I don’t believe SecDef and SecNav are covering their asses; rather, they are restoring order to the crew of a capital ship that was thrown into disarray by the poor judgment and misconduct of its captain. Crozier did a lot of damage by going outside the chain of command, giving his crew the impression that Navy leadership is against them. Now the Navy must prevent a “soft mutiny” by thousands of young products of our society that are presently suffering from the “feels” and need reminding that they are sailors.
Maybe the crew had a lot of fun while on liberty in Da Nang and that is why they liked Crozier so much.
Thanks for some sanity and I concur.
The San Francisco Chronicle is not the place to air this crap unless the Navy was doing nothing and I refuse to believe they were doing nothing.
A Captain of a ship does not announce via a liberal rag that one of our most critical strategic assets is combat ineffective. What he did panicked the sailors families, panicked Guam, and VERY CLEARLY violated the chain of command. It was entirely inappropriate from start to finish and I felt that way even before I read that he had reached out to the Captain and was working on getting them what they needed.
Not even a perfumed palace prince is going to allow 5000 sailors on one of our capital ships to turn into the cruise ship from hell. Who in their right mind (and not named Clinton) would send such an email via a non-secured system?
“need reminding that they are sailors”
There’s more than one Master Chief on that ship, and probably several hundred Chiefs.
Let them handle it.
In this case the hard approach is the very best solution.
“You need a shave. 30 days restriction to ship.”
“You don’t show proper respect when you speak to the 1st Class. 30 days restriction.”
“We are changing all watch schedules. Port and Starboard for all departments (8 on, 8 off).”
There are hundreds, if not thousands of ways...all proven and used for millennia...to restore good order and discipline.
It used to be the very backbone of the US Navy.
Good on SecNav to set the tone.