How do we avoid that?
This question is the root of most every human originated disaster that ever happens. How do we avoid that? When the Theodore Roosevelt docked in Guam, the Navy was spending days trying to avoid the decision they knew needed to be made. Nobody wanted to order the crew to essentially abandon ship and nobody wanted to think about the logistical nightmare of quarantining nearly 5,000 people. Food, medical, and simple services was going to be a nightmare. So it was easier to leave them on the ship while people considered, and they avoided the nightmare scenario of removing the sailors from the ship.
That scenario was a nightmare because you can’t very well report that the ship is ready for action when the crew is on the beach isolated for two weeks or more. Testing some 5,000 people is another nightmare with tests only now coming off the line, and a days long backlog already. The sailor would likely be symptomatic by the time the report on the test came in.
How do we avoid that? We avoid it by not putting everyone on the beach. We avoid it by not taking the ship out of a wartime posture, or at least ready to respond to a wartime scenario. We avoid it by hoping that extra cleaning on the ship would do the trick.
How do we avoid that? I read where someone was outraged by the Captain supposedly going outside the Chain of Command. Nobody knows if he did. The Navy doesn’t know, but they say the Captain is responsible because he Copied too many people into the memo he sent. So even if he didn’t leak it, too many people knew about it and someone was bound to leak it.
You see, there be the rub. Let’s be honest for a moment. The Captain of an Aircraft Carrier has so many bosses that it is probably a full time job for a dozen people just to make sure everyone gets their reports on time. You have Naval Flight Oversight. That is the part of the navy responsible for the planes and standards for pilots. You have the War Command, the part of the Navy like CincPac, or whatever they are calling it nowadays, which controls the part of the ocean the ship is sailing in. You have an Admiral On Board which is the Task Force Commander, you have the Fleet Command, Personnel Command, Medical Command, and all the service and support commands. How much food do you have, are you doing your maintainance in accordance with the standards? Are all the pilots getting their hours and practice approaches?
I got a taste of that in the Army. After my time as a Combat Engineer, I reclassify as an Air Traffic Controller. I was assigned to a Divisional Support Company. When I was deployed in support of the Division, I had to answer and send Reports to the Officer who oversaw Support of the Aviation Units. Then I had to make sure I checked in with my actual Platoon Leader back at the base to insure he knew what I was up to. I had to call the First Sergeant to check in and make sure he was aware that I was taking care of my troops. I had to check in with the Supply Sergeant and confirm that all sensitive items were accounted for twice a day. The Executive Officer was also advised of this.
But there was more. When I wrote an AAR for the training exercise, I had to copy not only my company, and the Aviation Brigade, but the Battalion I was titularly under at Fort Bragg some Three Hundred miles away. Then I had to copy in a couple other commands that had interest in what we were doing, including ATC Standards and Command at Fort Rucker. Another base hundreds of miles away.
That was a Tactical Air Control Team Leader assigned to run a forward support base’s Air Traffic Control. I had a team of four including myself. I can only imagine what it is like for the Captain of a Carrier.
Relieving the Captain is petty and foolish. Delaying the decisions hoping to find out what can we do to avoid this or that is even dumber. The Chain of Command who would not issue the necessary orders should be relieved and sent to some damned base in the middle of nowhere to count Mess Kits.
When you seek higher rank, you seek more responsibility. Unfortunately as this episode has demonstrated, people seeking responsibility is not happening at the upper levels. Whoever the Cinc was for that ship, should have issued the orders before the ship docked. It shouldn’t have come down to a Captain sending out a desperate plea for help to save his sailors. And that plea should have been acted on before it was published in the paper sent by I know not who.
And even if it was the Captain, the chain of command is guilty of negligence and should be relieved before the weekend is over. Their request to retire should be held up for at least a year while they serve as the VD Officer for Iceland or somewhere else extremely remote.
www.sfchronicle.com
