The one elephant in the room everyone is ignoring and not talking about, including the USN, is the OOD......why. Was it a mooselimb? a female with hormone issues, or a guy taking a nap or watching porn on his i phone? The captain was asleep at 2:30 am in the smashed up quarters in the pic, so we know he’s innocent. Everything points to the OOD.
OOD, helmsman, lookouts, CIC, there's lots of blame to go around, and like most accidents there had to be an entire chain of failures for the collision to occur, not just one weak link.
Yes, the OOD was responsible for "driving the ship" at the time of the accident, and I'd eventually be interested in knowing a little bit about their background, strictly from a curiosity standpoint.
While the CO was apparently asleep at the time of the accident, the CO is ultimately responsible for signing off on the OOD's qualifications; i.e., showing his confidence in that officer's ability to drive the ship. The demographic background of that officer shouldn't have factored into the accident, only their qualification and skill in handling the ship.
For the time being, I understand why the Navy would keep that officer's identity protected. Revealing their name would only create a highly-public pre-trial, with all sorts of speculation if the officer was anything other than a white male. If the final report preserves anonymity of that officer, I would find it very disturbing, even to the point of calling it a cover-up. We shall see.