Sorry, that hardly qualifies you as any expert in US Naval Warship watches. My 11 years as an Aviation Boatswains Mate does. Plus, even the Captain gets to sleep. Again, that's why Navy warships have around the clock watches, so others can get some rest after long hours of their specific duties. Even ground grunts are relieved to recuperate.
"So at 2:30 AM with no alerts of a threat while stationary , off the shiiping lanes , in a holding area in the lee of several small islands, 65 miles off the harbor entrance - how much of the crew was on watch vs in quarters or on routine duty below deck?"
Not sure those are the facts as yet.
As for the cargo,ship crew of 20 how many of them were on the bridge or on watch at 2:30am - “ most”?"
You really believe that a super cargo ship has only 20 crewmen? Those humongous transports operate by the same Maritime rules as any US Navy ship regarding watches. Your short stint as the "Skipper" of your boat dis-qualifies your input. Unless you served on a Navy frigate or above, you have no idea how the system works.
Still, I don't understand why the CIC mid-watch personnel with all their Aegis gear didn't see the freighter coming, not to mention the separate radar on the bridge. Aegis DD's don't miss anything with their state-of-art systems. That's why they are the best in the world.
Something is wrong here, but it's not because too many were sleeping with too few manning the systems as you imply. Watch, Watch, Watch. I had my fill of watches after my regular 12 hour flight deck duties.
My take: The CIC watch officer and the OOD on the bridge had a simultaneous fuck up.
Never claimed to have been on a navy watch at sea just as you never spent time pulling the watches Or running the duties I held over 10 years but we might have exchanged message traffic
Im sure it was exciting to be at on watch sea
it was also exciting to be in the watch center in back during the Iran- Iraq war when we were talking real time to tankers being escorted through the Persian gulf while the Rev Guard boats were harassing them and the Silkworm batteries were lighting up - i left that watch pcs just 3 days before the Vincennes “ incident”
among other interesting times
I have pulled all nighters not in a watch but on a tiller at sea near shipping lanes in a small craft scanning the horizon to make sure I wasnt going to get run down by some moving light on the horizon or needed to alter course to stay out of the way, so sure as hell don’t know why these guys got in trouble with all their experience manpower training and resources
So yeah i have no idea how the system works
The cargo crew of 20 info came from a news story quoting the Japanese Coast Guard -
Aside from the patronizing i think we’re on the same team or used to be