Quote:
Originally Posted by MR2
I foresee Navy leadership assigning a second (civilian) Captain on all ships to oversee (counter-command) AKA Political officer.
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Unfortunately, sir, you'll probably see what will look like the results of an investigation into a plane crash, and that is to bury the incident in information and data, make bold resolutions as to what should "never be allowed to happen again", assign blame, Court Martial the guilty and praise the dead, blah, blah. When stupid hits the fan it's rarely one thing but a whole damned library of things, both materiel and personnel.
Here're some questions:
What were the orders and were they being followed?
Were all watch standers (including lookouts) stationed, trained and qualified?
Was all equipment operating at 100%.
What was the visibility? At that lat/long the moon sat at 2018, and the wreck happened at either 0130 or 0220 (depending on who you listen to) so no moon.
The ACX was enr from Nagoya to Tokyo. Was there a Coastal Pilot on board? Should there be?
Wsa the ACX operating Iron Mike (auto-pilot)?
Who was the OOD on the DDG? Ops-boss, Navigator, a Department Head? Was that person distracted with preps for entering port and not paying attention to the surface situation?
What were the Standing Orders and Night Orders re: high density traffic schemes?
Was the ACX overtaking the DDG? If so the DDG is required to maintain course and speed.
What kind of surface watch was being maintained in CIC (Combat Info Center)?
(...and about a zillion other questions)
Sir, after diesel submarines I became an old surface warfare ship driver, and the more I wonder about what happened, etc the more pissed off I get. The CO is responsible, always. Can't get beyond that.
Political Officer? Yeah, right. That would make the ship more effective and the crew safer, huh? Kind of like gun control.