There is definitely something wrong when we have one collision after another at sea? Especially in the Western Pacific. While in the Military, the Commanding Officer will usually be the fall guy, it is not always the case. I have in the Army seen people thrown under the bus to protect an Officer over those of lower rank, especially Enlisted/ Warrants. It almost seems to fall into one of several areas:
1. Equipment failure, but tough to buy on newer Ships?
2. Personnel fatigue possible from frequent deployments?
3. Problems with training/ inexperience among crew members.
4. Intentional sabotage by one or more crew members who had the ability to change the control of the ships steering?
Initially, I was concerned that Mr. Trump had rolled over for N. Korea or the little mouse in S. Korea on the number of troops in the current S. Korea/ US military exercises? But the rational reasoning that no Nuclear ships/ aircraft would be involved would explain a large down sizing of who was where? Better a Nuke submarine hiding on the bottom 100 miles of the N. Korean coast that cruising around off the S. Korean coast.
And the "Our Opinion" column of this past 22 August, while a noteworthy point on the $150 Million cost and to date, a seemingly small contribution to State use and the streamlining of the payroll, accounting and asset management misses one pertinent point. The State Agencies do NOT want to do that. It is like making busy work in an Asian Country. The job is to keep many people busy and fed even if it is little more than a subsidy for work not needed but hands kept busy. Remember idle hands are the Devil's tools (Proverbs 16:27), and of course need to be kept busy with something, especially when needed to Vote correctly?
The actual implementation of the program might well displace hundreds of State Workers who while losing a job would somehow be swallowed back up into the darkness of Government Employment. So reductions touted long and hard would be just relocations.
The following article notes an action that usually is done do to a "lack of confidence" in the Commanding Officer of a Unit, size immaterial to be trusted by his subordinates due to incidents that leave the troops worried about their safety/ mission? Mr. Aucoin is on his way to Civilian hood.
U.S. Navy to relieve admiral of command after collisions: WSJ
Reuters 14 mins ago (Posted here 10:05 P.M., 22 August 2017)
"The U.S. Navy plans to remove from duty the commander of the fleet that has suffered four recent collisions in Asia and the deaths of a number of sailors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing U.S. officials.
Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the three-star commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, will be relieved of command on Wednesday in connection with four collisions since January, including two involving fatalities, two U.S. officials said, according to thJournal. It said Navy officials declined to comment".
Received the most interesting comment yesterday:
Steve Shelene ( No email )
8/23/2017 17:19:06
I feel that we are slaving away for the elite and funding their war games. Funny thing is that war monger McCain had to remind trump by basically saying, "Hey man, what's your war gonna be? You aren't sending troops anywhere yet. Get on the ball." McCain said Trump must now "conduct himself as a wartime commander-in-chief." Sad sad sad
Mr. Shelene has an interesting take on the issue: 'nuff said'.