View Full Version : Relieved For "Cruelty And Maltreatment"
This makes for an interesting read - the comments to the original post are quite telling. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Reports from Japan cite "cruelty and maltreatment" as the reasons for relieving Captain Holly A. Graf of her command of USS COWPENS (CG 63) "The Thundering Herd" which is part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Yokosuka, Japan.
http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogspot.com/2010/01/number-two-in-our-countdown-is-captain.html
A number of posters served with her.
Not many good comments.
I liked the comment about how there are more Admirals than ships in the current Navy.
greenberetTFS
01-15-2010, 12:13
I liked the comment about how there are more Admirals than ships in the current Navy.
Wait till AM sees your latest signature,I'm sure she'll have a comment or two for you.....;)
Big Teddy :munchin
Wait till AM sees your latest signature,I'm sure she'll have a comment or two for you.....;)
Big Teddy :munchin
I've been getting some good PM's lately. One this morning saying,"...that's exactly how I feel...."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-C-oOp2AQ4
Marv - is one of my favorite fictional characters.
WD
FYI/FWIW, two articles on Captain Graf follow. The first piece is from the Navy Times on line edition. Source is here (http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_cowpens_cofired_011310/).Cruiser CO relieved for ‘cruelty’
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 15, 2010 7:14:56 EST
The commanding officer of the Yokosuka, Japan-based cruiser Cowpens was relieved of duty Wednesday after being punished for “cruelty and maltreatment” during her time in charge, the Navy announced. In an unusual move, she is being permitted to continue on to an assignment in the Pentagon.
Capt. Holly Graf was brought before an admiral’s mast with Rear Adm. Kevin Donegan, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, after an inspector general’s investigation found problems with her “temperament and demeanor vis-a-vis her subordinates,” said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for 7th Fleet.
Davis said he could not elaborate about what the IG had found about Graf’s treatment of her crew, but he said it had been taking place “over a length of time,” including when the ship was in port and at sea. Specifically, Donegan found Graf guilty of violating Article 93 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — which covers “cruelty and maltreatment” — and Article 133, “conduct unbecoming an officer,” according to information provided by Davis.
Replacing Graf in command is Capt. Robert Marin, Davis said, who had already been scheduled to take over for her some time in January. Marin had been aboard the Cowpens since the end of December, making preparations for a normal change of command, so Donegan “ordered the change of command be executed immediately based on the non-judicial punishment and in the best interests of the ship and crew,” Davis said.
Davis said he didn’t think an exact date had been set yet for a normal change of command, but that Marin was to have taken over before the end of January. Graf is under orders to move on to a new assignment on the Navy Staff in the Pentagon, Davis said — a move already scheduled before her relief this week.
Her continuing into a job to which she had already been assigned is unusual for a Navy captain who has been relieved; many fired COs are assigned to the staff of their parent command and their careers effectively ended.
Graf is a 1985 graduate of the Naval Academy, according to her official Navy biography; she commanded the destroyer Winston S. Churchill, among other assignments, before taking command of the Cowpens in March 2008.
The second article, from Stars and Stripes (available here (http://www.stripes.com/articleprint.asp?section=104&article=67250)) provides additional details.Admiral relieves Cowpens captain
By David J. Carter, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 16, 2010
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Abusive treatment of crewmembers has cost the captain of the Yokosuka-based guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens her command weeks before she was to transfer to a new assignment, according to Navy officials Thursday.
Capt. Holly Graf was relieved of command by Rear Adm. Kevin Donegan, Carrier Strike Group Five Commander, following a nonjudicial punishment Wednesday.
Graf was found guilty of cruelty and maltreatment, and conduct unbecoming an officer, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Davis — violations of articles 93 and 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Davis said Donegan based his action primarily on a Dec. 10 Inspector General report of an investigation against Graf regarding her treatment of subordinates under her command.
He said the charges specifically involved her demeanor and temperament.
He declined to be more specific, and several Cowpens sailors approached by Stars and Stripes didn’t want to comment.
Graf was in the process of turning over the ship, which she has commanded since March 2008, to Capt. Robert Marin.
A change of command had been scheduled for later this month.
Following the nonjudicial punishment, Donegan ordered that the change of command be executed immediately for the best interests of the ship and crew, Davis said.
Graf, a 1985 graduate of the Naval Academy, will transfer to her next assignment as part of Navy operations staff at the Pentagon, Davis said.
Captain Graf's photo is here (http://www.navytimes.com/xml/news/2010/01/ap_cowpens_cofired_011310/011410nt_graf_holly_800.JPG).
CAPT Marin's bio is available here (http://www.cowpens.navy.mil/Site%20Pages/CO.aspx). Hopefully, Captain Marin can continue to overcome the lapses of judgment of his youth (he majored in economics AND went to UCLA) as the Cowpens's new skipper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zgeQmzV9kk
With Geometric logic..
