Fitz Navy Times Article

[UHBlackhawk]

One of the things alluded to is fatigue. Not sure about the Navy, but in the Army there is almost an attitude of sleep being for the weak. I often saw staff officers on field problems staying awake during low tempo periods, almost wearing their lack of rest as a badge of honor. Of course what inevitably happened was that these key leaders were fatigued just when they were needed the most to make decisions. A fatigued brain is equivalent to being drunk. No one would tolerate a drunk person on deck. A fatigued person?
When on military missions I got to where I could take power naps during lulls. I would often encourage my LTs to do the same if we had down time at a FOB during a mission.
The aircraft I currently fly is manned and run more like a ship with “watches”. During critical phases all pilots are “on deck”. During lulls we rotate to the crew rest area to take naps ensuring we are rested and alert when needed.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...erald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read/

 

[scutrules]

"About three weeks after the ACX Crystal disaster, Fort’s investigators sprang a rules of the road pop quiz on Fitz’s officers. It didn’t go well. The 22 who took the test averaged a score of 59 percent, Fort wrote. “Only 3 of 22 Officers achieved a score over 80%,” he added, with seven officers scoring below 50 percent. The same exam was administered to the wardroom of another unnamed destroyer as a control group, and those officers scored similarly dismal marks. The XO Babbitt, Coppock and two other officers refused to take the test, according to the report. "

This is, unfortunately, common aboard most ships today. Keep in mind that a 90% is a passing score for ROR so even the 80% scored by 3 of 22 is considered failing.

I see many similarities between FITZ and how most ships are run. This didn't seem like a super secret that nobody knew about, it's life as a JO in today's Navy. It shouldn't be, but it is. Although I am surprised that the OOD didn't sound five short blasts, that's a go-to in any dangerous situation. I hope we learn from this, give more training, allow for more sleep, maybe increase the number of JOs on board. I'm not sure what the answer is but we need to do something soon before simply being on board a ship means being in danger.

I had the pleasure of serving under this CO: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...nder-of-this-navy-warship-walked-off-the-job/

 

[Devil Doc]

I had the pleasure of serving under this CO: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...nder-of-this-navy-warship-walked-off-the-job/

Do you know why she "walked off the job"?

 

[scutrules]

Do you know why she "walked off the job"?

None of us ever got all of the details but she honestly just didn't seem ready to be in command. We were behind on everything in the yards (~30% when we needed to be past 50%), which is not uncommon but her behavior towards us during this time was appalling. She blamed the wardroom for everything, told us we were making her look bad, etc. I think she cared more about her personal reputation than she did about the ship or any of her crew.

My favorite example: Navy ball (CRUDES heavy, we were Gator Navy so had no desire to go) was less than a week away, some CAPT showed up and asked her why only two people from the ship had signed up to attend (CO and a chief). She had a nice long chat with all of us wardroomers about how she was so embarrassed by us and that we had 24 hours to sign up to this $80 a ticket ball. In order to be excused, we each had to submit an excuse as to why we were not attending. Our SWO had to make a spreadsheet. Turns out tickets were no longer on sale anyways so we couldn't have purchased any if we wanted to (which I found amusing). Even our XO didn't attend...

Another one I just remembered: We had a wardroom outing and CO showed up and played Pokemon Go the ENTIRE time. She even brought a portable battery so she could keep playing when her battery ran out. Was obviously difficult to engage with her during this entire evening. I was on duty the next day and OPS came into the jungle and told us the CO was demanding he speak to the wardroom about our rude behavior towards her all evening. She apparently didn't like that people weren't actively talking to her. I told OPS that maybe if she had unglued her phone from her face, we could have had a nice conversation. I had stood next to her for 10 minutes waiting to say hello and she didn't once look up from the phone. I think OPS tactfully relayed the message to her because we never did get talked to about that evening.