U.S. Navy fires warship Commander, after photo is released, showing him firing a rifle with the scope reversed ...

[onetrack]

You just have to wonder about the others involved - in taking the photo - and issuing the photo for public release - when they surely must have all picked up the stupidity of the rifle scope fitted the wrong way around? - or did they miss it, too?

Or is it because the U.S. Navy is now the home of a bunch of incompetents, with a bigger accent on being soft on gender issues, and earning Masters in political studies and the Arts, instead of actually being skilled in operating Navy ships?

One has to note the replacement Commander, Cdr Allison N. Christy, is an "outed" lesbian with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. The old Navy mariners must be spinning in their graves.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-warship-commander-relieved-from-duty-over-backward-rifle-scope-furore/cba54c00-225a-419f-b046-daeff6b719d5

[nomadpete]

I thought it was just the Russians who had this problem...

[spacesailor]

ALMOST .

As bad as the navel  captain who told the " helmsman "

To hold his course . straight onto rocks .

Was it an Aussie ship .

spacesailor

Edited September 5 by spacesailor
AI again

[willedoo]

12 hours ago, nomadpete said:

I thought it was just the Russians who had this problem...

Are you thinking of the permanently sloshed Medvedev? He probably also forgot to wear trousers which could explain the cropped photo.

 

 

[onetrack]

Spacey, I think you're talking about the near-new British destroyer that struck a big rock just off Lord Howe Island. The rock tore a massive hole in the hull, it cost the Poms something like AU$100M to repair.

The grounding happened as the Captain had just returned in a chopper to the warship, after going to Lord Howe Island with a sick sailor.

A number of junior officers were on the bridge and one put down "a navigational instrument" on the chart, which hid the rock. Another junior officer saw the rock in the moonlight, but it was too late.

They all got a reaming over the accident, and I think the junior officers involved were returned to shore duty. The Captain merely received a reprimand as he actually saved the ship with his good management, after the rock penetrated the hull.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jul/08/military

 

https://www.theage.com.au/world/captain-guilty-of-warship-rock-wreck-20030912-gdwbwn.html

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/12/military.simonjeffery

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1404113/Commander-who-ran-aground-revealed-to-be-ships-saviour.html

[spacesailor]

That's the one .

I heard on telly, the junior helmsman saw that rock first , but was told to keep on course .

spacesailor

[willedoo]

I knew a couple of blokes who ran in to the rocks at Noosa in a steel prawn trawler. They were heading home at full steaming speed and did the old trick of falling asleep with the autopilot on. One was asleep at the wheel, the other asleep in his bunk in the forecastle. The bloke down below said he was woken with a big crash and looked around to see a huge rock protruding through the bow only inches from his head. When the trawler recoiled it pulled itself off the rock and a big column of water flooded in. The hole was just above the waterline so they set up extra bilge pumps and had a very slow trip down to the port at Mooloolaba. When they were under way, the water would come in at a quicker rate than the pumps could remove it, so they would periodically stop and pump the bilge dry then steam off again. One advantage of a steel boat - they were back in the water two days later after a bit of gas axe, welder and paintbrush work.

 

Every trawler I know of that's hit Australia in that area has been due to falling asleep on autopilot. The autopilot is locked on to the home port and that's roughly where you will end up. The more cautious skippers don't use autopilot when heading toward land.

[Marty_d]

Bob Clifford (owner of Incat catamarans here in Hobart) knows a thing or 2 about hitting rocks.

In 1994 he managed to park one of his 40 million dollar cats on Black Jack Rocks in the Derwent.  I believe a bit of a party was going on at the time.

Edited September 6 by Marty_d

[Jerry_Atrick]

Back to the photo; I wonder if it could have been them all having a bit of a laugh on deck, and somehow social media got hold of it and crucified the captain? 

[old man emu]

How many times in naval movie set in the days of said has the captain been mocked by handing him a telescope wrong end towards him?  I reckon it's a joke, Joyce, and those lacking humour have read it the wrong way.

[onetrack]

It's now been revealed that the rifle photo and story is simply BS, and possibly put out by someone with an axe to grind. Commander Yaste WAS relieved of his warship command - but not due to the rifle photo.

It turns out that Yaste has probably been hung out to dry for a major level of U.S. Navy engineering and senior command failures - because his destroyer has major steering problems, that the U.S. Navy has never been able to fix properly.

 

He was ordered to put to sea on exercises and then his ship almost collided with an oiler during refuelling, thanks to a steering failure on his destroyer. So Yaste was blamed for the near-collision, but the problem lies far deeper in the U.S. Navy command because no-one in senior command has ever been able to ensure the regular steering fault of his warship is fixed.

 

Yaste was blamed for not following procedures during the near miss, but I tend to think there weren't any Navy procedures to cope with the steering failure. The whole story just makes you wonder about the U.S. Navys competence today.

 

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/u-s-navy-fires-warship-captain-after-steering-issue-led-to-dangerous-near-miss-in-the-middle-east/

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/navy/comments/1fatgih/the_us_navy_sacked_a_destroyer_captain_after_a/

 

Edited September 8 by onetrack