US Navy officers
LACK lacking skills needed to avoid crashing
This is President
Trumps Navy!
For 17 months our
navy belonged to this president,
so what has he accomplished?
Nearly 85% of junior
US Navy officers LACK the skills needed to avoid crashing into another ship,
report finds after disasters that killed 17
What the hell has
happened to my Navy, Mr. Trump?
It's President Barrack Obama's fault!
No!
It's Madam President
Hillary Clintons fault!
No!
It's President Bill
Clintons fault!
No!
Well then, it must
be the fault of those pesky immigrants
coming from Mexico and Canada?
NOT!
Report came after
deadly collisions involving USS Fitzgerald and John S McCain
Out of 164 officers
evaluated
just 27 passed with
'no concerns'
about their skills
Senior US Navy
officer called results 'sobering' and vowed to increase training
Published: 09:36
EDT, 7 June 2018 | Updated: 12:01 EDT, 7 June 2018
Nearly
85 percent of junior officers in the US Navy lack the skills needed to react
decisively to avoid a collision with another ship, according to a 'sobering'
report.
Newly
graduated officers were picked at random for a series of tests in response to
two deadly collisions last summer involving the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S
McCain.
Out of the 164 evaluated, just 27 passed with 'no
concerns', while 108 had 'some concerns' and 29 came up with 'significant
concerns', according to the report published by the Surface Warfare Officer
School and obtained by
Among the shortfalls
identified in the checks:
Officers struggled
with operating radars and the associated tools at hand, an issue that emerged
in the wake of the Fitzgerald accident.
Officers had a firm
grasp of the international rules of the road for navigating ships at sea, but
struggled to apply them practically during watch standing, especially in
low-visibility situations.
Most officers were
able to keep clear of close encounters with other ships in the simulator but
those that found themselves in extremis “were often ill-equipped to take
immediate action to avoid collisions” — a factor that was a direct contributor
to the loss of life in both the John S. McCain and Fitzgerald collisions in
2017.
Troubling US Navy
review finds widespread shortfalls in basic seamanship
By: David B. Larter
A junior officer
looks through binoculars while standing watch on the bridge aboard the
destroyer Carney. (MC2 James Turner/Navy)
