carelessness with callousness

Do We Need a Flag Officer Public Affairs Stand Down?

It has been 18-months since the center point of the tragic 2017 in WESTPAC that begat the 100% avoidable death of 17 of our Sailors. Both legally, and as an institution, we have yet to find closure or properly assess accountability.

We still have the trials to go through and all that comes with them. Stand by.

Our Navy should be commended for its actions early on. We investigated, reviewed, and reported. Recommendations were made and sober pronouncements were made. It is well understood that what manifested itself in WESTPAC that year did not happen overnight. The latent causes and contributing factors were years in the making. It is also understood that efforts to address those contributing factors outside the immediate personal accountability to those in command and on watch would take years to soak in – and yet, there is unease that things are not moving in a new direction. There is concern that, as an institution, we have not really seen what happened, that we are fading in the follow through. We are playing the odds and hoping small measures moves lady luck back our way.

Perhaps this is a byproduct of the unnecessary squelching of communication with the general public and the press by DOD in general, and DON especially in the last few years. Perhaps it is what we hear and see of concern from the fleet to this day either in person or 2nd hand from those still serving.

Perhaps is has to do with the perception from what little public presence we have from senior leaders that many simply don’t get it.

In isolation, the recent testimony by Admiral Davidson, USN in front of the SASC can be seen as a tired and harried leader having a bad day, fumbling as he tries to put a positive spin on something unspinable … and giving it a shot against a no-nonsense Yankee such as Sen. King (I-ME).

Regardless, take a moment and remember that the context here is a 100% avoidable accident – two of them to be exact – that resulted in the wasteful death of 17 Sailors who were in the rack.

Just watch the video and think what those who are taxed to pay for our Navy are thinking. What of those in civilian leadership who we are accountable to are thinking. They do not – nor should we expect them – understand the nuance.



Think that your child, brother, or husband was one of the 17.

We need to do better. We understand that the military is a dangerous business. Even at peace, lives will be lost and bodies broken in the course of doing business. What happened in 2017 was not inside that understanding of acceptable risk. It was unacceptable from the watch stander to OPNAV. All had a hand in this horrible year in WESTPAC.

We should not follow institutional carelessness with callousness.

There are lessons here:

“These two collisions were a tragedy, there is no doubt about it,” Davidson said. “And all the senior leaders of the Navy feel a tremendous amount of accountability for it. But the fact of the matter is 280-odd other ships weren’t having collisions.”

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