This is a pretty good article on the two collisions: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...n-navy-tech-cant-overcome-human-shortcomings/
Talked to a colleague of mine who is still an officer in the Navy, and he said it's because no one is joining the Navy anymore and they don't train the way they did when he first joined up. He is in his early 50's and has been in the Navy for 30 plus years.
I told the guy that sent me that link, that the junior officers (those who are standing watches) are the guys I taught, or tried to teach. Grim.
Sad situation HWR. How much of this is due to being deployed so frequently that training falls off and exhaustion sets in? How much is due to the previous administration being more concerned with political correctness than actual military standards?
From what my colleague said it's a manpower and training issue mostly. Who the hell wants to join the military anymore? I mean it's mostly inner city kids and poor people these days. And recruiters are only worried about their numbers, so I think the method these days are throw as much shit against the wall and hope some sticks. I mean we even recruit fucking gang members nowadays, train them how to kill and they go back to their gangs when their time is up.
I do not know. But I expect it is optempo and reduced manning. There is a critical mass of people required, and that doesn't come across on a contractors study. My friend, that achieved the highest rank, pointed out that there were so few crew, so many replaced by automation, that the Commanding officer would need to be out there chipping paint! I was on a forward deployed cruiser out of Yokosuka. We normally went out with the carrier, and when the carrier was import, we went out with the destroyers. We stayed out. Perhaps we benefitted from less information. The one thing that I don't think comes out in the press is that in these tight quarters in these shipping lanes the maneuvering options are sometimes crippling, it is not just busy, but also very constrained. Finally, when I went to my first ship, 1974, we had more college educated enlisted guys than officers. With the end of both Vietnam, and these guys enlistments, the entire functioning of the ship changed. For the worse.
Not to beat a dead horse, but here is article from today's NY Times. I think everyone can see it. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/...n-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 Two of the Admirals mentioned in the article were classmates of mine (USNA 1974) Doug Crowder was in my company, a roommate and my best friend. Jim Stavridis was a lab partner, I think in chemistry. Jim is FREQUENYLY on MSNBC. At one point he was the NATO Naval Commander. Looks like lack of training and plain old fatigue are percolating to the top.
And it's just not the US Navy. I spent almost 50 years in the Air Force. 20 on active duty and almost 30 working various Air Force contracts. You expect things to change over time, but you also hope they change for the better. I frequently talk to buddies who are still working Air Force contracts and they say the budget cuts over the past 8 years were extremely crippling. If you don't mind me asking what rank did you retire at?