Well, ya know....it is a "kinder gentler Navy". Not that I condone such actions....Maybe watched Capt Quid on the "Cain Mutiny" to many times????
After all, I only joined to get college money and benefits and such.....
I suppose we shall see where this goes....other than present circumastances.
This sounds suspiciously like the 'ring knocker protective society' convened a meeting and decided to circle the wagons and protect 'one of their own'.
This sounds suspiciously like the 'ring knocker protective society' convened a meeting and decided to circle the wagons and protect 'one of their own'.
Only if you think like a surface warfare type.
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Peregrino
01-15-2010, 22:09
This sounds suspiciously like the 'ring knocker protective society' convened a meeting and decided to circle the wagons and protect 'one of their own'.
More likely that nobody wants to crush a female ring knocker's career. The potential political snake pit from that would sink a whole lot more than just her. Sex is just as good a "trump card " as race.
Remington Raidr
01-16-2010, 18:04
keep on hatin'. I seem to remember SOMETHING about a . . . Katie sumpin'-sumpin'. If things woulda gone differently, maybe SHE woulda been grabbing soldiers by the throat.:eek:
From the on-line edition of Time. Source is here (http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1969602,00.html).Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010
The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh
By Mark Thompson / Washington
Women are so common in the upper ranks of the U.S. military these days that it's no longer news when they break through another barrier. Unfortunately, the latest benchmark isn't one to brag about: being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy inspector general's report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh.
A Navy admiral stripped Graf of her command of the Japan-based guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens in January. The just-released IG report concludes that Graf "repeatedly verbally abused her crew and committed assault" and accuses her of using her position as commander of the Cowpens "for personal gain." But old Navy hands tell TIME that those charges, substantiated in the IG report, came about because of the poisonous atmosphere she created aboard her ship.
The case has attracted wide notice inside the Navy and on Navy blogs, where her removal has generated cheers from those who had served with her since she graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. While many denounced Graf, even greater anger seems directed at the Navy brass for promoting such an officer to positions of ever-increasing responsibility. Graf declined an interview request.
While in command at sea — where a captain's word is law and she or he has the power to make or break careers — Graf swore like, well, a sailor. She "creates an environment of fear and hostility [and] frequently humiliates and belittles watch standers by screaming at them with profanities in front of the Combat Information Center and bridge-watch teams," a crew member told the IG. According to 29 of the 36 crew members who were questioned for the Navy's report, Graf repeatedly dropped F bombs on them. "Take your goddam attitude and shove it up your f______ ass and leave it there," she allegedly told an officer during a stressful maneuver aboard the 567-ft., 10,000-ton vessel.
Junior officers seeking her guidance were rebuffed. "This is one of the reasons I hate you," she allegedly told one who was seeking her help. When another officer visited her quarters to discuss an earlier heated discussion, her response was terse: "Get the f___ out of my stateroom." She allegedly told a male officer, "The only words I want to hear out of your mouth are 'Yes ma'am' or 'You're correct, ma'am.' " She also allegedly put a "well-respected master chief" in "time out" — standing in the ship's key control room doing nothing — "in front of other watch standers of all ranks."
While most of the witness statements contained in the IG report didn't specify whether the person testifying was male or female, the IG asked at least two female officers whether they viewed Graf as a role model. A younger woman recalled going to Graf to seek her help. " 'Don't come to me with your problems,' " she said, quoting Graf. " 'You're a f______ department head.' " The officer also said that Graf once told her, "I can't express how mad you make me without getting violent."
A second female officer told the IG that Graf was a "terrible role model for women in the Navy," alleging that Graf once told her and a fellow officer on the bridge, "You two are f______ unbelievable. I would fire you if I could, but I can't."
The IG investigation, triggered last June by three anonymous complaints, noted that while interviews were being conducted over Graf's conduct at the Yokosuka Navy base outside Tokyo, four crew members provided "unsolicited written statements concerning what they perceived as abuse." While curses are not uncommon aboard Navy vessels, to have them repeatedly brandished like clubs against subordinates — especially in front of more junior crew members — is unusual. TIME obtained a copy of the IG report, from which names had been deleted, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Graf told the IG she had "no recollection" of making such comments, and the report says she "appeared incredulous at the accusations." She "repeatedly" emphasized her "very high standards for [her] crew" and "repeatedly" spoke of a "groupthink mentality" aboard her vessel. Graf said a "small group of disgruntled officers in the Cowpens wardroom were spreading rumors throughout the crew and convincing others that the command climate and [her] demeanor were far worse than they actually were." But she followed up with an e-mail. "Many times I raised my tone (and used swear words) to ensure they knew this times, it was no kidding," she wrote. "I also did it on other occasions to intentionally pressurize the situation."
