I’ve seen links to this Navy Times article on various sites. An excerpt.
Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways.
The probe exposes how personal distrust led the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock, to avoid communicating with the destroyer’s electronic nerve center — the combat information center, or CIC — while the Fitzgerald tried to cross a shipping superhighway.
When Fort walked into the trash-strewn CIC in the wake of the disaster, he was hit with the acrid smell of urine. He saw kettlebells on the floor and bottles filled with pee. Some radar controls didn’t work and he soon discovered crew members who didn’t know how to use them anyway.
Fort found a Voyage Management System that generated more “trouble calls” than any other key piece of electronic navigational equipment. Designed to help watchstanders navigate without paper charts, the VMS station in the skipper’s quarters was broken so sailors cannibalized it for parts to help keep the rickety system working.
Since 2015, the Fitz had lacked a quartermaster chief petty officer, a crucial leader who helps safely navigate a warship and trains its sailors — a shortcoming known to both the destroyer’s squadron and Navy officials in the United States, Fort wrote.
Fort determined that Fitz’s crew was plagued by low morale; overseen by a dysfunctional chiefs mess; and dogged by a bruising tempo of operations in the Japan-based 7th Fleet that left exhausted sailors with little time to train or complete critical certifications.
But I’ll be willing to bet that they were up to date on their Diversity (All Hail Diversity!) and Sexual Harassment training.
As I’ve said before, the collision was totally avoidable. Six minutes after a contact is spotted on radar, the radar operator should already have the CPA (Closest Point of Approach) and if he is half way competent, the course and speed. I was an electronics technician who stood radar watches on the Iredell County (LST-839) and I could do it. Plus, there is a radar repeater on the con and any idiot with a grease pencil and a ruler could easily determine the CPA. The OODs on the Iredell County could.
And WTF was the matter with the ETs on that ship? I was an ET, and altho’ I was not a big fan of Navy discipline (I’m surprised at some of the stuff I got away with) I always kept my gear up to snuff. I don’t care how bad my morale was, I took pride in my work. For the last year of my enlistment, I was the only ET on board who could fix anything and everyone knew it which is why I got away with what I did. I kept all my equipment in top notch shape. The ET gang on that ship had to be a bunch of losers.
As for readiness, it is not solely a Navy problem. Over the holidays, I talked to an Army dude who has been in for 17 years (and is really looking forward to getting out in 3 more years). He was bitching about readiness and how it has taken a back seat to SHARP. He was really irate about this.
“What’s SHARP”, I asked.
He told me. SHARP is Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention. According to him, that is much more important than readiness training. He’s had to stand down from a training exercise to attend a SHARP class. Can you imagine that?
The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things but the dweebs at the Pentagon have decided that SHARP is more important. I’m sure it was on the Fitzgerald as well.
We’re doomed!
When I was in the pecker puffers and pansies got harassed a lot. Simple reason, they brought it on themselves. There were a few who had the brains to e silent and they got along fine, but the ones who hit on a fellow soldier who was straight were in for it.
As for women getting harassed, Every incident I ever encountered was a false flag. A female soldier looking to get back at a male superior. In one case the female did not want to pull the same duty that every male of her rank had to pull, shop security, so she flied charges against her superior who just happened to be gay.
Hey Denny;
I was hoping that the rot that got started under Bill Clinton and really pushed by Obungler was removed but I wonder if the rot is too entrenched and it will take a war where the weak officers are removed, but unfortunately if that happens a lot of ratings will also buy the farm. On a different note, your cut and paste from the Navy Times is double.
Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.
From what I’ve seen and been told, it’s been a slide for decades. We had Clinton with the Peace Dividend. The Reagan navy was gutted. Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ had the Navy sucking hind tit for money, but running an increased tempo. Obama accelerated the decline, while adding diversity (Bush II was big on sexual harassment training).
At the same time, the admirals bet on shiny new untried ships and systems. That’s why we have an aircraft carrier that can’t launch planes, destroyers that can’t fire their guns, and the Little Crappy Ship class. Since the new ships aren’t working, the old ships have to work harder.
Where did this money get diverted from? Maintenance and training, of course. Most training courses went from the hands-on and classroom training to on-line. Much cheaper! The only training in classrooms… diversity and sexual harassment. They’ll make it up in OJT, the admirals say.
OJT is good, but you can’t tear down gear you need running, and if you don’t have parts, you’re SOL. The sailors have been trying to do depot maintenance on their own, with a few videos to help, inadequate tools and scarce parts. My last reserve duty had me buying stuff at Radio Shack to repair the bridge radio. That was in 2003. Radio Shack is gone and I doubt things got better.
So, higher tempo, no support, no parts, no real training, and looking like it’s only going to get worse. The chiefs who are competent saw that and got out or retired. There are some left, sure, but most of the senior enlisted (and the more intelligent officers) got tired of being told to bend over sans lube on a daily basis. The modern chief is great at Social Justice, since that was what got them promoted. Are they competent at their actual job? NO.
Glad I left when my enlistment was up after just two years in the Army. Back in 84 I and others saw the rot starting in and becoming worse. I am not at all surprised by the emphasis on Sexual Harassment Training. Par for the course and pretty sad. You nailed it Denny the military is here to kill people and destroy things, not to be a social experiment. We are deep trouble and most people don’t know it.
What the hell is WRONG with you guys! Can’t you realize that gender diversity is MUCH more important to the health of a nation than self-defense readiness?
Good grief! Who cares if girl recruits can’t meet physical training standards?
What difference does it make if guys act weird when females are assigned to their combat units?
