Cmdr. Sarah DeGroot resigns
Navy Commander Sarah DeGroot resigned from her command of the dock landing ship Rushmore according to the Navy Times;
Cmdr. Sarah DeGroot told the head of Amphibious Squadron 3, Capt. Homer Denius, on Monday that she was resigning as the Rushmore’s CO. Three sources were unable to immediately specify why she’d taken this highly unusual and likely career-ending move.
While the Navy relieves commanding officers for substandard performance or misconduct several times per year, it is highly unusual for a CO to resign voluntarily. Reached for comment by phone, DeGroot declined to comment.
“I don’t think I have anything to say at this time,” DeGroot said.
Someone out there knows.
Category: Navy
More senior officers behaving badly?
Given that this ship was home-ported in San Diego, maybe the Fat Leonard brouhaha has something to do with this?
We are NOT Groot…
Funny.
Maybe she knows something about somebody…?
Maybe someone knows something about her?
Maybe she was just too depressed to continue on after Hitlery lost the election?
A good as any. Couldn’t be that she wants a sex change. That would bring a promotion not disgrace. But this is what happens when people present mysteries: speculation is invited. She could have said “personal reasons shared with appropriate leadership” or damn near anything. For all we know, she had a hissy fit and stormed out.
Pissed off that her Command tour is in dry dock?
Unusual, but not unprecedented.
The CO of the Blue Angels quit back around 2011, IIRC.
This ain’t that. That was event-prompted and the leader explained himself fully and honorably.
“With deep personal regret, I shared with my command today that I will be voluntarily leaving the greatest flight demonstration team,” Koss said in a written statement. “I performed a maneuver that had an unacceptably low minimum altitude. This maneuver, combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard that makes the Blue Angels the exceptional organization that it is, led to my decision to step down.” (2011)
“She walked off her job….” wrote the Navy Times. Um. Ah. Er. Um. Ah. Er Um. That’s all I have.
I’d hit it.
That would be a step up for you.
I can neither confirm nor deny until proper assessment.
I understand that to mean you require a full body shot. If so, I understand.
I think he means a post-hit assessment, which I understand. Sometimes you never know until after, after all.
But would you hit it 6 feet under
I have a list of things IDC_SARC would hit.
Oh my.
It would be quicker to say what he WOULDN’T hit.
Touche’!
…Waiting for the other high heel to drop, as it were. IMHO, three possibilities:
1 – She suddenly realized she can’t hack it, or some variant thereof (a longtime mentor retired/reassigned,a series of problems we haven’t heard about yet, that sort of thing)
2 – She may indeed have been triggered enough by The Trumpening to figure that the good old days are gone. (h/t to Wilted Willy)Let’s face it; in all the services right now, there’s field/flag officers who know perfectly well they’re someplace they really shouldn’t be, and are terrified of the possibility that someone may start looking at them the way they did in the Olden Time.
3 – In my opinion most likely: something else is coming down the pike, and she hit the bang handles proactively – in which case at least some credit must be given for having the courage to own up to it. Unless it’s an overtly criminal act under the UCMJ (h/t to Hayabusa)she’ll probably spend what’s left of her career overseeing a grounds maintenance materials depot someplace and then quietly retire.
Mike
Or, might actually be a personal issue (health, family) and she couldn’t devote appropriate energy to command.
I’ve actually seen this, but before taking guidon or just a quiet accelerated change.
That was one of my thoughts also. Something personal, which she may have shared with higher command, but asked that the cause not be attributed.
she resigned and unless she is reinstated her career is finished, she will be overseeing the home kitchen duties.
I am beginning to wonder if she was a PC commission. How long had she been in?
The biggest joke of a PC upgrade was Michele Howard. Think how many four stripers,one, two, and three stars are out there having been MUCH more deserving than this chick. Every wardroom in the fleet was and still is buzzing over that sham promotion. Oh well.Wadda ya gonna do? It’s that kind of crap that makes a would be lifer toss in the towel.
Is she an O’Bozo appointee? Maybe she’s trying to beat the rush and get out before the New Sheriff takes command and holds her accountable for her actions and forces her out without retirement and bennies.
Of course, this is only fresh water talk from an Army commo who supported grunts.
Currently pulsing some of the guys that I know in the Navy ‘Bubba Network’ to see if anyone knows anything about what’s going on here.
