Replies

for centuries The Captain of a Navy Warship was held responsible no matter what. Sometimes that was unfair but the principal involved worked. Warship Captains worried about their ship 24/7.

Now, with rampant PC, ACCOUNTABILITY is a joke and has been for at least 2 decades. Weak kneed admirals are afraid of the press and politicians. That’s the problem and bs like the Fitzgerald with 7 killed, the McCain with 10 killed and the Cole with 17 killed will continue to happen until a CNO with balls takes over and order in the ranks is restored.

The COLE bombing I'd put square on the Pentagon for blame. The ship should have fueled from another ship in company. We refueled smaller ships all the time at sea. The Cole was two days out from our nearest responding US Navy ship. That breaks the strength in numbers rule. Ships course as far as destination are not decided by the Captain. Cole was operating under orders of the Clinton administration.

One other observation is many times Captain's hands are tied from defensive actions and it goes high up the chain of command again often to The Pentagon and even the White House. They are caught in a political game of Mother May I while someone is weighing political considerations. If the Captain is to blame if attacked as Cole was then Captain's should have full discretion to act in a defensive manner. I would give pilots the same leeway as well.

Sometimes even with the best of Captain's things can and do go wrong. We almost became the first aircraft carrier to land in Yugoslavia literally. An Alpine Express which didn't show up on radar until about a couple minutes before it struck caught us and we began dragging anchor right off Dubrovnik. The Captain was on the beach meaning ashore at the time and his boat unable to transit back and we had to cut our launches loose and send all boats to the beach as we got underway literally in seconds. IT was a very close call but the XO did his duty and gave orders to get the ^^^^ ship underway and get it underway now over the 1MC..

BTW The Captain a few months later had his star which he had very well earned in his service. If we had of grounded the Navy did not have a punishment worse than what that man endured as one of the longest held in the Hilton.

I saw the same thing happen later at NOB Norfolk. This time we were moored at pier 12 and the ship stayed put. Many of the rest were broke loose from their piers & out in the river channel after the storm hit.