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O-6 - CAPT

Posted on Jan 16, 2018

Navy files criminal charges in connection with deadly ship collisions, including negligent...

SFC William Farrell

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Navy is taking a couple Commanders to task for their roles in some deadly mishaps. While I'm not a sailor and cant speak to things that happen on a ship, it seems extreme.

Navy files criminal charges in connection with deadly ship collisions, including negligent...

Posted from washingtonpost.com

Posted in these groups: Navycdr

CDR

CAPT Destroyer Squadrons Dec 18307 lg

Surface Warfare Officer (SWO)

Posted >1 y ago

Responses: 6

LCDR Mike Morrissey

Edited 3 y ago

Posted 3 y ago

I really wish these posts would be updated before they show up in the Rallypoint list of articles.
Way back in 2018 the charges were brought forward for several valid reasons. One being that lives were lost, two, major combat assets were lost to service until repaired and three, the public and families were entitled to full airing of the events.

Several superiors were caused to resign/retire as they were responsible for the failure to address ops tempo and equipment issues.

In fact these criminal charges re. the COs were dealt with a year latter (2019) and essentially dropped. (See below)

Read:
https://news.usni.org/2019/04/10/navy-set-to-drop-all-criminal-charges-against-fitzgerald-co-junior-officer-secnav-will-issue-letters-of-censure

I’m not sure who or what keeps cycling old and out of date blurbs but it doesn’t serve any Service well without the followup.

Navy Set to Drop All Criminal Charges Against Fitzgerald CO, Junior Officer; SECNAV Will Issue...

The Navy plans to drop all criminal charges against two officers for their roles in the 2017 fatal collision of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62), USNI News has learned. Former Fitzgerald commander Cmdr. Bryce Benson and tactical action officer Lt. Natalie Combs will no longer face criminal negligence charges for their roles and will instead be issued …

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SFC William Farrell

3 y

I was just posting the article LCDR Mike Morrissey; I did not write to therefore I cannot update it nor do I know anything about the incidents.

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LCDR Mike Morrissey

3 y

SFC William Farrell - I get that. My question wasn’t as specific as it could have been, apologies. The question was actually calling into question why RP posted this thread again 3 yrs later. If one doesn’t notice the very small notation (posted 2018) , it appears as a recent issue. In this case, the repeated headline leaves a very incomplete and misleading impression that reflected adversely on the ship’s officers who were essentially exonerated, and instead, their seniors were the ones ultimately held to account.

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SFC William Farrell

3 y

LCDR Mike Morrissey - Its not that they post it three years later, I think it may come up again when something similar is posted or if someone does find it, all of a sudden it might be hitting the feeds again.

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LT Brad McInnis

Posted >1 y ago

Unless there is something missing out of the report that is classified, this was a tragic accident due to a myriad of problems. Many of those problems come from outside the ship, i.e. reduced manning on ships, decreased training time, increased OPTEMPO due to a senior officer unwillingness to say no... I could go on. While technically, they are guilty of manslaughter (and since one of the CO's is a friend of mine, he tries to deal with that everyday), if we go down that road, you will find that there are not many people willing to become CO's. You can not tie the CO's hands behind their back, and tell them to do everything and then some... This seems like a witch hunt, when the hunt should be much higher in the chain of command, but they are all resigning.

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SFC William Farrell

>1 y

Thanks for the insight on this LT Brad McInnis . I am very sorry about the loss of life and while there were many problems on many fronts, I dont think either commander set out to kill any of their crews during those cruises. I am sure that is something they will each have to live with the rest of their lives.

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PO3 Aaron Hassay

5 y

https://blog.usni.org/posts/2011/01/27/a-merciful-end-to-optimal-manning
This experimental manning altered my life and as a result my families life in major ways.
Here is a quote.
While acknowledging that the experiment was not a success, Admiral Hunt somewhat diplomatically refrained from mentioning that the idea was ill-conceived and doomed from the start because it ignored the fundamentals of crewing warships since navies first put to sea.

A Merciful End to “Optimal Manning”

Within the excellent remarks by Admiral Richard W. Hunt, Commander of Third Fleet, who delivered the Keynote Address to open USNI West 2011, was a confirmation of those made by VCNO, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, regarding the ending of the experiment of "optimal manning". While acknowledging that...

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