One of my brother QMCs is probably eating it too.
Yep. A lot of civilians don’t see this as “fair.” It probably isn’t. But it is the way it is for reasons other than fairness. BTT.
Those desks ain’t gonna sail themselves....
this is standard operating procedure. You run your ship aground, you lose command of the ship. A guy I know was on a ship in Bermuda in the 1960’s that ran aground on a reef and they had to wait until a new captain could be flown in to sail away from the island.
He’s got enough time in that he can retire.
Oops!
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz ran his ship aground early in his career, for which he was court martialed. Luckily for us all, he was able to overcome that.
now that would be embarrassing and career marring.
i know a guy that forgot to put the landing gear down on his plane.
this is a town small enough that everyone of any importance knew him.
They were with my lady, the ‘Liu?
Damn!
There but for the grace of God go I. My first opportunity to end my Captain’s career came on one of my first OODI watches. Our LST was steaming down the bay after dropping Marines for their winter training around Mt. Fuji, and I had the first watch that night. The ship had to cross the traffic in the channel below Tokyo. The channel was unregulated, but ships had generally decided there were two lanes close to shore for shallow draft ships and two more in the main channel for large merchants. Well, I lost the bubble and could not sort out the hundreds of running lights. However, I did have sense enough to call the Captain. When he arrived on the bridge the first thing he said was, “Where are you?” When he realized by my fuzzy answer I was lucky to know I was on the bridge, he led me to the chart. That is when I realized the 3rd class quartermaster was contentedly plotting me onto a volcanic rock at the entrance of the bay. I remember seeing little or no blue between the last fix and the shoreline. Once I got the ship into safe waters, he helped me sort out the running lights.
The amazing thing is he let me keep my job. I have always been amazed at his courage to persist in developing me even though I badly disappointed him more than once. I went to a reunion in San Diego and discovered all members of the ship’s company held him in the highest regard. I noticed he made a point to station himself near the entrance to the hospitality room so he could always be among the first to greet new arrivals.
Navigation-by-Braille is rarely career-enhancing.
Survival of the fittest isn’t always fair, but it works.
the amphibious landing-dock ship ran agroundUh, okay.
why would the CO of a ship
take a chance with his career
by taking a shortcut?
On my second or third cruise, an LST made a landing in Vietnam waters and got stuck on the beach with a full complement of ROK Marines on board. We were in Subic and got orders to steam for VN to assist, but first we had to create a spot on the Boat Deck for a Mike boat. That meant off-loading a 40 and 50' utility boat.
We were about 50 miles from Yankee Station when we received the word that the LST was once again afloat. Back to Subic to continue tender availabilies to the fleet. All in a days work but we did manage to get an "Atta-Boy". That Atta-boy and 10 cents bought a pack of Luckies at the ship's store.
Sandbars are moving targets, rough break. The Navy does not believe in streaks of bad luck though.