USS Howard Grounded, Skipper Fired
USS Howard (DDG-83)
USS Howard sustained ‘soft grounding’ near Bali ahead of port visit
By Diana Stancy Correll
The Japan-based guided-missile destroyer Howard, whose commanding officer was fired Saturday, suffered a “soft grounding” this month as it pulled into Bali for a scheduled port visit, according to Navy officials.
“On the morning of Aug. 10, USS Howard (DDG 83) experienced an apparent soft grounding shortly before arriving in Bali, Indonesia, for a scheduled port visit,” Lt. Luka Bakic, a spokesperson for U.S. 7th Fleet, said in an email to Navy Times. “Upon indication of potential grounding, watch standers took immediate action to protect the crew and the ship.”
“The ship was able to return to normal operations under its own power and propulsion,” Bakic said. “There were no injuries as a result of the mishap.”
The incident is currently under investigation, according to Bakic.
The Navy relieved the destroyer’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Kenji Igawa, from his duties Saturday “due to loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the service said in a statement.
Parking a ship in the mud is frowned upon as a general rule, but when arriving at a foreign port? Bad form.
Category: Dick Stepping, Navy
If there wasn’t rampant diversity affirmation action promotions in the Navy of substandard officers…I would have to question it.
Cmdr. Kenji Igawa
I am sure it was Trump’s fault.
It’s climate change.
Regrettably, that is a natural reaction to quotas being anywhere near hiring/promotions/etc. You always are made to wonder regardless of whether it is warranted or not. One thing is for sure, if you have a straight white male in command in 2023 – you know they are obviously very good!
(For those of you who don’t get the very obvious, they would have to be very good because that’s the only way you would be highly promoted or put in positions of power in the Biden-Force if you are one of those deplorable straight white male normies.)
You’re in deep denial. A straight white male only gets to any position of power and authority because of white privilege and misogyny. His competence is irrelevant. He’s obviously gotten there by climbing the pile of bodies of lesser advantaged downtrodden persons. You are part of the problem. SARC?
Your use of “SARC”, particularly with a question mark, has been noted. It is now a matter of record.
I’m just a product of my environment.
Or he tows the party line like a good commisar.
With a name like Kenji Igawa maybe he should take the honorable way out and commit Hara Kiri
Curious he wasn’t on the bridge when heading into a foreign port. My knowledge of Navy Ops being near zero, one would think that he would be around for that.
Of course he was, and his best Nav team too. Grounding is a group effort.
After running aground, is the next statement “and we’re docked” make it official?
I’m pretty sure the next statement was “aw shit”.
Well that is shorter than saying we have arrived at our destination.
Are you sure? Perhaps the helmsman (do they still have those?) didn’t receive the mandatory “hay foot, straw foot” training. That port/starboard stuff can be confusing.
Before the marina dredged the slip row I’m in at low tide my keel would catch a little mud…we would thus try to get in an hour before max low tide or an hour after….
But it was only a 30′ sailboat and it was never something I couldn’t plow through under power….I’ve seen some folks anchor for a party and forget about the tides…they end up staying for six hours longer than they planned.
The destroyer issue seems one more example of some sort of systemic problem with the services lately…perhaps the fact that only 23% of 17-24 year olds are fit to serve and the military is competing with the private sector for that quarter of the population.
Less qualified candidates will probably translate into less capable sailors, soldiers, airmen, and marines….
Coupled with what appears to be some command issues over the last few years in the Navy and we’ve seen more than a few of these “incidents”. Getting rid of or demoting or simply relieving one or two vessel commanders isn’t going to fix a systemic issue. But it’s most likely all that will happen as our military is very good these days at pretending to know nothing about the issues surrounding recruitment, retention, and quality of personnel.
It’s a new age and what was working 50 years ago no longer applies because what worked 15 years ago no longer applies and nothing in our last 120 years of history in this nation has prepared anyone for a situation where the number of jobs completely outpaces the number of people looking for work. The competition for quality personnel has never been higher than right now.