The lone support of Graf in the 50-page report came via an unsolicited e-mail from a Navy colleague who had spent two weeks aboard Cowpens and said Graf may be "blunt, but clearly [her] intent is readiness." But the IG came down firmly on the side of her crew. "The evidence shows" that Graf violated Navy regulations "by demeaning, humiliating, publicly belittling and verbally assaulting ... subordinates while in command of Cowpens," the report concluded. Her actions "exceeded the firm methods needed to succeed or even thrive" and her "harsh language and profanity were rarely followed with any instruction." Her repeated criticism of her officers, often in front of lower-ranking crew members, humiliated subordinates and corroded morale, "contrary to the best interests of the ship and the Navy." The IG also found that she had failed to adequately train younger officers.
The report claims that she grabbed several junior officers or sailors to get their attention or move them elsewhere — usually while in a heated discussion — and threw a wadded-up piece of paper at one. It also says she asked junior officers to play piano at her personal Christmas party and to walk her dogs. These minor infractions might have been overlooked if committed by a more even-keeled commander, but in Graf's case they were used to substantiate the charges of "assault" and the use of her "office for personal gain" that led to her removal.
On one popular Navy blog there are 190 posts on Graf, nearly all negative and most from those who served with her. There were only four supportive posts, none apparently from anyone who had served with her. "The only way that Capt. Graf could have failed at being CO of the Cowpens was to try to please all her sailors," a backer wrote. "Leadership is lonely and not for the fainthearted."
But many officers who served with Graf over the years were not surprised by the IG's findings. Paul Coco, a 2002 Naval Academy graduate, served as a gunnery officer under Graf aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill from 2002 to 2004. "She would throw coffee cups at officers — ceramic, not foam," he recalls, "spit in one officer's face, throw binders and paperwork at people, slam doors." The hostile work environment led to a gallows humor among the crew. "We all would joke that after Bush liberated Iraq, he would next liberate Churchill," he says. That day finally came in January 2004, when Commander Todd Leavitt arrived to replace Graf. "As soon as Commander Leavitt said 'I relieve you' to Commander Graf, the whole ship, at attention, roared in cheers," he says.
"I'm more upset that the Navy let this go on so long," says Kirk Benson, who retired from the Navy as a commander three years ago after a 20-year career. Many complaints up the chain fell on "deaf ears," he says. "When I think of Holly Graf, even 12 years later, I shake," he says of serving under her when she was second in command on the destroyer U.S.S. Curtis Wilbur in 1997-98. "She was so intimidating even to me, a 6-foot-4 guy."
Nicole Waybright served as a junior officer for five years, including a year with Graf on the Wilbur in 1997-98, before leaving the Navy in 2001. "She was a terrible ship handler," Waybright recalls. "I was 23 years old and I wanted to show, just by my actions, that women could do it and just blend in like the gray doors with the rest of the gray ship," she said. "But she betrayed our gender." Waybright felt the Navy pushed women into command too quickly at the time, but adds that Graf's "sadistic cruelty" didn't help.
Shawn Smith is a retired Navy captain who along with her husband, also a retired Navy captain, applauded their daughter's decision to join the Navy in 2007 after graduating from Notre Dame on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Erin Smith was "seriously considering" making the Navy a career, like her parents, until she was assigned to the Cowpens. "Her experiences with Captain Graf definitely helped form her decision to do her time and leave the Navy," her mother says. "I was appalled that this happened, guilty — I think she went into the Navy because of us — and angry, because these kids did not deserve this kind of leadership."
Even though Graf comes from a Navy family — her sister and brother-in-law are both admirals, and her father was a captain — there appears to have been no "godfather" shielding her and greasing the skids for her promotion, Navy officers say. Prior to the IG probe's release, the Navy had tapped Graf for a top job at the Pentagon following her Cowpens command. Now she's being shuffled off to a Navy weapons lab outside the capital. "Her career," an admiral says, "is over."
craigepo
03-05-2010, 10:47
Wow. The Time article was so bad I couldn't even come up with a smart-assed comment.
Ah, got one. Imagine the poor SOB that marries her daughter (assuming Graf found a guy that could stand being around her long enough to impregnate her).
armymom1228
03-05-2010, 12:26
Wait till AM sees your latest signature,I'm sure she'll have a comment or two for you.....;)
Big Teddy :munchin
I am supposed to get upset about what? He's a wet dog...what can I say...he should find a fire to dry out by??? <grins> get some gin and make a gintini?
I would have loved to see two warships 'drag racing' I must admit. It is women like that that make it hard on those that follow.
<deep sigh> The Kates and Hollys of this world think it is all about them. They don't understand that thier behavior bleeds over to others of their gender who do try to do a good job. She should have been relieved of command a long time ago.
AM
armymom1228
03-05-2010, 12:35
Wow. The Time article was so bad I couldn't even come up with a smart-assed comment.
