USS Truman CO Relieved
USS Truman (CVN-75)
Navy relieves CO of USS Harry S. Truman following collision
By Beth Sullivan
The Navy relieved the commanding officer of the carrier Harry S. Truman on Thursday, one week after the carrier collided with a civilian merchant vessel in the Mediterranean, the service announced.
Capt. Dave Snowden was relieved by Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, commander of Carrier Strike Group 8, due to a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the Navy said in a brief release.
Snowden’s relief follows a Feb. 12 collision between the Truman and the merchant vessel Besiktas-M while the carrier was operating in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt. No injuries were reported at the time of the incident.
The Navy often uses “loss of confidence” as a blanket statement when relieving commanding officers.
“The U.S. Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standard and takes action to hold them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Navy said. “Naval leaders are entrusted with significant responsibilities to their Sailors and their ships.”
Military Times
No surprises here, it’s a tough gig. Big Navy assures there will be no impact to Truman’s schedule.
Category: Navy
The CO got canned? Pftt, no shit.
Forget those stars, guy. Time to start the retirement paperwork.
“Only the man in charge can be blamed” – Capt. Nathan Brittles US Cavalry (John Wayne)
They were lucky it wasn’t my much worse than the $200M in damage it is likely to be. Still don’t know how or why a merchant ship was so close to a flat top anyway.
The Med entrance to the Suez? Think Big Box store parking lot at Christmas. Haven’t seen any charts yet as Truman cleverly had AIS secured, but it looks like the merch may have turned into her.
If that were true I am surprised they fired the Captain.
Expensive fender. Probably had the chrome strip.
It’ll buff right out.
Relax, dude. My old man is a tv repairman. He has an ultimate set of tools.
Well you knew that was coming given the Navy’s past actions for any time a boat gets bent while under power.
My best guess (since I don’t know the exact location of the collision or the circumstances/communications at the time) is if the carrier was headed towards the canal and was about to turn to stbd to enter the channel lining up for the pilot station and the merchant was headed the other way and about to turn to port to shoot up into the Med, there was a miscommunication or the merchant panicked about the turn radius or wanted to cut the corner and take the carrier’s stern and decided way too late what he was gonna do — turning to port is a fatal mistake.
Traffic is usually quite heavy in those parts, but getting that close under any conditions is the head scratcher for sure.
Some very good points made, Deckie, and, again, I prefer to defer to the opinion of an expert that has BTDT such as you. Details on this have been sketchy and just now coming out, but as I understand, it was around mid night, the Navy Fleet was “in line” to start the transit into the canal locks. I do not know the SOP of all of that, but I am of the opinion that NO ship should be allowed to come within a mile or so of a carrier. I also understand that the Commander, Navy, Army, AF, Business “Boss”, or whatever is ultimately responsible for the assets and as The Carrier’s Namesake always said “The Buck Stops Here”. I doubt if the Captain was @ the helm or even on the bridge when this happened, maybe, maybe not. There’s what 5K people on a carrier? Nobody was keeping a lookout? Did someone see the merchie coming their way, sounded the alarm but it was too late? Kinda feel bad for The Captain, but he knew the job was dangerous (and possibly temporary) when he took it. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I think the merchie deliberately attempted to hit the carrier and only quick action by the helmsman on the carrier mitigated the damage.
Reliable military & commercial shipping experts:
https://youtu.be/uZNhx-cvO4A?si=cDpRwNDtLNwCtRLK
In other nautical news China was having secret live fire exercises in international waters between Australia and New Zealand.
Even if we overlook the fact that they were in commercial shipping lanes and air routes gotta wonder what they were doing there?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/21/commercial-flights-diverted-as-chinese-warships-undertake-apparent-live-fire-drill-in-sea-between-australia-and-new-zealand
Maybe some Aussie subs should have joined the exercise?
I wonder if the skipper will “Ship over” for another 4 years or be shipped over to another ship where he will supervise the work in the scullery and be named Admiral of the “Vessels”
If people would just use their turn signals a lot of this shit
wouldn’t happen.
Just like that politician and her lawer that ran the stop sign
the other day.
how about sticking your arm out of the bridge window and put your arm straight out for a left turn, arm at the elbow straight up for a right turn and arm at the elbow straight down for stop and no double clutching to do it. so easy, a caveman can do it. Give me 40 acres and I can turn this SHIP around. Gee, someone can turn that into a song. By the way, where are you wheel jammer/stick shifter Hondo….
This is why you need a good dashcam. Expect this incident to show up on a very special judge Judy.
RADM Bailey to Capt Snowden: “We’re not saying it’s your fault, but we’re blaming you.”
Be helpful to see an animation or sketch of vessels movements leading to the contact.
Also would be informative to know what happened to the captain of the merchant vessel.
“Sound collision! Officers, brace for relief!”