Submarine Officer Alleges Cheating in Nuclear Fleet
Jonn asked me to put in my .02 about a story he was sent from THE DAILY BEAST about a former submarine officer by the name of Christopher Brownfield, who has just had a book published called“My Nuclear Family”, detailing his experiences and growing disillusionment with the submarine force and what he saw as the growing irrelevance of submarines.
But more disturbing to me are his allegations of widespread cheating, or at the very least the “wink and a nod” regarding qualifications within the submarine force at large and nuclear power community specifically. To his credit, he did manage to finish his JO tour on USS Hartford, do an abbreviated tour at Submarine School in New London, CT, and even did a year in Iraq, although his biography and book description by Knopf/Doubleday would be embellishment to say the least.
He graduated the Naval Academy as an English Literature major and chose a program where the vast majority (over 80 percent) of the officer candidates are Engineering, Math, or hard sciences majors, and wonders why he has difficulty passing BASIC Engineering Qualifications (BEQ)? What disturbs me greatly is his claim that the other officers on board turned a blind eye, and after MULTIPLE failures of the BEQ Exam, and they basically gave him the answers to the exam; i.e., allowing him to take it “open book”. In 12 years in nuclear power, from A-School, through Nuclear Power School, prototype, qualifications on two submarines and as radiological controls (radcon) on a tender, I NEVER saw an “open book” test, even for a training quiz. In submarines and particularly in nuclear power, this is a sin of unforgivable magnitude, to the tune of senior officers and enlisted going bye-bye without so much as a chance to explain themselves. While examinations are political in nature to the point where comments have been made on Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination (ORSE) evaluations if the average scores are too high, too low, or too many/too few fail, to admit to basically GIVING AWAY an exam is not, and never has been an excusable action.
Then he goes on to claim that the submarine force is that of a “white elephant”, irrelevant to the GWOT. Really, “sir”? I know I’m just a former blueshirt dumbass, but even I can find plenty of examples in which submarines would be of particularly high value, especially in terms of covert surveillance of enemy coastline and ports, insertion/extraction of SEALs and other special operators, and as a last resort, launch of Tomahawks against targets inland or Mk-48’s against bad guys with ships (read: Iran). Then again, this is the same mental giant who wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times claiming that we should have used explosives (even suggesting nukes) on the BP oil well, using at best dubious “facts”.
I’m being kind when I say that Mr. Brownfield was a less than stellar officer. I’ve heard from others who have served with him who speak about him in less than flattering terms. It would be a shame for Mr. Brownfield to become the voice of the submarine community and of Naval Nuclear Power. Joel Kennedy over at milblog The Stupid Shall Be Punished has some good submarine/nuke takes on this subject.
Category: Politics
Good job, Sparky!! I had a feeling that this was not so widespread as he alleges. Do people gundeck PQS?? Sure. It happens. That said, it is not the norm, but rather the exception.
That’s ONE of the reasons I avoided the EAWS. I saw people just handed that award without doing a damned thing. IMO, it is the responsibility of a GOOD Petty Officer to already have the knowledge of what’s required in the EAWS. Same with the Surface Sailors. As far as you Sub Sailors go, your lives depends on having the good quals, so it really is part of your job. Do I need some piece of metal to show that I know ALL facets of my job?? Hardly.
Having been a sub nuke, granted of limited experience, I can say that I saw efforts to bend over backwards to help guys qualify but never to simply pass the incompetent. Long hours at prototype with instructors spending countless hours going over and over and over the same material with you until it stuck by brute force if necessary. But when it came time for tests you had to pass fair and square and before your qualification board they had to have a sense that you knew what you were doing and when and if presented with a condition you did not recognize you had the presence of mind to go to safe condition immediately. I remember the enlisted nukes tended to have a way better sense of their system then the butterbar EO’s that stood over our shoulders giving orders with a clear tone of “am I getting this right?” in their voice. Lastly I remember the ones that just couldn’t get it, or were personality problems always being the ones who would complain or disparage our service and the training system. All to often I have seen “if you don’t measure up then tear down your service”. Unless this “gentleman” has verifiable evidence ignore him.
I gotta agree here too. There was the occasional gundecking of some minor PQS that i saw, but it was an exception and usually with some mitigating circumstances.
Having said that, I was NATOPS qualified as an evaluator for my position on the P-3b Orion. I never passed anyone who didn’t show that they knew what was required of them, especially on all of the safety issues. Lives of others depended upon you being able to do your job in an emergency, and not have to look up the procedures with time ticking away.
For my bubblehead shipmates, I simply cannot imagine any sort of situation arising that would lend credence to this officer’s assertions. I’d be happy to call him a liar to his face, someone with an axe to grind who simply couldn’t hack it in his CHOSEN, VOLUNTARY job.
That’s the big thing, too. Submariners, like airdales, are all volunteers. At any time you can sign your page 13 and unvolunteer yourself from that duty.
As to his wild-ass claims of submarines being useless, he’s frikkin’ clueless there. He’s got target fixation on the GWOT, and can’t see the looming confrontations with China and others that will require a strong and professional, dedicated, blue water Navy, and that means subs. As many as we can get.
V/R
Oh Yeah, I agree with NHSparky, in almost 13 years of sea duty, albeit on “targets” numerous ORSES, PORSES AND NPMTT visits, never did we get any help on the tests. The officer screening must be getting lax. If they were still using ADM Rickovers standards, they would have classed him nuc waste as soon as they saw he was an English major.
now I really wish I could be back home enjoying a coctail at the Groton Subvets and passing this article around to see how much chaos I can cause with the retiree crowd. I may have to send the girlfriend with a camera to catch the pissed off rants I miss so much
Not to worry, MT–I dropped this one off in the shop at work, where probably half the guys are ex-Navy nukes. One of two reactions prevailed, either the shaking of the head as if they knew a JO like this guy, or the, “That’s bullshit!” exclamation.