Ah, got one. Imagine the poor SOB that marries her daughter (assuming Graf found a guy that could stand being around her long enough to impregnate her).
That would only have by artificial insemmination...he would be to afraid she would bite it off... :D
Dozer523
03-05-2010, 12:46
I would have loved to see two warships 'drag racing' I must admit. It is women like that that make it hard on those that follow.
AM
It's called "underway replenishment" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underway_replenishment
Although several snarky thoughts come to mind, I'm presently too angry at Ms. Graf to find much humor in this affair.
Are we to believe that it never came up during a family gathering that freedom exists in many parts of the world thanks in no small part due to the professionalism of officers in western navies?
armymom1228
03-05-2010, 13:28
.
I disagree, AM. She was a bad, abusive leader who happened to be female. Her mistakes and problems should not be applied to the rest of us any more than one abusive man should be allowed to "taint" men in general.
Now if she had blamed her abusive tactics on her period, then I would agree with you. And also my head would explode. But that's a different thread.:p
Her leadership skills were abysmal. Her respect for the officers that served with and under her were at best disrespectful. There will always be those who will only see her gender, not the person and assume that other women will be like her. I have worked around a lot of women with similar "skills" dealing with people. The rest of us were painted with the same tarry brush until we proved ourselves.
AM
Dozer523
03-05-2010, 14:51
Are we to believe that it never came up during a family gathering that freedom exists in many parts of the world thanks in no small part due to the professionalism of officers in western navies?
Maybe during dinner they're all just too polite to talk with their mouths full of breadfruit
and to busy rolling their little balls around.
No more Annapolis for that family!
Green Light
03-05-2010, 16:47
I served under two team leaders who were pretty much like her, both are now general officers (but knew three others who were absolute gold plated and are now generals). Yeah there's some bad apples out there on both sides of the coin.
Doesn't matter if the person's a man or woman, if they don't understand that their subordinates aren't their slaves, but are on loan from a nation who trusts its commanders, then they're going to screw it up.
I had a team leader once (one of the jerks who's a general). He'd only allow "his favorites" go out on missions because he picked the ones "he felt he could trust." One night he came to me with the flu and told me to take the mission the next day. I got together all the guys who were always getting left behind and took them out. Man, they sparkled. We did that two days in a row and their morale was never higher. (They did an outstanding job and nobody got hurt). When we got back, the CPT was laid up sorry with his girlfriend in town. Yeah, he's a general now, but the guys hated him and never trusted him again.
Bad leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and sexes. The one thing they have in common is that they've never seen a mirror they didn't like. [/rant]
Update - it usually isn't seen as a positive career move for an Officer to find oneself in Time Magazine - especially in reference to someone as infamous as CAPT William Bligh of HMS Bounty fame. :rolleyes:
Richard's $.02 :munchin
The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly
"The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh"
Well if you want to get right down to it - to be like Captain Bligh, the ships Captain would have to be walking a wooden deck looking up at the sails - kinda' like the Ex-Commadore of the USS Constitution not so long ago.
"The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh"
IMO Commanding Lieutenant Bligh, of the HMAV Bounty, has been libeled in literature and film.
Pat
The Reaper
03-08-2010, 15:52
IMO Commanding Lieutenant Bligh, of the HMAV Bounty, has been libeled in literature and film.
Pat
Concur.
His sailing mastery of the 23 foot launch after being put adrift is an amazing feat. Over 3,600 miles in an open boat in 47 days without charts or compass.
The log book, and over half the crew, support Bligh's version of the crew's fair treatment, and the mutiny.
TR
I guess Bligh should've used the same PR firm as Davey Crockett.
Richard
And so it goes...
Richard
Sexism and the Navy's Female Captain Bligh
Mark Thompson, Time, 11 Mar 2010
Part 1 of 2
It should have been clear to the U.S. Navy that Holly Graf wasn't fit for command when her destroyer steamed out of a Sicilian port in 2003 on the eve of the Iraq war. Without warning, all 9,000 tons of the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill shuddered as it cleared the harbor's breakwater. The screws stopped turning, and the 511-ft.-long ship was soon adrift. "What the hell happened?" Commander Graf demanded from the bridge. She grabbed her cowering navigator and pulled him onto the outdoor bridge wing. "Did you run my f___ing ship aground?" she screamed. Not only was this a possible naval disaster, but it was a diplomatic one as well: the navigator was an officer in the British Royal Navy, a billet unique to the Churchill.
But amid all the chaos and shouting, the sound heard next was more startling. Sailors on the Churchill's stern, suspecting that their ship had run aground — meaning Graf's career would be instantly over — broke gleefully into song: "Ding dong, the witch is dead!" Newly arrived Navy chaplain Maurice Kaprow could not believe what he was seeing and hearing. "Someone came up to me and said, 'We've run aground — she's finished,' " he recalls. "I was flabbergasted. They were jumping for joy and singing on the fantail." As it turned out, one of the ship's propellers had broken. But seven years later, Kaprow still cannot fathom which was worse: that U.S. sailors were openly heckling a captain or that the captain seemed to deserve it.
