Here's the story...They say in life there are two things that are absolutely certain...death and taxes. Well in the United States Navy there are also two things that are certain; ships will either crash or run aground and the Commanding Officer (The Captain) will get relieved. Its almost comical that in this day and age this extremely preventable incidents still happen. According to the media, should this cruiser have to be rebuilt, it would cost the taxpayers roughly 1 billion usd. That's right, I said 1 billion United States Dollars.
Ok, ok, most of the sailors that are reading this blog know by now that I'm leading the non-naval-ly enhanced, land-lubbers down the road of "ask me how this can happen", so without further adue here it goes.
First off, if you're not up on your missions of Navy ships, a cruiser is an instrument of air warfare. Its mission is to take down threats that are flying overhead....whether they be ballistic missiles, aircraft, or even the errant satellite we all saw last year. This is an extremely complicated mission that requires unique expertise. Captains of most small ships, Frigates and Destroyers are usually Navy Commanders..O-5s. The Commanding Officer of a Cruiser is a Navy Captain...O-6. The COs of Nimitz Class aircraft carriers are all O-6s as well; this mission is that important.
Some of the newest technology in the world goes into making these missile shooters great...as well as some of the oldest. In addition to relying on technicians and tactical action officers trained in advanced math and sciences, the crew of any US Navy ship is still manned with the most basic seaman: Quartermasters. They use a commercial surface scanning radar and nautical charts to navigate through narrow channels and open oceans. So in a sense, a billion dollars in naval technology is being held together by paper charts and the expertise of the crew who knows how to use them.
That being said, a typical evolution of heading out to sea is done flawlessly everyday by the US Navy, 99.9 percent of the time, if not more so. So what happened here? Well, although this isn't a trend and this isn't something that's becoming more common, we've seen this before. High level visitors visit the ship for a meeting or an exercise. Since everything looks exactly alike at sea, everyone that's important wants to head to the bridge to see the last view of land.
The pilothouse (bridge) is a chaotic place anyway with officers and enlisted yelling orders to one another; the quartermasters or QMs as they are referred, are sitting with their pencil, ruler and protractor plotting their course. Double or triple the amount of people in this room....BAM, something happens. Normally, the crew does a pretty good job at keeping the extra people off the bridge, but how are you going to ask the Admiral and his staff to take a hike? You don't....and you hope to God nothing happens.
So, as per US naval tradition, in any incident involving the crash, collision, or running aground of a naval vessel, the Captain is relieved. Reason: Loss of confidence in the ability to lead. I would bet money that this had just as little to do with the Captain as it did with President Obama... neither of whom chose the crew of the ship, but this is the way it is.
When the report comes out, look for it to say something concerning the lack of training of the crew with respect to the Captain not training his people. Happens every time.
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