Now we just need to work our way up to the very top of the chain …
Was not expecting that. I figured the axe would fall two layers lower.
Trump: Our govt is in trouble due to Obama’s deplorable hiring. I need at least a decade to clean it up.
Pretty much inevitable. The sea is a hostile environment, and the Navy is not forgiving of errors, because errors are so costly (of life, let alone property).
At least Adm. Aucoin is not Admiral Byng, who was shot on the quarterdeck of his flagship for failing to defeat a superior French fleet while trying to relieve a besieged British garrison.
before they start firing people; it might be smart for the NAVY to look at their cyber security…given that we pretty much know that RUSSIA hacked OTHER computer systems and that the ALT-PRESIDENT seems to be ok with that…whats to stop the RUSSIANs from messing with the guidance systems on these ships?
This is the second high-profile accident, and the fourth overall, this year under Adm. Aucoin’s watch. There is clearly a cultural problem in the ranks that has led to the deaths of multiple sailors in preventable accidents.
The Navy would do well to approach this investigation with the same attitude that then-Commandant Al Gray took during the Jason Rother affair.
No.
I was absolutely expecting this.
This is the military. They hold commanders responsible.
As soon as the second fatal accident occurred, a peacetime collision - imminently avoidable - I knew the fleet commander’s career was over.
I notice Adm. Aucoin is an aviator, I wonder how much, that means with regard to seamanship …
Maybe the presidents joint cyber unit with Russia can get to the bottom of this.
I heard it was an affair with Ivanka…
I remember reading several years ago that the Navy had an aviator problem with too many advancing to Captain/Admiral with insufficient actual naval experience.
Have no idea if this is true, but clearly there is a problem with the 7th Fleet.
It was suggested the Air Force had a similar problem with too many fighter jocks advancing (versus non-fighter pilots) and wanting to spend AF budgets on the fancy fighter jets that have little to no role in modern warfare.
The Alnic MC is 600 feet long. A quarter of a (statute) mile is 5280 ÷ 4 = 1320 feet. The longest tanker currently in use is 1302 feet in length.
The McCain was struck on the port side which indicates that she was the privileged vessel according to the international rules of the road and therefore required to maintain course and speed. It is the responsibility of the burdened vessel to maneuver to avoid collision. However, when in extremis, both vessels have a duty to maneuver to avoid collision.
With what is known so far, it is much too early to say that McCain “cut across the tanker’s bow.”
I think the point was, that the McCain had the right-of-way, according to sea-faring rules, it was the tankers duty to change course.
The tanker had clearly not that much speed, maybe they hoped they could stop before it hit.
of course, the crew on the McCain should worry about an attack by ramming as part of their normal watch, so a problem the tanker got that close…
Oh, I know they hold commanders responsible. I was just expecting the hit to come on the CO of Destroyer Squadron 15 (both DDGs are part of it). And really… I still do.
I suppose it is possible that hacking could get down to the level of radar within the ship, and I confess that I did not look at the details of the collision, but it probably came down to watchstanding: Some gob on a wing of the bridge looking out through binoculars and seeing the other ship approaching, then warning the conn. (That’s a last line of defense–radar should have picked up the other ship earlier, but I think we’d hear about it if there was some problem with all the ship’s radars that prevented that.)
Sure them too.
But the ax typically falls at the top early when you have repeated screw-ups of this magnitude.
Two collisions - 17 dead. This is worse than our combat losses in Afghanistan this year, or in all of 2016.
The way to think about this is - what is the common command element in the two accidents? The fleet commander.
Or to put it in a slightly different way:
Accident #1 - The ax falls (I presume) on the captain, who is in direct command. But the Sec. of the Navy expects the fleet commander to take all necessary actions to prevent a repeat.
Accident #2 - it is clear that the fleet commander failed in accomplishing what was expected of him, and thus he loses the confidence of the Sec. of the Navy and thus cannot remain in command.
It should not be possible to hack a combat control system. These systems are isolated within secure encrypted networks.
If it is due to hacking, then the hackers just did the U.S. a favor of incredible magnitude - revealing fatal vulnerabilities at a very low cost to the U.S. (all things considered).
Boy, I hope you’re right.
Right, see… that’s why after the two ship commanders, I expected the axe to fall next on their common, direct superior officer, the CO of Destroyer Squadron 15. Given the CO of 7th Fleet was due to retire in a couple of months, I’d expected he’d be ‘granted early retirement’ or some such. But I guess they wanted to make more of a splash on the news.