Graf's next command, as captain of the guided-missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens, would be her last. Graf was relieved of duty in January, after nearly two years on the Cowpens, for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her crew, according to a blistering Navy inspector general's report obtained by TIME. The report has rocked the service to its bilges because it calls into question the way the Navy chooses, promotes and then monitors its handpicked skippers. The saga of Holly Graf suggests the Navy had long ignored warning signs about her suitability for command. And while news of her spectacular fall instantly raised questions about institutional sexism, the lesson may be the opposite, as her case highlights how the Navy has pushed to integrate women into its war-fighting fleet.
Master and Commander
Holly Graf had dreamed of skippering a Navy vessel ever since her high school days in Simsbury, Conn. Her father was a Navy captain, and her sister Robin wanted to go to sea too. (Robin eventually became an admiral — and married one; Holly is single.) After she graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985, colleagues sensed that Graf was on a fast track to flag rank.
Graf alternated tours aboard a destroyer tender, a frigate and a destroyer with shore assignments at the Pentagon and as a Navy ROTC instructor at Villanova University, outside Philadelphia. She earned a Bronze Star during the Iraq war (along with the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and two Meritorious Service Medals). Adding some academic heft to her résumé, Graf earned three master's degrees — in national security from the Naval War College, in civil engineering from Villanova and in systems analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School. Early in her career, there were few signs of the abusive commander she would become. "I knew Holly a long time ago," wrote one acquaintance on a naval blog last week. "My memory of her is nothing like how the posts on this and other boards are portraying her."
Graf's darker side began to emerge when she was assigned to the destroyer U.S.S. Curtis Wilbur in 1997, as the executive officer (XO), or second in command. Kirk Benson, who retired from the Navy as a commander after a 20-year career, says his tour aboard the Curtis Wilbur with Graf was "the worst time in my life." Her constant berating of the crew led him to complain, he says, but nothing was done. "When I think of Holly Graf, even 12 years later, I shake," says Benson. "It was hard to imagine her as an XO, never mind getting command of two ships."
If the Navy had warning signs about Graf after her time on the Curtis Wilbur, it didn't seem to pay them any heed. Instead, in 2003, Graf made U.S. Navy history by becoming the first female commander of a destroyer, the Churchill. Kaprow, the Jewish chaplain, recalls his time aboard the Churchill in 2003 as the strangest of more than 200 such visits to ships in his 20-year career. Morale was the lowest he had ever encountered on any vessel. Kaprow says he tried to talk to Graf about her leadership style after 10 days aboard. "I told her, 'I'm getting some vibes — you're a nice lady, and you have a hard job' — I'm telling her some of the junior officers are concerned and are really upset," Kaprow recalls. "I'm giving her the spiel, and she just goes bonkers and cuts me off. She said she didn't want to talk about it." Kaprow says she wouldn't talk to him for the rest of his stay.
When he left the ship, he reported what he had witnessed to Graf's superior. But his complaints, like those made by Benson and others, produced no apparent change in Graf's demeanor and did not slow her rise. Graf's command of the Churchill ended in early 2004 when she was replaced, after 22 months, by Commander Todd Leavitt. It was a routine hail and farewell, recalls Paul Coco, a 2002 Naval Academy graduate who served as gunnery officer aboard the Churchill, except in one respect: "As soon as Commander Leavitt said 'I relieve you' to Commander Graf, the whole ship, at attention, roared in cheers."
The Cruel Sea
On June 1, 2007, 22 years after leaving Annapolis, Graf was promoted to captain. Her assumption of command of the U.S.S. Cowpens in March 2008 was a second special day for her and for women in the Navy. The 567-ft., 10,000-ton vessel is the Navy's largest surface combatant, and Graf was the first — and is so far the only — woman to command this class of ship, with its 400-member crew. Driving a boxy cruiser requires ship-handling skills more deft than those needed to skipper a sleek destroyer or a frigate. But commanding the crew proved to be a far greater challenge for her.
A six-month Navy investigation found that Graf assaulted members of her crew and pressured junior officers to do her improper favors. She grabbed them to get their attention — usually while in a heated discussion. She asked junior officers to play piano at her personal Christmas party and to walk her dogs. Then there were the things she failed to do, like train her crew adequately. This charge seemed to generate the most anger among young officers, who must make the most of their time at sea — and pass critical tests — if they are going to win promotion. "I don't have time to train junior officers," she allegedly told a fellow officer, even though the probe concluded that it should have been one of her "highest priorities." At times, she seemed to prefer humiliation as a teacher. The probe discovered that she put a "well-respected Master Chief" in "time out" — standing in the ship's key control room doing nothing — "in front of other watch standers of all ranks," which enraged Navy personnel.
