GAO: Navy Training, Certification Improve
An aviation boatswain’s mate directs an aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea, Sept. 20, 2018. (U.S. Navy photo/Kenneth Abbate)
But 100-Hour Workweeks Continue
Stars and Stripes | By Caitlin Doornbos
The relentless Pacific Fleet OPTEMPO and misguided “More with Less” attitude, combined with a leadership blind to realities, were direct causes of needless loss of life and trauma, millions of tax dollars for repairs, and careers shot down. Lessons have been learned, or better re-learned, in ensuring ships and their crews are able to perform the missions assigned. But the realities of life at sea hasn’t changed.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Navy ship crews in Japan have seen a drastic improvement in training certification numbers, but some sailors report no change to heavy workloads cited last year as a contributing factor in two deadly ship collisions, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The report, published last month, said the Navy in Japan had “improved markedly” the number of surface ship crews with lapsed training certifications over the past year.
In September 2017, about 41 percent of guided-missile cruisers and destroyers based in Japan were operating despite expired certifications. As of November, that number was down to 3 percent.
These certifications are given in crucial areas such as damage control, surface warfare and navigation once crews complete required trainings and meet qualifications for their rates. They signify that a ship’s crew has met Navy standards and is ready to deploy.
After three ships based in Japan were involved in collisions last year — two of which killed a total of 17 sailors — the Navy made it more difficult to issue waivers to allow ships to operate on lapsed training certifications. A new policy requires multiple, high-level officials to approve a waiver.
“The Navy has [increased certification numbers] by pouring resources into what’s called the Afloat Training Group, and that means that folks are going out and working with the ship crews to make sure that they’re trained and certified before they deploy,” Pendleton said at the hearing.
The ATGWP oversees maintenance, training and certification for the Navy’s ships in the Pacific. It was launched this year in Yokosuka to have an on-site team dedicated to working closely with ship commanders to ensure ship and crew standards are met.
While the renewed emphasis on training addressed one causal factor identified in the collision reports, Pendleton said it did little to improve another factor: sailor exhaustion.
My NATOPS was written in blood. So are these certifications. Read the rest of the article at: Military.com
Category: Navy
I was sure to roast that Sims’s that went UA when underway a while back https://news.usni.org/2017/06/15/uss-shiloh-sailor-found-alive-onboard-cruiser-week-went-missing
But more and more came out how fucked up his boat was
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/10/09/i-now-hate-my-ship-surveys-reveal-disastrous-morale-on-cruiser-shiloh/
And the general shit attitude of the COC of PACFLT I can’t say mad at him. Now I view it was the forshock of the impending big quake they had that killed people. I wish he took care of his issues better, but at the same time I don’t think his was left with any other option but to do that desperate stupid stunt. That a good functioning leader would of seen as a warning.
Captain Queeg was incompetent.
So is Aycock.
That was the point to “The Caine Mutiny”.
What would it have taken, besides a sailor who hid in the bowels of the ship, for a mutiny to start up? And if it were real warfare, how many people might have met their end because of Aycock?
Queeg at least had some serious untreated post-traumatic stress issues messing him up, and his replacement, who instigated the mutiny was equally incompetent as well as cowardly. What excuse does the current regime have?
Translation: We’ve pencil-whipped a lot of shit but we’re still crushing the shit out of everyone.
Net change? Fewer senior/flag officers getting hammered the next time something or someone fucks up and kills a bunch of folks.
Concerned you are correct Bro. Not Naval Aviation or Naval anything, but do know that no one can go port and starboard for days on end without it catching up to you.
The money spent on repairing busted up equipment and replacing needlessly lost lives would have recruited and retained a whole of sailors.
Sounds like a whole lot of cover your ass paper work going on to me.
“Sounds like a whole lot of cover your ass paper work going on to me.”
That’s what I’m hearing. Especially the part about now requiring more people with higher ranks to sign off on waivers for operating with expired certifications.
I drive my car with expired registration and/or inspection stickers, I get a ticket. Apparently we can drive billion dollar warships with hundreds of American servicemen on board with expired certifications, but only if it’s been approved by Admirals thousands of miles away.
100 hour work weeks??? My calculator says that leaves 9.7 hours a day to eat, sleep, conduct personal hygiene, and whatever else needs doing like getting haircuts, shining shoes, emailing home maybe, going to sick call for pills for your stomach for eating every meal in 9 minutes flat, etc.
That gotta get ’em more platforms. Maybe Japanese ones?
3 section duty? That seems a bit stiff to me if there’s a full crew on board.
All Greek to me; I was in the Army.
But I wished I’d had the cigarette concession on board the Shiloh; I’d have cleaned up!
Shit. 3 section was a luxury a lot of the time. I remember being port/starboard duty in the shipyard where I was up for the full 24 on my duty day and if I was lucky, I got to go to my barracks room by 2000 on my non-duty days.
Do that for 4-5 months and let me know how your error rate goes.
That’s about right. I worked 12 on 12 off but off was not off, still had meetings/training/drills/working over shift/PT. So getting in 6 hrs rack time was a good night.
After serving on 5 ships, 4 out of Yokosuka, anybody who believes sailors work 100 hours a week in WESTPAC has rocks in their heads.
I remember back in about 89 or 90 I was a PO3 and was recommended for Sailor of the Quarter. One of the questions I was asked at the SOQ board was what I thought about all of this BRAC stuff that was going on at the time.
I told the board that I thought that at some point that it was going to be too few people/ships/aircraft etc trying to do too much and there would be some bad blowback from it.
But what did I know? I was just a young dumb sailor on his first hitch.
Here’s hoping it got done right and NO pencil-whipping!
Does that seem likely?
IMHO you can’t be too cautious, one sometimes doesn’t know who’s doing it right and who’s doing a CYA pencil-whipping and there’s already been far too much loss of life!
I think they’ll walk with the angels for the time being, anyway. Sending badly maintained ships with unqualified crews won’t be tolerated for a while at least. But the missions continue and the only place that can flex is, unfortunately the crews themselves.
Not a fucking chance.