Navy temporarily relieves commander from ocean collision
The Navy has temporarily relieved the injured commander of the U.S.ship involved in a major ocean collision with a cargo ship in mid-June.
The investigation is on-going, and they say this action is because he is injured, not because of any decision based on the investigation. I personally do not expect this commander to ever get a command again.
For those that want to read a detailed discussion on Behind the Black of this incident, see this thread.
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The Navy has temporarily relieved the injured commander of the U.S.ship involved in a major ocean collision with a cargo ship in mid-June.
The investigation is on-going, and they say this action is because he is injured, not because of any decision based on the investigation. I personally do not expect this commander to ever get a command again.
For those that want to read a detailed discussion on Behind the Black of this incident, see this thread.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Comment made by an Admiral in an interview on the subject: “I expect the executive officer and his subordinates will be fired.”
And so it begins.
Human error or what appears to be in-attendance late at night ON A WAR SHIP (?), crazy to me. But thats humans.
Q: What would HAL 2000 have done?
As I wrote elsewhere, this case is very puzzling, and I don’t know who is to blame (I suspect there was a cascade of bad decisions, with many people to blame). I’ll be interested to read the findings that come out.
However, as soon as I read the news, I had no doubt that the captain would be relieved and his career effectively ended, regardless of who was at fault.
Part of this is due to the culture of the captain always being responsible, but part is because the Navy, more than any other service, always finds a scapegoat. I always thought it fitting that the Navy mascot is indeed a goat.
One of the most high-profile examples of this was the captain of the USS Indianapolis, which delivered the atomic bomb and was then sunk by a Japanese submarine. Several SOS messages were sent out, but one captain thought it was a ruse, another had ordered that he not be disturbed, and a third was drunk. As a result, he rescue ships came after 5 days, with the men facing shark attacks and insanity. Captain Quint from Jaws was a fictional survivor of this incident.
In the end the Captain was court martialed, unfairly found guilty, and after discharge he suffered mental health problems (which were not helped by constantly receiving letters and phone calls from angry relatives of sailors who had died) to the point where he eventually offed himself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._McVay_III
None of this means the captain wasn’t a root cause of the disaster, but I think his relief doesn’t tell us anything about his culpability.
In the peace time navy, being off duty, asleep in bed when your ship gets dinged is no defense.