Most damaging, perhaps, was Graf's habit of verbal abuse. The language of naval command is supposed to be crisp and to the point. Orders pertaining to speed, direction and a host of other decisions needed to guide a warship are repeated back and forth among those on the bridge to reduce the chance of error. There's remarkably little conversation on the bridge at most times; swearing is extremely rare. (Belowdecks, among enlisted personnel, it is more common.) But according to 29 of 36 members of the cruiser's crew questioned by Navy investigators — whose names were redacted from the report and who therefore could not be contacted by TIME — Graf repeatedly dropped F bombs on them. "Take your goddam attitude and shove it up your f___ing ass and leave it there," she allegedly told an officer during a stressful maneuver at sea.
Graf could be particularly withering toward females. One younger woman recalled going to Graf to seek her help. "Don't come to me with your problems," she said Graf responded. "You're a f___ing department head." The officer said Graf once told her, "I can't express how mad you make me without getting violent." A second female officer told investigators that Graf was "a terrible role model for women in the Navy," recalling what Graf allegedly said to her and a fellow officer on the bridge: "You two are f___ing unbelievable. I would fire you if I could, but I can't."
Last summer, three crew members privately sought a probe into her handling of the Japan-based Cowpens. In her defense, Graf told investigators that she had "no recollection" of making such comments, and she "appeared incredulous at the accusations." Graf charged that a small group of disgruntled officers were spreading rumors among the crew "and convincing others that the command climate and [her] demeanor were far worse than they actually were." But she followed up with an email. "Many times I raised my tone (and used swear words) to ensure they knew this time, it was no kidding," she wrote. "I also did it on other occasions to intentionally pressurize the situation."
The investigators gave Graf no quarter. Graf violated Navy regulations "by demeaning, humiliating, publicly belittling and verbally assaulting ... subordinates while in command of Cowpens," the report found. Her actions "exceeded the firm methods needed to succeed or even thrive," and her "harsh language and profanity were rarely followed with any instruction." Her repeated criticism of her officers, often in front of lower-ranking crew members, was "contrary to the best interests of the ship and the Navy."
(cont'd)
Sexism and the Navy's Female Captain Bligh
Mark Thompson, Time, 11 Mar 2010
Part 2 of 2
When the 50-page report landed on the desk of Graf's superior, Rear Admiral Kevin Donegan, he relieved her of command.
Was She Singled Out?
The Holly Graf saga has left the Navy facing two uncomfortable questions: Would the Navy have relieved a man for the errors Graf committed? And if Graf's command style was so toxic, how did the Navy miss it in the first place?
The answers are interrelated. Some officers seem to rise magically through the ranks, immune to criticism that would trip up others. Some who watched Graf climb the command ladder assumed she had an ally somewhere that mattered. But that doesn't appear to be the case. Though she came from a family with a long Navy background, she cleared every hurdle the Navy set up for her. Top officers simply didn't pay close enough attention to what happened after that.
So was Graf relieved of her command simply because she is female? "She acted like a man, and now she was being punished for it," says retired commander Darlene Iskra, who in 1990 was the first woman to command a Navy ship, the U.S.S. Opportune, a salvage vessel. But Iskra's view is hard to square with the fact that the service promoted Graf at every turn, gave her two historic assignments and made her something of an example for younger female officers. In fact, Graf was slated for a top Navy staff job at the Pentagon when the IG report scuttled that assignment. More important, the consensus among active and retired Navy officers is that Graf would have suffered the same fate had she been male.
A better explanation is that the Navy failed to move on Graf earlier not in spite of her gender but because of it. Following the Tailhook scandal — in which Navy aviators assaulted dozens of women at a 1991 convention — the service rushed women to sea to show it was no longer locked in the Dark Ages. The service was under political pressure to diversify its leadership, and Graf was part of the answer: the first woman to command both a destroyer and a cruiser. Some veterans believe Graf needed more time to prepare for those commands. "I have some sympathy for her," says Nicole Waybright, a young female officer who served with Graf on the Wilbur Curtis. "The Navy felt under pressure to take a woman and put her on the best and most complicated tactical platform," Waybright says. "But she didn't have much experience on it." Some rookies could have stepped up to that challenge, she adds, but not Graf. "She was," Waybright says, "a terrible ship handler."
The Graf case is sure to make the lives of Navy recruiters more difficult. Shawn Smith is a retired Navy captain who — along with her husband, also a retired Navy captain — applauded their daughter's decision to join the Navy in 2007 after graduating from Notre Dame on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Erin Smith was "seriously considering" making the Navy a career, as her parents did, until she was assigned to the Cowpens. "Her experiences with Captain Graf definitely helped form her decision to do her time and leave the Navy," her mother says. "I was appalled that this happened, guilty — I think she went into the Navy because of us — and angry, because these kids did not deserve this kind of leadership."
