7th Fleet Commander Relieved
Apparently DoN decided that 2 collisions at sea with loss of multiple lives in less than 12 weeks was one too many. The Navy has relieved VADM Joseph Aucoin as Commander, 7th Fleet.
Unfair? Maybe. But the commander is responsible for everything their unit does – or fails to do.
Fox News has a short article on the matter. IMO it’s worth a read.
Yeah, it’s great to be the boss. Until your subordinates let you down.
Category: Politics
It goes beyond that. Three collisions, a grounding, a few DWIs (at least one with injuries) all within the last year or so.
Shit hasn’t been this bad in Yoko/7th Fleet since the 1995 rape incident. Admiral Macke made some incredibly stupid remarks and (rightly) got shitcanned for it.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was a young Sgt stationed on Oki at the time and remember all the stories about the Admiral’s comments. It was a hard time to be on Oki, that’s for sure.
Yah the only time that happens in the Army is when someone shits in the Division Headquarters urinal.
Its refreshing to see a flag officer get relieved for something other than screwing a subordinate or someone else’s wife.
Voltaire said: “In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.” He of course referred to the execution of Admiral Byng in 1757 for not doing his utmost. He was, of course, a scapegoat for the inadequacies at that time of the British Navy. It remains to be seen if this demotion will jump start the US Navy.
Not as long as “Big Navy” remains fixated on accommodating gender benders, equal opportunity, human relations, and other social justice programs that do absolutely nothing to better enable combat operations or engender sanity in the Navy. Senior Navy leadership is quite as insane as it is in the Army about this.
I was always told it all rolls downhill. The flip side of that coin is that it starts at the top.
“A fish starts to smell at the head” or something along those lines.
I always said ‘the flip side of RHIP is noblesse oblige.’ Had to explain it a few times.
Too bad we couldn’t relieve the last eight years of purposeful neglect.
Oh wait….we did.
This is no insignificant action and the Navy doesn’t relieve 3 stars all willy nilly. But, as the saying goes, the caca does roll downhill. I suspect he’ll be announcing his retirement soon, since he can no longer hold a 3 star position anywhere.
Too many incidents… too many lives lost. Someone has to be accountable, and CINCPACFLT removed the person he thought should be held accountable.
I’m sure that there will be a few more people being relieved before this is over.
I’m thinking that the associated CSG and DESRON commanders will also get canned.
My thoughts exactly since the Commodore is responsible for getting the ships in his command trained up for deployment.
I’m guessing they either have been canned (and it hasn’t been released to the press) or have had their aides pack up their offices getting ready for the visit from their boss.
Fox News reported the admiral had scheduled his retirement in a few weeks, so this was his terminal assignment. Instead of a swanky retirement ceremony & getting awarded a DSM by the SECNAV…now the admiral has to worry about retiring at 3 star rank.
I got kudos for making an early call on this yesterday. There are a pins standing, but believe several more senior officers will go.
IIRC the Senate has to approve the retirement at 3 star rank?
For 3 & 4 stars, the President or SECDEF (possibly service secretary) must certify satisfactory service in grade. The Senate then votes to confirm retirement in grade (normally uneventful). A notable case where a 4 star retirement was challenged in the Senate was ADM Frank Kelso who was CNO during the Tailhook scandal.
Anyone surprised at this? Yeah, me neither.
I wonder how many other heads will roll and how soon?
A lot of them.
I get the feeling that ships and submarines in 7th Fleet AOR are going to be getting a lot more “help” in the near future in the form of INSURV, OPPE/ORSE, TRE, etc.
Look for several CO’s to get relieved as a result by the end of the year or so.
JMO. YMMV.
There needs to be this action taken in the 5-Sided Puzzle Palace as well.
If the Fleet Commander was attempting to meet the [insane] demands of the SJWs in the 5SPP, and the result of following the guidance of same is the degradation of training, then those idjits need the ax even more than he does.
The thought had crossed my ex-Army mind also. Go through the last several years worth of “Diversity Thursdays” over on CDR Salamander’s blog. We got a little of that back in the early ’90s, but no more than you would have gotten in a civilian corporation.
I’m not sure how it works in today’s Navy (especially since I was an Army guy), but if this were a movie, this is the point some gruff gray-hair would bellow, “Cancel all leaves and passes.”
Three collisions and a grounding? One incident, I can understand. Two incidents, well they do let a bunch of knuckleheads in the Navy. Three incidents, things are a little fishy but it could possible happen. Four incidents, there is some major-grade fuckery afoot and it’s not on the side of the Navy.
It is almost as if someone decided to try and pull a James Bond and hack the GPS systems. Normally, I’d say it is a conspiracy theory, but that’s the only thing that could explain all four incidents.
Sorry, Flagweaver, time to put the tinfoil away.
Just upstream CCO mentioned Commander Salamander.
