While the incompetent crew is a factor, it does not relieve the Captain of his responsibility.
The ship was navigating through the Straits of Hormuz, one of the most hazardous sea channels in the World.
40 years ago I passed through that channel on the USS Turner Joy and we witnessed a cruiser in our task force that nearly missed colliding with a merchant ship that night.
Their radar blips merged on the screen — it was that close.
And our Captain was on-deck. He posted me as an extra Junior Officer of the Deck on the port-side bridge. This was sometime around midnight.
Besides, the Captain should be well-aware of his officers’ incompetence.
So you were there and know everything that went down that day. So what was your own testimony in the hearing?
Inquiring minds would like to know......