Graf declined to be interviewed for this article. She is now headed for the Navy weapons lab at Dahlgren, Va., a bureaucratic backwater where she is virtually certain to face a follow-up hearing that could end her career — if she doesn't request retirement first.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1971246-1,00.html
If it was a man accused of doing these things, would there be such media scrutiny?
Did she deserve to be relieved, sounds like it. But I know many male officers that have this type of tempermant and no one bats an eye.
This has absolutely nothing to do with her being a female, it has to do with her being a poor officer.
The Reaper
03-16-2010, 14:20
If it was a man accused of doing these things, would there be such media scrutiny?
Did she deserve to be relieved, sounds like it. But I know many male officers that have this type of tempermant and no one bats an eye.
This has absolutely nothing to do with her being a female, it has to do with her being a poor officer.
How does a poor officer get selected for promotion to O-6 and to command two Navy vessels?
TR
My experience when the service comes up with some weak-sauce argument for relieving one if its "shining stars" is that something happened that neither party wants to make public. Possibly, the good skipper was caught "sampling the wares" of the females "under" her?? A story breaking like that would do serious damage to the feminization of subs. I suspect there's more to the story than meets the eye....
How does a poor officer get selected for promotion to O-6 and to command two Navy vessels?
TR
The same way it happens in any of the other services. It isn't like this is the first time that someone who shouldn't be promoted, got promoted, and commanded a group or a batallion. If you are honest with yourself I am sure that you can look back on your time in the service and come up with at least 4-5 folks that got to positions they were in no way qualified for, for one reason or another. The subordinates knew they weren't worth shit, but leadership didn't see it.
Why is this news, other than the fact that it is a woman?
My experience when the service comes up with some weak-sauce argument for relieving one if its "shining stars" is that something happened that neither party wants to make public. Possibly, the good skipper was caught "sampling the wares" of the females "under" her?? A story breaking like that would do serious damage to the feminization of subs. I suspect there's more to the story than meets the eye....
Why would you automatically asume she was "courting" the females on her ship and not the males?
The Reaper
03-16-2010, 15:05
The same way it happens in any of the other services. It isn't like this is the first time that someone who shouldn't be promoted, got promoted, and commanded a group or a batallion. If you are honest with yourself I am sure that you can look back on your time in the service and come up with at least 4-5 folks that got to positions they were in no way qualified for, for one reason or another. The subordinates knew they weren't worth shit, but leadership didn't see it.
Why is this news, other than the fact that it is a woman?
I don't know.
How many male commanders have treated their subordinates this way and not been relieved much sooner? I do not have the stats, but I have seen males relieved of commands and immediately forced to retire for much less. There is a big difference between being a hard commander and being abusive of the people entrusted to you.
I doubt her leadership style has changed since she commanded her 1st ship. Do you think they did not know how she treated her people, and disagree with it?
Why would the CoC keep her in command, and then give her another one?
Maybe because she was a woman and they wanted her to be their poster child for "diversity".
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier because he excelled in his job, not because someone pushed him to the front of the line and kept him there, despite his failures.
TR
IMO, the following comment from the 3 March 2010 Time article merits more scrutiny. Even though Graf comes from a Navy family — her sister and brother-in-law are both admirals, and her father was a captain — there appears to have been no "godfather" shielding her and greasing the skids for her promotion, Navy officers say.
I don't know.
How many male commanders have treated their subordinates this way and not been relieved much sooner? I do not have the stats, but I have seen males relieved of commands and immediately forced to retire for much less. There is a big difference between being a hard commander and being abusive of the people entrusted to you.
I doubt her leadership style has changed since she commanded her 1st ship. Do you think they did not know how she treated her people, and disagree with it?
Why would the CoC keep her in command, and then give her another one?
Maybe because she was a woman and they wanted her to be their poster child for "diversity".
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier because he excelled in his job, not because someone pushed him to the front of the line and kept him there, despite his failures.
TR
I can think of two, male, 2 stars off the top of my head that fit the bill as has been described by this female officer. One of them had 6 sexual harassment charges against him during his career. The sixth postponed his promotion to Maj Gen by a few months, but he still got it. Now you can say that maybe the guy wasn't guilty, but if there were just one or two against him, maybe, but the fact that there were six??? Come on...
The stories of his abuse of his subordinates are legendary throughout my command. Still he made it to be a numbered air force commander. He should have been shuffled out of the AF when he was a Major, yet he had someone watching out for him, so he continued up the ladder of success on the backs of his subordinates.
This isn't a male/female issue. This is an officership issue. By the mere ratio of male to female officers alone, you would expect that many more men would be relieved of command for issues such as this. Yet when it does happen (Wing Commander at Pope last year rings a bell) it never seems to stay in the public eye for quite as long as when something tasty like this pops up.