Which is more important anyway, some ambiguous medieval idea of “morale” or political correctness?
As Frank Burns once said, “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.” And that pretty much sums it all up, doesn’t it. Girls are nice, and so are trannies, and snowflakes, and metrosexuals, and poofters.
What’s wrong with our military today stems from the Neanderthalian toxic male brutality of “kill or be killed.” That’s NO WAY to win friends and influence people.
We MUST work toward being a kinder, gentler nation, one which recognizes that the US is the source of all trouble and conflict in the world today and that it’s all the fault of white male privilege.
Get with it, guys. The Gillette commercial is a much better training film than all those disgusting John Wayne movies put together.
Hey, Ron, thanks for that. Now I can check the “Diversity Training” box for the day.
My daughter said that in her eight years in the Navy, she got more unwelcome attention from the lesbians than from the guys.
I remember the comedy group Monty Python`s presentation of a British Army group marching in close order drill sashaying in the best & very funny poofter portrayal which was outrageously provocative but humorous fashion.
What passed for humor back then seems to be the sad state of our current Military protocol as to the first directive .
The old time Military statement of “This is my rifle ,this is my gun one is for killing, the other is for fun” seem s to be like many of millennial`s today & feminized PC men……………more then a little confused.
When the next war breaks out will the modern PC soldier reach for his rifle or his enemy`s gun. After the first confrontation will he clean his rifle or gargle.
re:
Neanderthal peoples
Extensive research by archeologists indicates Neanderthal people lived in small mobile communities as they hunted and gathered.
Evidence shows peaceful merchant- and trade-oriented cross-tribal gatherings == rendezvous == several times each season.
For about 200,000 years, they ranged from the Iberian peninsula to east of current-day Moscow. Portugal to Russia.
What killed them as a people? Immigrants from Africa. Faster breeders and extremely violent without empathy, Neanderthal didn’t stand a chance against them.
Neanderthal DNA continues. Irish and Scandinavian show a consistent 3-7 percent Neanderthal DNA.
Genome tests on my family resulted in a whopping 11 percent Neanderthal DNA.
The recent kerfuffle with the Army’s special forces training is instructive.
The people responsible for training and yes weeding out less capable soldiers are being punished for not wanting to pass on those incapable of performing up to a standard.
All that will accomplish is that the morale of the trainers will erode and the capability of the forces will degrade. Same stuff with many fire fighters and police officers.
In the name of diversity, we weaken ourselves, in the name of diversity we soften our defenses. All hail diversity! (thanks for the phrase Denny)
“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” – CSA, General George W. Casey Jr.
The libs have destroyed the military from the inside. They have even stopped the shellback and Chief’s initiation. They are out to break all the tradition that made the Navy the best fighting force in the world.
Grandfather was USN 1907-1914
Father was USN 1941-1946
I was USN 1979-1993.
The libs will come after the National anthem and flag next. When they get that we will cease as a nation. I hope I don’t live to see it.
Hooya Denny.
Vetfromhell
You know you are in trouble when the first two syllables of the training are “her ass”.
Boy, from time immemorial there’s been plenty of trouble that started with “her ass.”
Not until the snake and the apple. Nobody saw “her ass” before coughing up a rib.
Navy vet from the 80’s here, and with a retired Senior Chief brother. He now works as a civilian on the ships he worked while he was in, and he and the other 50-70 year olds on his team frequently fly out to ships to assist with repairs, because there is no one on the ship who can fix the engines. From what he says, the kids just coming aboard have some book knowledge but no wrench knowledge, and sucky attitudes. They complain about getting dirty. How can you imagine you could work in an engine room and not get dirty? The Navy base here is constantly making announcements about their diversity programs and exhibitions, and the pictures show troops looking beyond bored. I don’t know how they are going to fix this, but it’s scary times.
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Hi from the UK, we are in the same position with our armed forces the left are actively destroying our forced from the inside out https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5307683/british-army-advert-campaign-emotional-support-solider-political-correctness/ hopefully post Brexit we can start to do something about it.
Seems there is more than one way to kill a nation’s military. One is to bleed your enemy out in combat. The other is to bleed out the enemy’s mind. This is from Sun Tzu. The left has been poisoning Americans minds for more than a century! Behold the harvest of their unremitting labor and pray for us.
As a NROTC midshipman in the 1960’s, first time aboard a seagoing vessel of any kind, we were plotting all bogie(?)on vacuum tube repeaters in CIC. Yellow wax markers traced the path of those vessels that were expected to pass within a specified range(2000 yard? it was 50 years ago)
We did this with minimal training, and stood watch as if we’d come through Great Lakes and an ‘A’ school for watchstanders. Woe betide the middy who couldn’t figure out the process. Not USNA middies.
To hear the conditions in CIC on Fitz was unbelievable, and reflected poorly on the Department Head and the CO and XO. For the XO to take command after the near miss of a few months previous and have the collision occur indicates his absolute ineptitude for command. His predecessor CO left him with a steaming pile, and should be held to account for that, but he himself is to blame for allowing it to continue to the end fatal result.
Career? over. for several.
Meant to note this was just outside Norfolk, where a lot of traffic was transiting to/from Chesapeake Bay.
Yep! I was an ET who was trained to stand radar watches in less than an hour. Take three fixes two minutes apart marked with a grease pen on the CRT screen. Draw a line with a straight edge and get the CPA (closest point of approach). Put those fixes on a maneuvering board and with a parallel ruler and a set of dividers come up with the course and speed. Six minutes for the CPA. Another minute for the course and speed. It’s not rocket science.