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A Navy investigation finds the ailing skipper of a San Diego-based Navy cruiser retreated to his cabin for several weeks in the middle of a deployment, leaving the 330-member crew leaderless. The probe also revealed that the skipper of the USS Cowpens, Capt. Gregory W. Gombert, was having an improper and "unduly familiar" relationship with the cruiser's acting executive officer, U-T San Diego reported Wednesday.

FLASH NEWS BULLETIN THE "FEMALE CAPTAIN BLIGH" ESCAPES JUSTICE HORRIBLE HOLLY GRAF TO BE RETIRED IN-GRADE GETS GENERAL DISCHARGE BUT NO PUNISHMENT FOR EGREGIOUS CONDUCT - STAYS A CAPTAIN BUT AT LEAST WILL NEVER BE ADMIRAL - BOARD OF INQUIRY SPLIT ON VOTE 2-TO-1. ONE FEMALE ADMIRAL ON THREE-MEMBER PANEL - CREW OF COWPENS CONTACTS MILITARYCORRUPTION.COM CALLS GRAF SLUR "WORST SHIP ON WATERFRONT" A FLAT-OUT LIE - "WE WERE BEST, DESPITE HER." Copyright © 2010 MilitaryCorruption.com The verdict is in, and Horrible Holly Graf has escaped justice. She will be retired in her present grade, despite a laundry list of...

EVEN Captain Bligh might have blushed. The first woman captain of a US navy guided-missile destroyer was relieved of her command for using language so foul that it amounted to “cruelty and maltreatment”, it emerged yesterday. Captain Holly Graf, commander of 400 sailors aboard USS Cowpens, was dubbed “Horrible Holly” by those who felt the lash of her tongue. Officers complained to navy investigators that she humiliated them in front of the crew by showering them with obscenities and calling them “idiots” and “stupid”. Graf’s behaviour, detailed in a navy report, came to light last week when it emerged she...

The Navy has fired six commanding officers since the start of the year -- triple its usual monthly rate -- including a foul-mouthed captain who was dismissed for subjecting her crew to "cruelty and maltreatment" aboard a warship in the Pacific. Capt. Holly Graf, commander of the USS Cowpens, a guided-missile cruiser, was relieved of duty Jan. 13 after an investigation found she cursed so much at her 400-member crew that even the sailors -- no strangers to four-letter words -- were intimidated. According to the Navy inspector general's report released this week, officers complained that their captain humiliated them...

<p>A Navy captain turned the Pacific into the world's strangest drag strip -- ordering two warships to stage a bizarre race that one sailor said nearly ended in tragedy, a high-ranking military official told The Post yesterday.</p> <p>"Multiple witnesses interviewed by the [inspector general] and the commanding officers of both ships all stated that the ships were racing," said Pacific Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Davis.</p>

Friends and rivals: India, US carry out Naval exercises -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vishnu Som Sunday, October 10, 2004 (Aboard USS Cowpens): India and America are holding their latest round of Naval exercises off the coast of Goa. But though both countries have made remarkable strides in their military equation there are some who believe that both sides still consider each other regional rivals waging a turf battle for control of the Indian Ocean. Even exercises as basic as the current ones, would have been unthinkable just a few years ago when diplomatic ties between the two sides were tepid at best. Growing...

Shimoda, Japan (May 15, 2004) - Commander U.S. Seventh Fleet, Vice Adm. Robert F. Willard, accepts a wreath from a Japanese Boy Scout before placing it at the memorial at Shimoda Park, Japan, during the 65th Shimoda Black Ship Festival. The festival promotes the theme of peaceful relations between the Japanese and American people, and commemorates the 1854 landing of Commodore Matthew Perry and the signing of the Japanese-American treaty of trade and amity at Shimoda. This year's festival commemorates the 150th anniversary of that landing. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Alan Warner (RELEASED)SHIMODA, Japan (NNS) --...

Two US Navy ships have arrived at a port in southern China for a visit aimed at building trust and reducing misunderstandings between the navies of the two countries, a US naval official said. The calls by the USS Cowpens and USS Vandegrift to the Zhanjiang port are part of a series of exchanges between the two militaries for the past few years, Lieutenant Commander Mike Brown said. "I think it's a good indication that the continuation of relations between the two countries is moving in a positive direction," Brown, the public affairs officer for the US Navy's Carrier Group...

ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK, Mar 21, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Navy launched about 320 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Iraq from ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, senior officers said Friday. "We have just begun the next phase of attacks in Iraq," said Rear Adm. Matthew G. Moffit, commander of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk battle group in the north Persian Gulf. "The intention is to convince the regime that it is time to leave, and if they don't we will try to take them out by force," Moffit told reporters...

This thread is in tribute to the ships of the US Navy and the pilots of my beloved United States Air Force who fired the first shots in The War of Iraqi Liberation. USS Cowpens Cowpens is an Ticonderoga Class Aegis Cruiser. She is named after a battle in which only 300 colonials defeated a much larger and better trained force of British troops in the Revolutionary War. Her motto is "Victory Vindicates Liberty." USS Bunker Hill The Bunker Hill is also a Tico cruiser. As you can see, they've done this sort of thing before.USS Milius This Arleigh Burke...

ABOARD THE USS COWPENS March 12 — As warplanes roar over the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible strike on Iraq, sailors are readying another weapon for attack: Tomahawk cruise missiles.Sailors aboard the cruiser USS Cowpens and up to 30 other ships within range of Iraq have been running drills on how to launch the sophisticated long-range attack weapon that was first used extensively during the 1991 Gulf War."We run all the way through the system, short of pushing the button to fire," Lt. Cmdr. Jim Jones, 35, of Titusville, Fla., said Tuesday."The only thing missing is the 'click,...