I was an LCPO onboard the Cow for three years.There are no excuses for this type of conduct. If you cant stand the heat then get out of the kitchen. The previous Captain of the Cowpens, Captain Mosher was a model CO. He knew the capabilities of his ship and his crew and knew how to employ both. He had a mastery of the rules of engagement and would personally give all us watchstanders training on the intricacies. Captain Graf was clueless and thank god we never had to defend ourselves or anyone else while she was in command.

I truly believe that most of it stemmed from low self confidence, because she was at her worst when she didnt understand something. If you were explaining something technical to her and she didnt understand she would tell you “Got it.” that was explained to me to mean stop talking and leave. I dont expect anyone, even a captain, to know everything. So there should be no shame in asking for an explanation.

There is no excuse for this lack of leadership, despite the position she was in. To attribute her behavior to the position or stress is bullshit, bluntly stated. This is not a bashing session either because she was actually a nice person if you were able to catch her offline.

Im glad i survived the Cowpens because thats what it felt like, survival. I dont feel like i accomplished ANYTHING because of her. It was all in spite of her.

I am not particurally impressed with CTF-70 either because her antics were well know, and her reputation preceded her. Literally. The command equal opportunity surveys were horrendous, and should have signaled to the ISIC that there were serious issues. Consider that you see a common theme of negativity in these threads from Sailors that served under her. That is no coincidence, theres a reason. She didnt fail because she is a women, though she may have been placed in that position because she is a woman. The Navy deserves better, and must do something about this because its not an isolated incident. She is not the first tyrant CO and certainly will not be the last. If any of you have questions or want additional info, ask.

I will leave you with this last though, it occurred to while serving on the Cowpens. If i didnt show up for work one morning, would my Sailors know how to do their jobs? Yes they would. That tells me that i need them MORE than they need me when it comes to mission accomplishment. Wouldnt the same principle apply to a Cpatain? You bet your ass it does. THE CREW IS THE SHIP! Without those Sailors it is a lifeless chunk of metal. Its about time the Navy recognized this. They say “mission first, Sailors always.” But in reality its “Mission First, Sailors Never.”

Some of the facts that were released and being debated are not correctly portrayed and some questions still need to be answered if this process is going to result in justice.

The first fact in dispute is that CAPT Graf was fired. Was she? Because I didn’t see anywhere in the original article or from any of the supposed eye witnesses that she was detached for cause. What was the result of the Admiral’s Mast? What was her punishment?

The PCO was onboard and ready to take over the ship when CAPT Graf was taken to Mast. Did he simply relieve her in an informal change of command? There are many examples of Commanding Officers who have had substantiated IG investigations in the past couple of years who were promptly, and dishonorably, relieved of their command in a very public fashion. I am not talking about receiving a sentence in the stocks, I am talking about the public humiliation and actual punitive measures taken against a sailor who fails to carry out their duty as the Commanding Officer.

Was CAPT Graf actually held accountable for her acts or was she let off the hook to avoid a potentially embarassing and difficult punitive process?

Very interesting reading so far to say the least. My thoughts…
- not a gender issue but a major mental health issue at its very worst, affecting the lives and well being of Navy volunteers and their families. Truly a shame that this person was allowed to command not one but two ships.
- Most surface sailors if being honest would admit that this is hardly the first instance of this behavior. So much had been done over the years to drive out these lack of leadership practices out of the Navy. Many, many people in Navy leadership need to take a real hard look to explain how this was allowed to occur for so long in the year 2010.
- Most importantly, to the crew of COWPENS. My thoughts are with you and I truly hope that each one of you will not let this sad event taint your overall Navy experience. Keep charging! Stand together and support each other! In due time hopefully this event will become a bad but distant memory and a new leadership team will have the honor of leading you for the remainder of your current tour of duty.

