Navy Cruiser Commanding Officer Fired After 4,000-Gallon Fuel Spill

Yahoo News ^ | May 18, 2020 | Gina Harkins

[11th_VA]

The commanding officer of the Navy warship that spilled thousands of gallons of fuel into a Virginia river earlier this month has been removed from her job.

Capt. Erica Hoffmann, commanding officer of the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea was relieved of her duties on Monday, Navy officials announced. Rear Adm. Richard Cheeseman, commander of Carrier Strike Group Two, lost confidence in Hoffmann's ability to command, Lt. Cmdr. Richlyn Ivey with Naval Surface Force Atlantic said.

"Many factors weigh into a decision to relieve a commanding officer due to loss of confidence," Ivey added.

[BaldJohn]

Your point someone failed her is more than obvious since it surely wasn’t the Commander whom opened the wrong valve.

My point is it makes no difference since the Commander assumes responsibility for everything which happens on his watch.

---

When I served it was said that you could delegate authority but not responsibility.

[meatloaf]

She’s had command for a year before being removed. She should have had time to ensure everything was shipshape.

[RaceBannon]

12 o’clock high and Mutiny on the Bounty with Humphrey Bogart.

Both showed problems with levels of command, people who had too much and people who failed to back up their CO when it was needed

[PIF]

Erika herself

More career notes (Task & Purpose - Jeff Schogol):
She will be reassigned to the commander of 4th Fleet’s staff, the news release says.

Originally from New York, Hoffman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1996 and became a surface warfare officer, according to her Navy biography. She completed nuclear training and went on to serve on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, first as a reactor mechanical division officer and then as the main propulsion assistant.

Hoffman later served as the executive officer aboard the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts before taking command of the Philippine Sea in April 2019.

[Wayne07]

We are not prepared for war with China. People who think it is a mismatch underestimate the rot that happened in the military during 8 years of Obama.

[billyboy15]

exactly and nothing has changed.

[PIF]

What’s China doing?

---

Chinese PLAN officers are busy watching reruns of "McHale's Navy" for pointers on present-day US naval tactics

[Samurai_Jack]

I’m trying to figure out how this happened.

They didnt notice that the valves were misaligned?

What happened here really?

[lurk]

Hiring for quotas tends to have a boomerang effect.

We will learn this the hard way.

The destroyer crashes off of Japan also had girl officers.

[Bull Snipe]

As did Navy OCS in the 70s.

[Pollster1]

The Captain sets the tone for qualifications and for watchstanding. The Captain actually is responsible for everything that goes wrong on the ship because of the tone that is establish. When the things that go wrong are big, the captain should in most cases be fired, even (especially) if he/she was asleep. The captain knew or should have known what was happening, and the captain knew or should have known whether the personnel carrying out those operations were up to the job. The captain set the tone for the supervision that the officers and chief petty officers provided.

BTW, I had a few big things get way too interesting on my ships. The difference in the crew’s response with my best captain and with my worst captain was tremendous, and I attribute a large fraction of that difference to the commanding officers.

[Salvavida]

I get it, I was looking for the actual cause. If the Navy relieved her, they obviously know what happened. The journalist didn’t ask the question, or wasn’t provided a suitable answer.

[CedarDave]

The difference in the crew’s response with my best captain and with my worst captain was tremendous, and I attribute a large fraction of that difference to the commanding officers.

That's what makes me wonder about the case of the CO of the carrier Roosevelt. He was fired for a copy of the covid-19 letter or email he sent to his admiral becoming public. When he left the ship, the crew gave him a cheering send off. That makes me think he may have been more liked than respected and that type of CO may not have prepared the ship and response for service as much as possible.

[cpdiii]

"Many factors weigh into a decision to relieve a commanding officer due to loss of confidence," Ivey added.

4000 gallons of diesel is unfortunate and probably not her fault. It is an an easy cleanup and as it is mostly higher volitals not much of an environmental problem.

What this really means is she has a history of screw ups and this was the last straw and she was removed from command.

[meadsjn]

Captain Erica L. Hoffmann was born and raised in New York. She was commissioned in 1996 from the United States Naval Academy, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in English.

A BS in Readin'? Saw that problem right off.

Before Clinton, I believe a USNA commission was contingent on earning a degree in Engineering of some sort.

[Pollster1]

I didn’t read the carrier stories as carefully as I might have. As far as I’m concerned, that CO (1) allowed the outbreak to get out of hand, and (2) allowed his concerns about his ship’s combat readiness to leak. I may have missed important facts, but those two strike me as damning failures.

[Rio]

But she has PERFECT grammar.

[Enterprise]

Might you be referring to The Caine Mutiny with Bogart Mr. Bannon?

:>)

[Lurkinanloomin]

65 posts before anyone attributes the damage done to our military to the proper source, the Kenyanesian Usurpation.

When did the transgendering of our military happen?

When we had an enemy agent foreigner in the White House, the very thing the founders were TRYING to prevent with the natural born citizen clause.

One is only NATURALLY an American when one cannot be anything else.

Obama was born something else WHEREVER he was born he was born a British subject/Kenyan national.

[Redcitizen]

Guilty.