As of right now, no one is aware of any misconduct/allegations of misconduct.
More to follow if I find out anything new…
Someone thinks she’s Hondo.
God Help Us….
BHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ! ! ! !
Bada Bing!
Loss of confidence?
promoted ahead of peers a few to many times.
How about she went for an annual physical and got bad news?
She’s had a successful career:
http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/LSD47/Pages/Bio1.aspx
I remember serving with the CMC on the ship – we were both at Great Lakes as instructors, did not know him very well. CMC in under 20, pretty fast mover.
Really odd situation… maybe it’s health or other personal issues or she lost confidence in her ability to be a Commanding Officer. We may never know what happened.
Senior, I’ll take you back further: knew the CMC when he was HM2 and the officer in question when she was a LT. We were all onthe Connie together, and she was a pretty decent officer from what I remember.
She may have been diagnosed with a serious illness and is leaving to seek treatment.
About a year & change short of retirement eligibility. I can’t imagine she will walk away from that. Likely a desk job to mark time, an adverse FITREP, then drop retirement papers. South West Airlines has those commercials “I Hate My Job”…could simply be that.
I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt at this point as nothing is known. She may have gotten tired of the crap rolling down the hill toward CO’s and made a CO – responsible priority (from a lot of reports, there are a lot of stupid things non-warfare related priorities rolling these days) and said, “F**k this. Not worth it.”, and then bailed out. Maybe voting with her feet as a lot of mil websites have been encouraging senior O’gangers to do in the current climate.
Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen both senior enlisted and officers who were on track for COB/CO/XO assignments punch out due to the political BS.
Bottom line, not really worth speculating over unless and until we hear the reason from her, which is pretty unlikely at best.
It sure is puzzling…I would suggest though that if it was personal health, family, stress et al that she could simply have coordinated early relief with her ISIC…there is something deeply amiss here in her personal behavior, her ship and/or her relations with her ISIC…or perhaps her judgement is just flat out flawed. I’ve been a major command CO and I’ve never heard of such a thing as walking off the brow into the sunset. In the old days I guess you locked yourself in your stateroom and put a bullet in your head. Certainly hanging up your command either method other than through normal turnover or relief for cause was not a module tought at the COs course. I think as stated elsewhere in comments, this didn’t seem on par with the Blue Angels “resignation”
“I think as stated elsewhere in comments, this didn’t seem on par with the Blue Angels ‘“resignation.”'”
The only thing the two have in common is that both resigned, one honorably and the other mysteriously. In order for that comparison to be valid, the Blue Angels leader would have walked away DURING an air show and then offered no explanation for walking away and resigning. Neither of these things happened. DeGroot, on the other hand, literally walked off her ship, if the report is accurate, and called it a career, sans explanation. Maybe she was pissed b/c no one would tell her how a quart of strawberries came to be missing.
A second key. The last time I investigated missing strawberries, there was a second key, so that must be the case here, too.
At the last second, her second discovered there was a second key to the second occurrence of the missing strawberries. Rather than take a second look at the second loss with the second key, she decided to leave, before anyone second guessed her second reason for resigning. Wait a second. I’d have had a fuller explanation but I only had a second to come up with this one, which was my second explanation. Oops, I have to leave for parts unknown in a second.
(Dragged away by guys in white for second time…..)
You-all are a bunch of Queegers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlV3oQ3pLA0
Now …. where are my marbles???
There ya go with that geometric logic again.
Dammit. A second, duplicate key! (Head slap.) I hope someone turns that ship inside out and upside down looking for that second key. Back in ’37, same thing happened. Five lbs of cheese came up missing. (I wonder if Chevy’s Dad was in the Navy.)
Good chance after being the XO on this same hull and moving directly in to the CO spot, accumulated stress and having to live with the decisions and actions during the XO tour may have taken the huge toll. Possibly better to walk away rather than try to fight through. A command tour can be hell that can’t be revealed to the crew, I may not have liked my COs but I respected the hell out of them for accepting that position. Good luck to her.
May never know the real reason she gave up command. On another note her boss CPT Homer Denius has a cool name.
Late 30s +, no wedding ring, hmmmmmm. I suspect she was about to be ratted out, and quit to avoid the debacle that was sure to come.