First, I want to say that I have not read all the comments here, so perhaps what I’m about to address has already been addressed. Forgive me if I duplicate.
CDR Salamander – you state “If you or someone else has first hand knowledge of her behavior and/or it was commonly known – then ask the question.”
Those of us who served under her on the USS Winston S Churchill were asking questions. Lots of questions. Reports were made about incidents almost from day one. We even had the 6th Fleet Chaplin conducting an investigation onboard for 6 weeks while we limped around the Mediterranean (limping because of the incident in Augusta Bay, Italy). He was onboard conducting an investigation because she had screamed at the TAO in CIC, in front of everyone present, and at a decibel loud enough for those in the p-way outside CIC to hear – calling him a “f’ing kike”. Funnily enough, the 6th Fleet Chaplin at the time was a Rabbi. We all thought she was finally going down – but once again – she was saved. I personally think it came down to no one who put her in charge wanted to have to admit, publicly or otherwise, that they had screwed up by putting her in charge to begin with. It just snowballed from there – and maybe it began long before she took command of the Churchill. Whenever it began, I really blame those too cowardly to stand up and say they screwed up by putting in her command.
The incidents involving her happened daily. And I mean daily. I personally witnessed her hit the XO up side the head with a binder. I can’t count the number of times I personally witnessed her whip a binder or book at someone’s head – from across the room or from a few feet away. The woman was a lose cannon.
For xformed, who said “…. And how, most likely, no one wanted to be the one to blow the whistle.”
There were plenty of whistleblowers xformed. Plenty. We just weren’t listened to.
For James, who said “CDR S has the right of it; no one really knows, at this point, what the higher-ups knew about it and none of the former subordinates trashing her after the fact will acknowledge they did anything to make their superiors aware of her failings back when it would have mattered.”
I personally am offended by your remarks that we are ‘trashing her after the fact’ – we trashed her while it was happening. Hell, do you think we wanted to live in that hell with her? Do you think we wanted to witness this crap every single day, wondering if it was going to be our head that binder was coming at next time? Why do you think the underway OOD on the WSC wasn’t allowed to have a side arm? My bet is that she knew late one night one of them might just snap and cap her a$$. Not a single person on the ship would have ratted them out – sh!t, they would have helped them throw the body overboard. I’m here to “acknowledge”, that yes, I talked to superiors about her behavior. Hell, I myself was called to the XO’s stateroom about an incident. He was new to the ship, and told me quite frankly he couldn’t believe what he had witnessed. After asking if I could speak freely, I told him to buy a pair of blinders, because he would witness it every day while she was onboard. I certainly spoke freely to the 6th Fleet Chaplin as well. Told him every incident I had witnessed. Told him every incident I had personally experienced with the b%&%*. Am I stupid enough to believe I was the only one with enough guts to speak up? Hell no. Oh hell no. Everyone spoke up. Problem is, no one with authority listened.
When past crew members of the WSC get together (especially plankowners, because we had the greatest CO ever prior to her, Capt Michael T Franken), or even chat over the internet, it always seems some incident about her ends up being discussed. Like war stories. We can sort of laugh about them now – not laugh in the comical sense – more a laugh that we survived it. We came through, with our crows or our collar devices still intact, our sanity, our lives. No sh!t – our lives – we all figured it was only a matter of time before she actually killed someone.
No doubt there is a long and distinguished list of senior Naval officers we can thank for her command, and more importantly, her remaining in command for as long as she did. But no one, and I mean no one, should blame or judge one single subordinate of hers and point the finger claiming we didn’t make her superiors aware of her failings.

How did USS Lassen’s former CO, CDR Simmons, not get relieved for the same reasons? Maybe relieving a female CO (CAPT Graf) and an African American CO (CDR Simmmons), both in 7th Fleet, would have appearances of violating EO despite the fact that both of them deserved to be relieved. CDR Simmons even had the added bonus of running into a Japanese fishing vessel and crossing way to close to a LNG tanker. Something to think about.

I had the pleasure of working with both CAPT Mosher and CAPT Graf on board of the Mighty Moo. There were many leadership problems on-board with both of the CO’s. My question would be how did CAPT Mosher get away with causing substantial damage to the ship during a storm and then lie about the ship’s speed during an inquiry. Often times the Chief’s mess was scapegoat for the shortcomings of the both CO’s. There were a couples Chiefs careers effectively ended because of the wrongful conduct of both CO’s.

After reading the comments above, I just HAVE to wade in.