She is a female, therefor this MUST be about the fact that she had preferential treatment. Give me a break....
Just one of those short one paragraph notes on page three of the morning paper today.
A Male Sub Commander was just relieved for getting drunk at an ROTC party. The usual "loss of" statement but bang, pop he's toast.
"HORRIBLE HOLLY GRAF" PULLS A CAPT. QUEEG...BLAMES CREW FOR HER TROUBLES -
http://www.militarycorruption.com/hollygraf12.htm
"........The only thing Gittins failed to say is, we should all just go home now and let Holly join her "big sister" Robin in the ranks of female Navy flag officers. Why, she's just "misunderstood." All that stuff about her physically assaulting several officers, including one from the Royal Navy (see "related stories box" below) when Graf skippered the destroyer Winston Churchill, well that doesn't count. Graf should be an admiral, yeah, that's the ticket........"
This blog writer sure has a way with words.
drymartini66
12-01-2010, 18:52
I wonder if she ever solved the missing strawberries mystery?:munchin
Panel: Graf should get general discharge
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/12/navy-panel-general-discharge-for-captain-holly-graf-120310w/
A panel of three flag officers Friday announced their recommendation that Capt. Holly Graf leave the Navy with a general discharge.
drymartini66
12-03-2010, 16:46
Don't go away mad Captain, just go away.:mad:
afchic, I do not believe anyone thinks just because a female officer is promoted is only based upon gender. However in some cases, gender, connections and maybe sexual orientation may be important factors. In reading the comments and related blogs, there appears be some of these factors coming into play in the instant case.
http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogs...s-captain.html
The link on the original posts has some pretty interesting information. It's here-say, but there are a few folks who have signed their names and they all have tales to tell.
Some of the inferences relate to what they call the sisterhood which appears to be a group of high ranking gals who provide cover for female officers in the Navy.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/
ATTENTION ON DECK! NAVY TRIES STALLING TACTICS TO SAVE "HORRIBLE" HOLLY GRAF'S CAREER - PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED RETENTION BOARD HEARING DELAYED AGAIN - "TOP BRASS" UNDER PRESSURE FROM POWERFUL LESBIANS
AT PENTAGON ("THE SISTERHOOD") PLUS BIG SISTER, REAR ADMIRAL ROBIN GRAF, TO "GO EASY" ON CRAZED CAPTAIN, RELIEVED OF COMMAND FOR "MALTREATMENT OF CREW"
PLAN IS TO KEEP GRAF IN UNIFORM - AVOID REDUCTION IN RANK FOR PAST PHYSICAL ASSAULTS ON OFFICER ABOARD COWPENS AND
ROYAL NAVY LT ON DD WINSTON CHURCHILL
Apparently the following also got her in a bit of hot water(the following stories are from http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogs...s-captain.html )
She somehow hooked up with some locals to do a bit of sailing and upon return to the marina/bay decided to foresake all common sense and judgement and had the 35ft sailboat come up next to the warships at the pier, unannounced to drop her off at the bow of her own ship. This nearly got her and the locals shot and once the yelling from both the pier and the sailboat ceased, she then commenced to blowing off all local authorities standing on the
pier who wanted to interview her and marched straight back to the COWPENS.
One of the most interesting items were stories related to her father:
As to the person who commented about giving Graf respect since she has served her country for almost 30 years – she gets what she gives. Anyone remember her parents’ visit to the WSC while we were in Gibraltar? Remember the passdown that her father, a retired Navy Captain, was NOT to be given honors when arriving or departing the ship? Screw that. He retired – with honor – as a Navy Captain. He earned those honors –
Closer to the truth about her not wanting honors passed is the fact that she couldn't stand her father, and the feeling was mutual. I actually had a long conversation with her on a walk back from the gate at Portsmouth, UK to the ship when we were there in dry dock. She didn't get along with a large percentage of her family, and they didn't get along with her.
Top female navy commander sacked over humiliating initiation ordeals on board ship
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380328/U-S-Navy-officers-relieved-duty-Libyan-coast-hazing-investigation.html#ixzz1KYpirECs
"Two top U.S. Navy officers have been relieved of their duties after an investigation into 'hazing'.
Commander Etta Jones, officer in charge of the Norfolk, Virginia-based Ponce, was sacked for not properly investigating sailors involved in the humiliating rituals, the Navy said.
Hazing is a practice whereby people are subjected to humiliating ordeals, often as an initiation..................."
Man-o-man, can they even make Shellbacks anymore?
The Reaper
04-25-2011, 12:39
Notice the article couldn't help but mention the poor abused "gay dog handler" as part of the article.
Here comes the drama.:rolleyes:
TR
Dozer523
04-27-2011, 06:51
found this on another site (Doctrine Man)
http://usfleetforces.blogspot.com/2011/04/uss-ponce-lpd-15-co-xo-relief.html
comments are interesting.