I’ve said it time and again but when an entry level worker with a couple hours of overtime can out-earn an E6 with a half dozen years of service the military can’t possibly expect to retain quality, trained personnel…and with entry level military pay as piss poor as ever there’s no reason for anyone with options to want to consider military service.
Looking at the current pay table it looks like an E8 with 16 years in only makes about $68k a year….no wonder retention is a problem….
It’s more than that with housing, BAS ETC. Most E8s are going to clear North of 90k. Of course the first and second wives get a chunk of that.
I retired as an E7 out of the DC area and made around $103k with BAH. Definitely not enough to get rich, but given the level of work versus pay, it wasn’t too bad.
“Of course the first and second wives get a chunk of that.”
*laughs in truth* 😂😥
Ex Strippers gotta eat too….
I’ll just leave this old favorite here…
Strippah the Hutt
Nothing proclaims competence like a soft grounding or ship collision.
I know of some Sea Scouts better qualified to drive a ship.
I was grounded once but we’re talkin Signal Corps. Still….
😅
😂
Being grounded…..did it hertz?
Watt is love…
Baby don’t Hertz me…
No Morse.
Morse, you say?
I got grounded at Ft Knox once upon a time…. Took amother tank to get me ungrounded. Damm red clay.
Did it happen with any kind of frequency? Did you have a high capacitance for your grounding or was your resistance to it low? Did you have to sine or just wave it off? Wrist strap slap or spoiled rod?
Don’t rock or mud the boat. Hope he enjoys fetching coffee during his next billet.
https://youtu.be/VIliZvuvirs
Yes. It’s my day. I checked the roster.
My Man! Nothin’ like taking the shot when ya gots good tone. ninja grins!
The List. Population all y’all, but some are more equal than others.
Perhaps this and all the discussion below is a good example of how the people currently in charge have planned to make our military might a non-issue: Add to this the poor recruiting efforts, the endless idiocy of requirements to accept people who have no real interest in what the military is required to do, but can “join” in order to get some free “medical” treatment and then get out on hardship.
Greatest military by far around the world….hah, we can make them leave in droves, and then neuter the ones that stay. Literally!
Should a Republican get into office this next go around, they should get all the big honchos into 1 room, lay out what will be expected of them, and if they have issues with what’s expected, they can resign.
If they say, no, no problem, but later show a willful disregard towards what’s expected, they get fired on the spot and escorted from the building. They can pick up their belongings from security after making an appointment.
If it’s the folks that serve under him/her that are causing the trouble, he/she will be able to ask/ demand the same without fear of reprisal.
Get rid of the Miley, vindman, any soldier who wants to dress like Klinger and clean frikken house.
I say Republican, because I haven’t seen any Democrat who would be willing to do so. Maybe Kennedy, but not sure.
The GOs and FOs have been emboldened by weak civilian oversight and a lack of leadership. Historic “firsts” like Eric Fanning and Christine Wormuth have been selected as Secretary of the Army based on their unique qualifications, mostly just becoming the first gay and first female SecArmy.
Start promoting on merit.
That’s racist, sexist, misogynistic, patriarchal, a few other isms and ists and absolutely correct.
AND you gonna offend some people too!!!
I thought the military was meant to toughen you up. Your “delicate sensibilities ” should have been taken care of in basic training.
Maybe what is needed is some old school drill instructors. Like when some recruit says this is too hard and I need a break. I would give them a break by having them lay down where he/she is. But I want to see 3 inches of daylight uunder their heels until they felt rested. Everybody else can have the same break as well. Maybe some sit ups afterwards to really tone the mid section.
A little barrack room justice may be involved later by those whose feelings weren’t hurt at the time.
I fookin’ hope so!
