When someone breaks, someone else gets to go.
ABOARD THE CARRIER KITTY HAWK IN GUAM — It’s official, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk will get a curtain call to its nearly 50-year career by replacing the carrier George Washington for this year’s Rim of the Pacific exercise, which is scheduled to take place off Hawaii from June 29 through July 31.
And that’s the way it has always been in the Navy.
Ships, aircraft carriers, and submarines all have committments. When there is a casualty that leaves one broken at the pier, another one gets to go and pick up the slack, usually with short notice.
Back in 1998, onboard SCRANTON we had pulled into Faslane, Scotland, for a two-week maintenance period after over two months underway. Near the end of our time there, another fast boat pulled in. We quickly learned that they had an issue that was going to keep them pierside. Consequently, we got to pick up their slack (another two-month underway, capped off by a visit to Haakonsvern, Norway, and the Periscope Hut).
I don’t envy the folks on the GW. They are not enjoying life right now in Sandog while they get fixed. Hopefully, the shipyard can get them turned around quickly. If not, KITTY HAWK might get even more playing time…
If I remember my time afloat, when “somebody” breaks, then “somebody’s” Captain usually gets the boot.
For collisions or allisions, yes, you are correct: the CO usually gets fired.
There can be other issues that can prevent underways: fires, flooding, propulsion casualties, etc., that will keep you pierside but won’t get the CO fired. I have a number of stories to that effect…
It’s almost like it’s a bad idea to retire a carrier before its replacement joins the fleet. Seems like having ‘an extra’ one is kind of handy when things go wrong.
Just a simple civilian here, but GW had a chemical fire that destroyed 50 compartments over 12 hours due to poor maintenance and improper storage at sea. The good news is that damage control drills work and the fire was controlled. Nevertheless, storage protocols weren’t followed and the spark came from somewhere.
My main memory, other than really cool night carrier landings on a pitching deck, of the recent pbs series Carrier (Nimitz) was that belowdecks was filthy, lots of things didn’t look well secured and stowed and the enlisted crew was downright slovenly.
As a taxpayer and a parent I certainly hope there is a lot of accountability up and down the line for maintenance and discipline conditions on our carriers.
If there is this kind of negligence leading to missing practice, why should we have confidence they could handle wartime damage and keep fighting? What happened to the term shipshape? Restore the order from the time of wooden ships and swab the decks daily.
K1 and AO: you bring up excellent points.
Shipboard cleanliness starts with the top leadership and the standards the CO sets. A saying I learned early on in my Navy career was that, “You get what you inspect.” If the khaki is not performing zone inspections and does not know the status of their spaces, then they are being negligent.
Realize there are many demands on everyone, especially when we have fewer people to do the same work. Then they take away additional folks for IAs, so you might be down even more. That is why leaders are called leaders: to make the call and figure out what is really needs to be done.
I am sure we will hear more in the coming days and weeks.
Also, if this had happened in battle, the ship would most likely still be at sea, making due, getting the mission done. Right now, they have the relative luxury of being able to pull in to SD for several weeks to get fixed.