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The life and near death of USS Fitzgerald. Detailed, harrowing, disturbing report of the warship’s collision with a merchant vessel near Japan from @ProPublica’s @MegMcCloskey @txtianmiller & @RobertFaturechi.
The USS Fitzgerald disaster, @ProPublica reporters make clear, was not a one-off. It was a symptom, of long-term neglect of training and maintenance in the Navy, and particularly in the 7th Fleet based in Japan: the US fleet closest to China. features.propublica.org/navy-accidents…
What's the issue here? The great service @MegMcCloskey @txtianmiller & @RobertFaturechi have done is to draw attention to the possibility of a disaster we cannot imagine, because we haven't been looking for it. The American military, and particularly its leadership...
... have been the objects of little less than reverence in the United States. I've pointed out from time to time -- it is not a popular observation -- that reverence may be misplaced with respect to generals who command in, but cannot win, the wars America has fought since 2001.
But the Navy & its leadership have not fought -- not against another navy, not on blue water. From a sane point of view, that's a good thing....and yet, developments in the far western Pacific have raised the possibility of just such a conflict for the first time in many decades
If the US Navy cannot keep ships fully manned & crews fully trained, if it can't keep combat vessels from running aground & colliding with merchant vessels, should we be confident it can fight a war and win? @RepAdamSmith & his committee should treat this as an urgent question.
Addendum to this thread: yet another thread! This one by Navy vet @spooknine on a detail of naval readiness, and the problem of institutional inertia.
Second addendum to this thread on the @ProPublica series about US Navy readiness & the Fitzgerald disaster: I expect this reaction by @ConsWahoo is representative of many in the naval community. If a ship has an accident, blame its captain & officers.
That’s naval tradition, and not one I quarrel with. The problem I see with the tradition in this context is that assigning responsibility to junior officers when things go wrong is one aspect of the Navy no one seems to think is broken.
It will be done, in the case of Fitzgerald (and McCain. And Antietam). If the reporting of @MegMcCloskey @txtianmiller & @RobertFaturechi is accurate, however, even the most uncharitable view of Fitzgerald’s officers’ conduct before the ship’s accident fails to account...
.... for readiness issues in the Navy and particularly in 7th Fleet that, in a shooting war, could cost us a lot more than a handful of sailors. McGrath maintains that emphasizing the shortcomings of Fitzgerald’s command doesn’t let the Navy’s senior leadership off the hook.
I’m sure it isn’t intended to. But practically speaking, it kind of does. We’re not in the late 1990s anymore in the far Western Pacific. Writing off a series of accidents in routine peacetime conditions as a product of individual ship commanders would be the easy thing to do.
It would be the course offering the fewest complications for service leadership preoccupied with big-picture budget & institutional maintenance issues. And it would be traditional. But it would be unwise.
Readiness becomes more important when there is a threat to be ready for. In the far Western Pacific, there is. [end]
As I was saying a few days ago, about letting senior Navy leadership off the hook after multiple ship incidents, here’s a senior Navy leader declaring “off the hook” status. Most ships haven’t collided with other ships! Via @dave_brown24
Writeup of today’s hearing & the exchange between the Navy’s Pacific Fleet Commander and @SenAngusKing. Per @DavidLarter, King asked readiness questions based on @ProPublica Fitzgerald series to which Adm. Davidson had no good answers. defensenews.com/naval/2019/02/…
Another twist in the #Fitzgerald story, via @JeffSchogol. Following reporting by @MegMcCloskey @txtianmiller & @RobertFaturechi, a commentary by @ConsWahoo at @WarOnTheRocks emphasized responsibility of Fitzgerald's commander. Both reporting and commentary are linked upthread.
Official Navy Twitter accounts (including @USNavy) tweeted, then deleted references to the @ConsWahoo commentary. Lawyers for Fitzgerald's commander, now facing charges over the collision, are arguing this compromises his right to a fair trial. taskandpurpose.com/fitzgerald-col…
