Not much of a surprise here. The CO of the USS Port Royal was "temporarily relieved of command" shortly after the ship was freed from its grounding incident earlier today. I know that this is standard operating procedure in these sorts of cases and I doubt that he will return to command the ship.
I know that the CO is responsible for everything, but Captain John Carroll was in a difficult situation. Of course, CO's have to be constantly prepared for difficult situations. This was his first day out at sea with his crew and he probably didn't have much of an opportunity to observe his navigation team in action. Still, he should have been especially vigilant while the ship was operating near shallow water after dark while performing a personnel transfer. If he saw things going bad, he should have stopped the evolution and made sure the ship was returned to a safe condition.
Ultimate Responsibility is a term that everyone on a navy ship understands and everyone knows who it is that has Ultimate Responsibility. I wish that some of the civilian company CEO's felt the same sense of responsibility that our military commanders live with every day that they are in command. What do you think of the concept of Ultimate Responsibility?
I know that the CO is responsible for everything, but Captain John Carroll was in a difficult situation. Of course, CO's have to be constantly prepared for difficult situations. This was his first day out at sea with his crew and he probably didn't have much of an opportunity to observe his navigation team in action. Still, he should have been especially vigilant while the ship was operating near shallow water after dark while performing a personnel transfer. If he saw things going bad, he should have stopped the evolution and made sure the ship was returned to a safe condition.
Ultimate Responsibility is a term that everyone on a navy ship understands and everyone knows who it is that has Ultimate Responsibility. I wish that some of the civilian company CEO's felt the same sense of responsibility that our military commanders live with every day that they are in command. What do you think of the concept of Ultimate Responsibility?
4 comments:
From the KOG: "Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one has really been responsible."
http://govleaders.org/rickover.htm
Command at sea can be very lonely when things go wrong. I figure at least five people should have screamed, "All Stop, Captain!" long before they were in shoal water.
Speaking from past personal experience working under him, Carroll is a terrible leader. He was my Reactor Officer onboard the Washington (2004-2007).
He yelled at an enlisted watch team to shut up and do what he wanted, causing a reactor safety trip.
He shifted the blame to an LDO who wasn't even in the room at the time of the incident.
Because we weren't vocal enough about our protests to his actions that day, our watchstanding value "watch team backup" became "FORCEFUL watch team back up."
He should never have been trusted with command of a cubicle, much less an entire ship.
When in command of a deep draft vessel, anywhere near shore or shoal, you never leave clearly charted shipping lanes. No matter what anyone else asks or orders you to do.
I was an E-4 and I knew that.
Captain Carrol is an idiot. He'll make a good high school math teacher. You can show off all you want on the blackboard. It doesn't work so well on the bridge of a ship.
As a former special sea detail OOD on the old McCain (DL-3) we ALAWYS approached Pearl well seaward of the area the USS Port Royal was traveling in.....Our target was the off shore navigation reference point known as "Poppa Hotel" thence you headed for the channel, more than 45 years have gone by.... I recall the course we used was 331 after lining up on the channel entrance.....after passing the entrance it was a series of right turns that lead you past the USS Arizona memorial and thence to to the DD piers. I was visiting in 1980's and everything looked the same....NOT now of course. The fathometer watch was always posted well before we got close to Poppa Hotel.
The CO is "always" responsible. Why were they making a personnel transfer in the dark in the first place....That seems like a stupid idea. The resulting grounding being the result.
Bob Melley
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