The ‘Phibian published a post today at USNIBlog, below which is a post by Navy Captain Eschbach (Ret) wherein he mentions a good half-dozen near accidents in his career.
…So there’s at least one retired SWO (and Navy Captain) who tells us those near-misses come more often than we like.
One comment on the video; they refer the admiral’s “dismissal” – seems to me they are misusing the word in this sense based on some of Hondo’s earlier posts?
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
I think I read somewhere (can’t find it now) that he was rotating out of that billet in a few months anyway. Now he’ll have more time to be with his family.
Yes – he was due to move on next month.
I’m guessing the Admiral’s replacement will be making ship handling and lookouts a high training priority.
The Navy has a systemic issue at the deckplate level. That is Leadership, or rather a lack of real leadership, and accountability.
Due to a 20+ year creep of PC culture into the ranks there is no foundation of base skills. Promotions are based on how many warfare devices you hold, and whether or not you have a degree.
The Goat Locker no longer has the expertise to be considered subject matter experts in their ratings. Junior Officers are either not listening to the Chiefs, or the Chiefs just don’t know enough to help the JO’s become good leaders.
I think it’s high time the USN reverse course and bring back emphasis in basic skills such as leadership, accountability, seamanship, saving the ship (which these sailors did a good job of), and killing the enemy. Sailors should be promoted because they are primarily good at their Rates. CPO’s need to be selected because they ARE the subject matter experts. ‘Go ask the Chief’ should mean something again.
Granted, I have been out for 20 years now, but I still have contacts, and these are issues that I am being told about.
The CPO’s and senior officers we have now are the end result of the TQM bullshit that was shoved down our throats starting in the mid-90’s.
You LEAD sailors, you don’t manage them. It was about that time that every little bullshit thing had to be documented as well. I saw a shitbag kid who should have had his ass busted at Captain’s Mast more than once never get past XOI because, “You don’t have a pattern documented.”
Shit like that will not only kill morale in a heartbeat, but creates an air of invincibility that junior sailors take with them when they put on khaki.
Anyone who doubts me, Google, “Dirty Dave Turley” or USS Hue City. Don’t even get me started on the shit I saw in recruiting.
Thank you for that SES. I just read about Dirty Dave as he was called and the complete screw ups on the USS Hue City. I mean, if you want to know how to fuck up by the numbers, those two are text book examples.
I distinctly remember when TQL showed its face at HS-1 in 1995. The command started ‘councils for this and that…I was on one of them; and just quit going when I saw what was going on. An Airman shot down a proposal from a LCDR; I knew right then and there it was fucked.
Question for you Navy veterans please. I have heard the theory of GPS hacking and wondered this. If GPS were hacked, should it not have affected most every ship, since most all modern vessels use it and not just 2 U.S. Navy ships? If it affected all, which would seem more plausible than a direct hack against a particular U.S. ship, then there should have been hundreds of collisions between ships of all types. I do not understand GPS at sea, nor seagoing navigation, so I do not know.
Smart phone GPS systems can be hacked or spoofed with a GPS simulator that sends out signals similar to satellites.
However, as OSC(SW) or any QM, NavET, etc., will tell you, there are several systems independent of GPS which back it up.
Basically, I can’t imagine relying solely on GPS when you have GeoPlot, SINS, etc., backing you up.
And don’t tell me nobody on that ship knew how to use a moboard.
Thank you for your reply SES, although most all of it went over my head. What I took from it is this, that our Naval vessels are rich in navigation equipment of various sorts, all of which should be used for, well, navigation and the prevention of these collisions that cost lives. Did I read you correctly?
5 by 5.
Moboard is your friend.
Well if anyone in the Army is laughing at this, they need to bite their lip and look to the left and right. I can almost guarantee you 40-50% of the folks E-6 and above can’t read a map or competently do basic land navigation, or other similar basic soldiering skills. Don’t even get me started on rifle marksmanship.
Amen Brother
I never went to PLDC (the course you take before getting promoted to E5), but the land nav course at Benning circa 1995 was suppose to be a bear, at least with a compass and a map. I did a smaller course at Ft. McClellan and I missed a point; I just couldn’t find it. And that is after having taken orienteering as a PE.
We weren’t infantry by any means, but we qualified once a year on the rifle range.
I think this is the tip of a really nasty mess that’s been brewing for several years, and not just in the Navy. TQM, Diversity Training, and quite a bit more of the same have taken away the true role of senior leaders in ALL branches of the military. So much time has been spent on bullshit classes and courses, too much time spent on worrying if people have their service specific degree instead of actual job performance knowledge and training, and it’s showing. I saw too much of it firsthand in my own career – the “good ole boy” network went totally off the deep end taking care of the chosen few – even when most of them should have been gotten rid of years prior. Too many good people got tired of the crap and left, and I think too many of the ones that advanced have zero knowledge of what’s going on around them now.