Some factors that seem to be danced around in the comments are:

1. Women have been favored by the Navy’s efforts to integrate them into the service. Yes, they have also suffered discrimination, harassment, and worse, at the deckplate level, but the policy from above has been favorable.
2. The real point of failure here was the ISIC. The ISIC is the one who “probably” got word (official and unofficial) of CAPT Graf’s style of leadership and didn’t act n it. If you prefer, you can apply the standard applied to any sleeping CO whose OOD manages to collide with another vessel. The ISIC should explain to his higher ups WHY this was allowed to happen to the extent that it did.
3. O-6′s and above, tend to leave things be until they explode, hoping they don’t, because stepping on the wrong toe WILL cost you your career. In this case, it seem to have taken a physical assault (grabbing by the throat) before they threw an NJP at CAPT Graf.
4. Back in my day, there was NO official recourse for any officer to route a complaint about a senior officer, never mind the CO, up the chain without committing career suicide. The only complaints that went up outside the Command were the mandatory-reporting-to-the-CNO items such as race-related incidents. I could guess there is still no recourse. (I can already hear the gripes: Yes, there was the anonymous call to the IG option, but in my mind this doesn’t count as an official recoures.)
5. In my own personal experience, I witnessed and was subjected to screaming, bullying, and other abuse and unfairness from senior officers in my chain(s) of command (I’ sure everyone was). I never witnessed physical contact (except one funny episode between a DH and an XO – hey kept it quiet). Even though, in one occasion the command atmosphere could only be described as toxic. The enlisted complained to the ISIC CMC repeatedly and in no uncertain terms. Command climate surveys were done. The only “result” was that after two years of this ship being the most active and top performing ship in the squadron, the CO was ranked 4 of 7 in his fitrep. Sadly, this is often the only official “action” in these situations.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Mark Thompson picked up this story. His report is here:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html

Although critical of the Navy in this piece about Captain Graf, he wrote a story about CDR Kathleen McGrath just under 10 years about her assuming command of USS Jarrett. That story is here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,996429,00.html

As a recipient of this kind of behaviour from my superiors, I am glad to hear that someone up there is once again being ignored. I made such a complaint against a C.O. and was threatened with leavenworth, as if I was the bad guy! FTN

I have to ask- did anyone see evidence of this back at the Naval Academy. What did her FitReps show when she was a jo. The fact this she got away with this for 25 years is beyond words. Heads need to role- a good look at her sisters influence is a good start!

You know, most of the way through the comments I was ambivalent about the “gender-preference” issue and whether or not it was relevant here. Bad COs happen, after all. But then I read,

“she had screamed at the TAO in CIC, in front of everyone present, and at a decibel loud enough for those in the p-way outside CIC to hear – calling him a “f’ing kike”.”

OK- THAT seals it. It is utterly inconceivable that ANY CO (or anyone else) could get away with screaming a racial slur at an officer in front of multiple witnesses, unless “special treatment’ was the order of the day. That’s a CNO-attention level offense. For whatever political reason, CAPT Graf was being protected from the top down.

My last C.O. in 2002 was 10 times worse. He was constantly yelling and belittling the personnel. We were on a North Atlantic cruise and the XO was relieved. It surely should have been the C.O.

I having witnessed her as a junior officer back when she was on a DESRON staff in the 90′s could have told you then that she was unfit to be in command based on her attitude and lack of any real leadership skill. A good leader will never have to yell or badger people repeatedly to obtain the desired result. She was mean and abusive and had an axe to grind with most any male she came across back then. She was fully vested in the Patsy Schroeder school of military leadership – i.e. if I don’t get what I want threaten charges or make accusations of sexual harassment. The problem lies with the senior officer some of which are now Flag Officers who failed to observe her interaction with subordinates or ignored it or used promoting a female for their own gains. Failure to call a spade a spade is why we have so many failed CO’s right now. Probably 60% of the good JO’s leave after their obligation over the poor command climates they often endure. The SWO community certainly does that. Some of the aviation community is becoming that way. She was bad a long time ago and didn’t get better. Time for her to retire to a life of leisure somewhere where she won’t be abusing anyone. A hard look at every FITREP she ever signed should also happen. She probably hurt some other good folks out of spite.

The navy is out of hand.there ain’t no team in team any more.