Navy Destroyer CO Fired After Trying to Make His Crew a Plaque with Seized AK-47
USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98)
The Navy is well known for harsh judgments, and there’s very good reasons for it. This decision, as it reads, seems a bit capricious for what really is a process error.
Davis sends.
Gina Harkins
The commanding officer of a Navy ship was relieved days ahead of a scheduled change-of-command ceremony after an investigation was opened into his decision to make a plaque commemorating his crew’s major weapons seizure in the Middle East, his lawyer said.
Cmdr. Frank Azzarello was removed from his post on the destroyer Forrest Sherman on Wednesday over what the Navy said was a “loss of confidence in his ability to command.” He was relieved by Rear Adm. Ryan Scholl, the head of Carrier Strike Group Eight.
Azzarello, who had commanded the destroyer since September 2019, is currently under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said Cmdr. Ashley Hockycko, a U.S. Second Fleet spokeswoman. But the command declined to provide further details about what prompted the probe or Azzarello’s relief.
“It would be inappropriate to discuss any details until completion of an ongoing investigation,” Hockycko said.
Tim Parlatore, Azzarello’s lawyer, said the Navy sacked the commander over his plan to turn a rusty AK-47 assault rifle into a plaque to celebrate the crew’s celebrated Arabian Sea weapons seizure.
There’s more going on here than a plaque. Read the entire article here: Yahoo News
Thanks, David.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Guest Link, Navy
That’ll teach those mid-grade officers to try and improve morale.
^WORD^ Wonder how his troops feel about their confidence in his ability to command?
A little confused myself on what the issue is, since the article doesn’t give any real details. Maybe almost as confused as his parents were when they named their young’un “Forrest Sherman”. Had to Google Foo him, name sounded familiar but couldn’t quite pull it out. He was, indeed, a real War Hero. Keep us posted David.
Here’s another that had a ironic name of 2 WBTS Fighters. Lee Grant was very well constructed, IMHO.
A little more info in this linky. The weapon in question had been rendered “inert” and was one of the many that was captured and kept out of the hands of our enemies. Who’d the Captain piss off?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/28/navy-captain-fired-after-giving-war-trophy-his-cre/
Someone he hammered in the past?
Sex, UCMJ (Captains Mast), former rival, etc.
Take your pick.
I used have an old 1SG with a picture of a dead Cuban soldier on his wall from Grenada. His first kill, or so he said. Dude was an old Delta dude sent back over into the real Army to command at E-8 to stay competitive for CSM/SGM.
Times have changed.
Maybe a deep stater in the five sided palace found out he voted for Trump.
Everybody likes war trophies. Perhaps he forgot to give his superiors their ‘taste’ of the captured weapons.
Politics…
As dumb as this action sounds, if they fired him instead of just suspending him pending the results of the ongoing investigation, there is probably something there. “Something” might prove to be a violation of a stupid reg or policy, but still a reg or policy.
It has appeared for several years that “Big Navy” has been trying to play a game of one upsmanship with “Big Army” for stupid, inconsequential, and morale destroying bullshit. Neither serves any useful purpose.