If only they had the proper pronouns for that harbor…
I mean, I wasn’t in the Navy but is this like when a C-5 is at Hickham and they “Smell smoke or an unusual ordor” in the cockpit and have to do maintenance for about a week? 😉
Or no, maybe “accidentally getting a little stuck in the mud’ in Bali, Indonesia so you can hang out for an extended period of time and get things “checked out” is in fact, not a good idea? 😞
This is arcane, but if you divert to Pattaya Beach for a chips light there had better be fuzz on the plug.
Shack!
Saved round:
Long, long ago, in days of yore in pre-Tailhook ’91 Naval Aviation, the same was true if anyone diverted with an “aircraft problem” into NAS Oceana late on a Wednesday or Friday afternoon (the old hands of the TAH Naval Aviation crew will know what I’m talking about).
Initially, fuel system gripes were quite popular with those who engaged in these adventures, as they were “downing” discrepancies that would necessitate at least a 1xRON (Remain Over Night)* until a squadron maintenance recovery team could get to NAS Oceana to troubleshoot the gripe. However, virtually all of those “downing” gripes somehow miraculously fixed themselves overnight and couldn’t be replicated the next day, which thus enabled our intrepid Naval Aviators to return to their home stations without incident.
*Success at getting a 1xRON on a Wednesday or Friday night was a significant achievement because it enabled the aircrew(s) to go booming that night at the NAS Oceana O’Club bar and put on “a whole helmet bag full of knots” throughout the evening. And no; NO ONE ever wore their sunglasses inside the bar.
For a while, much fun and hilarity ensued, but as with all of these types of activities, higher headquarters eventually put the kibosh on all of it when they finally figured out that too many 2nd MAW aircraft were parked at NAS Oceana on Wednesday and Friday nights. From there on out, if you diverted anywhere with an aircraft gripe, you had to wait for the maintenance recovery team to come and troubleshoot your gripe, and you’d damn well better have an actual maintenance problem when they got there.
Good times, while they lasted.
Maybe you should have gotten a little closer to the maintenance crew and invite them on occasion to see first hand what the problem is.
Just an idea, but a little late now.
Yup; I would certainly have liked to have invited some of the maintenance crew to come along on occasion, but I would have had to strap them up under one of my external weapons stations to do so.
Yes, “engine trouble”… pesky problem that.
Engine noises that can’t be replicated when the mechanic Is standing. Right. There.
I had a TDY extended for 2 weeks while at Clark. AB. I don’t recall the reason, but I heard no bitching. It was better duty than Kadena if only for a little while.
Certainly not defending CDR Igawa here, because I have no factual knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this grounding of USS HOWARD. Maybe he “screwed the pooch” in Bali; maybe he didn’t.
However, it is interesting to note that Admiral Chester Nimitz ran USS DECATUR aground in 1907.
Nimitz, Chester William (navy.mil)
I love to remind my Navy “Black Shoe” SWO buddies of that when they start screaming for heads to roll whenever there is yet another incident/mishap in the Surface Navy.
Perhaps it’s time for the Surface Navy to engage in some serious professional introspection and develop some more effective solutions to their ongoing ship-handling problems, rather than simply resorting to their same old knee-jerk reaction of immediately shitcanning COs before all of the facts are known in a lame, superficial attempt to address their deeper institutional issues/problems that they’d prefer to ignore.
At least it didn’t take the appointment of an admiral to figure out how to get the ship unstuck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_USS_Missouri_grounding
Of course when you’re a battleship and you run aground, you do it and then some.
Interesting reading. A cascading series of cockups resulting in a seriously stuck ship. Hey, go big or go home!
Merchant Marine ships soft ground in the Great Lakes frequently due to lack of dredging and lack of NOTAMS identifying areas. Nobody gets fired.
To the US Department of the Navy,
Can the US taxpayers please get back the deposit they put down on these ships if all your gonna do is crash them into other ships or run them aground. Thanks.
Signed,
The Third Estate
The ship identifies as free floating. Calling it grounded is deadnaming.