USS Fitzgerald's leadership fired after Navy warship's deadly collision

No this will not be a "with hunt". In the Navy we have "watch standing principles", two of those are Forceful Back up and a Questioning Attitude. That means even the most lowly E-1 on watch has the obligation to speak up and bring to the attention of his watch supervisors when something is not right, and does not blindly follow the orders he is given. This was adopted from the Nuclear Field. There were just too many Sailors on watch that could of seen this incident unfolding to allow it to happen.

Now with saying that, this has to part of the Command Culture. If it is found that the command suppresses that behavior, then the junior Sailors on watch might not be as responsible.

Based on the headline, a very common action after a collision, regardless of who was at fault. If you are the CO of a Naval vessel, you know that if you hit anything, another vessel, the ground, piers, you will lose your command. That is a fact of life in the Navy. There are very few exceptions. What you need to read in the article is who else was responsible and who was not doing their job. Not a witch hunt but a thorough JAG investigation to establish facts, conditions, and opinions based on fact. Having conducted several JAG investigations and experiencing the detail that goes into these, you will find the real reasons why an event such as this occurred. A JAG investigation doesn't necessarily establish blame, but gets into the details of how the failure occurred and who was responsible, thus enforcing responsibility.

This is not at all a witch hunt. This is standard procedure in Navy collisions. The top three set the tone for watchstander training. The fact that there were so many on watch who could have prevented this and none did, says that the command climate was severely defective.