Commanding Officer of Destroyer Relieved

Fired after only seven months in command. He was the XO previous to taking over. That wasn't a thing on surface ships in my day. The CO and XO came and went at their PRD but now days the XO becomes the CO. I don't know anything about this situation but just making comments based on the two articles. One would think being the XO and then the CO that he would know the shipboard procedure he violated and not mess it up. I suppose knowing it and following it are two different things.
 
Devil Doc said:
Fired after only seven months in command. He was the XO previous to taking over. That wasn't a thing on surface ships in my day. The CO and XO came and went at their PRD but now days the XO becomes the CO. I don't know anything about this situation but just making comments based on the two articles. One would think being the XO and then the CO that he would know the shipboard procedure he violated and not mess it up.
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Lots going on in this case.
Brand new ship that had minimal training on some things that are new to the fleet.
Ship was a participant in an exercise that a yet (mostly) untrained or at best minimally trained crew would find challenging.
Conjecture in SWO circles is major safety violation.
 
“The relief comes after an investigation into the ship’s performance during a 2021 exercise in which the crew had made mistakes during an anti-air warfare drill in the Atlantic, two sources familiar with the exercise told USNI News.”
 
Making the former XO the Captain - of the same ship - seems like a stupid idea, but what do I know?
 
THParent said:
Making the former XO the Captain - of the same ship - seems like a stupid idea, but what do I know?
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Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, commander of CVN -72 was the former XO of the ship. It is sometimes thought that if a crew is too familiar with an officer in a lessor or more informal role, they will not be given due respect as CO. I think it’s depends on the individual officer. Obviously, the current Navy is willing to look at each command situation on its own merits.
 
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NJROTC-CC said:
“The relief comes after an investigation into the ship’s performance during a 2021 exercise in which the crew had made mistakes during an anti-air warfare drill in the Atlantic, two sources familiar with the exercise told USNI News.”
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One can only imagine the kinds of mistakes during an anti-air warefare drill that could have tragic results and be highly embarrassing to the Navy. We may never learn the details. Some NCO’s will likely face discipline as well is my guess.
 
Fleeting up from XO to CO in the surface navy is a fairly recent practice. They've done it in aviation squadrons as long as I can remember.
 
NJROTC-CC said:
Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, commander of CVN -72 was the former XO of the ship.
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Different situation, as CAPT Bauernschmidt was not XO immediately before becoming CO of the LINCOLN, to say she did not "fleet up" from "Big XO" on LINCOLN to CO, as the pipeline for Carrier COs (called the AVN pipeline) is different, and looks like:

Nuclear Power School-->CVN XO-->Deep Draft Command (i.e LPD, LCC, or USNS command)-->CVN Command

In her case, it appears she went from being Big XO on LINCOLN, to being CO on SAN DIEGO (an LPD), to her current job as CO on LINCOLN.

That being said, in the Aviation community for squadron command (O5 command) that it is standard for someone to spend 18 months as XO then "fleet up" to become CO. As I understand it, that is not the same for the surface community's O5 commands (DDG, LSD, LCS), although it does happen to some extent, as seen in the article.
 
NJROTC-CC said:
One can only imagine the kinds of mistakes during an anti-air warefare drill that could have tragic results and be highly embarrassing to the Navy. We may never learn the details. Some NCO’s will likely face discipline as well is my guess.
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Check this out. Lots of familiar names in this article.

www.deseret.com

U.S. SHIP ACCIDENTALLY FIRES ON TURKISH VESSEL, KILLING 5

An accidental missile blast from a U.S. aircraft carrier set a Turkish destroyer ablaze during a NATO exercise, killing at least five Turkish sailors and injuring 14 others, the Pentagon said Friday. Among those killed was the commanding officer of the Muavenet, Capt. Kudret Gungor, the...
www.deseret.com www.deseret.com
 
BarryD said:
That being said, in the Aviation community for squadron command (O5 command) that it is standard for someone to spend 18 months as XO then "fleet up" to become CO. As I understand it, that is not the same for the surface community's O5 commands (DDG, LSD, LCS), although it does happen to some extent, as seen in the article.
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Surface Navy has been doing CO/XO Fleetup for a good while now - maybe 5 yrs or so on a number of ships, most notably the DDGs
 
@BarryD My third ship was an AOR when Big Navy owned the deep draft replenishment ships. Of the two COs I had, one didn't get a carrier. And it wasn't because there weren't enough to go around if you know what I mean.
 
Dang, @Devil Doc you had me going with that article you posted, until I read that the aircraft carrier was the USS Saratoga. For a brief moment, I thought "how in the heck did we launch live missiles during a NATO exercise?"

I really puckered for a minute, there.
 
THParent said:
Dang, @Devil Doc you had me going with that article you posted, until I read that the aircraft carrier was the USS Saratoga. For a brief moment, I thought "how in the heck did we launch live missiles during a NATO exercise?"

I really puckered for a minute, there.
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It's been a day or two. The Turkish CO was killed. We ended up giving them a Knox class frigate to replace the ship.

When I attended IDC school in Portsmouth, VA in 1987-88, the Sara and Forrestal were in the NNS, shipyard, and one side of the tunnel was closed for a long repair job. The traffic to and from was miserable. I lived in Ocean View (pre-clean up) and it was a few miles to start with. That was a long year.
 
DDG CO/XO Fleet up has been occurring since at least 2009. It isn’t really that new.
 
Devil Doc said:
Check this out. Lots of familiar names in this article.

www.deseret.com

U.S. SHIP ACCIDENTALLY FIRES ON TURKISH VESSEL, KILLING 5

An accidental missile blast from a U.S. aircraft carrier set a Turkish destroyer ablaze during a NATO exercise, killing at least five Turkish sailors and injuring 14 others, the Pentagon said Friday. Among those killed was the commanding officer of the Muavenet, Capt. Kudret Gungor, the...
www.deseret.com www.deseret.com
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Wow! Guess what the CO of the USS Lincoln and the previous CO of the Saratoga have in common? Each were the chosen from the helicopter community nearly thirty years apart. To my knowledge they are the only two non-tac air types to assume command of a carrier. I hope you don’t jinx her @Devil Doc . The events in the Med onboard Saratoga were, tragically, due to human error between the TAO and exercise watch team.
 
WT Door said:
Wow! Guess what the CO of the USS Lincoln and the previous CO of the Saratoga have in common? Each were the chosen from the helicopter community nearly thirty years apart. To my knowledge they are the only two non-tac air types to assume command of a carrier. I hope you don’t jinx her @Devil Doc . The events in the Med onboard Saratoga were, tragically, due to human error between the TAO and exercise watch team.
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I’m not the one who posted about the Lincoln but answered a question with the Saratoga link.
 
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