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Naval Commanders In 2 Deadly Ship Collisions To Be Charged With Negligent Homicide
The U.S. Navy announced Tuesday that the commanding officers of two vessels involved in separate collisions in the Pacific Ocean last year will face court-martial proceedings and possible criminal charges including negligent homicide.
The statement by Navy spokesman Capt. Greg Hicks says the decision to prosecute the commanders, and several lower-ranking officers as well, was made by Adm. Frank Caldwell.
[...] In the case of the USS Fitzgerald, the commander, two lieutenants and one lieutenant junior grade face possible charges of dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide.
The commander of the USS John S. McCain will face possible charges of dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide. A chief petty officer also faces one possible charge of dereliction of duty.
Previously: U.S. Navy Destroyer Collides With Container Vessel
10 Sailors Still Missing After U.S. Destroyer Collision With Oil Tanker
Chief of Naval Operations Report on This Summer's Destroyer Collisions
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 17 2018, @08:59PM
Yeah, but the problem I see here is that the leadership is trained based on policies that are set at a level far above even a commander or captain, and really goes up to the Pentagon or even Congress. What's the captain supposed to do when the Navy itself refuses to provide proper schooling in maritime operations to any of its officers? How's he supposed to correct that systemic deficiency all by himself? This problem wasn't caused by a few officers on ships, or else we wouldn't have seen 4 ships have major accidents so close together. This problem was caused by policy problems within the Navy itself. Now the Navy is working to correct the policy and improve training and other policies (like with crewmen not getting enough rest, another thing the captain has little control over since he's given operational orders from people above him), but they're using these officers as scapegoats for their own incompetence at training them properly.
This is basically like sending a kid to ITT Tech instead of MIT, and then penalizing him when he doesn't do work at the level of a MIT grad. WTF did you expect? Remember, the Navy eliminated its training courses for maritime operations, and replaced them with a set of CD-ROMs to be read at sea. WTF kind of training is that?