Posted on 11/08/2021 5:29:01 PM PST by ameribbean expat
SEATTLE
A metallurgist in Washington state pleaded guilty to fraud Monday after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines. Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls. From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for at least 240 productions of steel — about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy, according to her plea agreement, filed Monday in U.S.
*****
The government did not disclose which subs were affected. Thomas faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine when she is sentenced in February. However, the Justice Department said it would recommend a prison term at the low end of whatever the court determines is the standard sentencing range in her case.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Her actions put thousands at risk. maximum jail sentence not minimum.
We used to shoot saboteurs in this country.
L
Holy moly, this is massive. Potentially multi-billion dollar issue.
She suggested that in some cases she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was “stupid” that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit (negative-73.3 degrees Celsius).
What would motivate this kind of falsification? Laziness? Unreasonable production demands? Ignorance? All of the above? When manufacturing for the US Military, short cuts and sloppy work will get you in trouble.
How in the world could the Navy end up putting all its faith in one single metallurgist on an issue this big? That sounds like a total failure of the command structure on the engineering side.
We often give China crap for their shoddy standards. Their concrete is bad. Their steel is bad. We tell ourselves that our quality is so much higher.
Well, we cheat too.
Her days on the street should be over > IMO.
What would motivate this kind of falsification? Laziness? Unreasonable production demands? Ignorance
see post 5
“Her actions put thousands at risk. maximum jail sentence not minimum.”
I wonder if the “max safe depth” on the subs (which is no doubt classified) has been reduced over this. I suppose that they have kept tags of these metals, can retest them, and take appropriate steps as needed.
We used to shoot saboteurs in this country.
"Women's intuition," maybe. Which is what females call it when their egos get out of control.
Her corporate bosses would be my guess.
Sentence her to 25 years alone, in one of her subs.
She needs to be put in front of a firing squad.
After 25 years in the defense industry, sometimes scientists think government specifications are silly. Sometimes they are, but you do the work anyway.
Maybe she is a Communist.
I’m thinking these are huge, expensive castings and nobody in the plant wanted to send them to the scrap melt. Be interesting to see how much they are under spec.
This reminds me of the John Glenn quote. When asked how he felt sitting on top of the rocket before launch, he supposedly said: “I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.’”
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.