nairiporter: (Default)
[personal profile] nairiporter posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
There is a time when a leader needs to make a decision that will not play well for themselves but is the right thing to do. My assumption is that the captain knew the likely consequences. It's very likely that he had informed the chain of command about the situation on board. He balanced his career against the lives of his crew. Brave decision.

Only time and investigations will tell if it was the right choice. An ‘Acting’ Secretary is unable to exercise any judgement since an ‘acting’ anything is not qualified by Congress and is squarely under the power of this demented regime.

Loyalty of the service personnel is sworn to the Constitution, however every field officer knows that loyalty in reality is to the individual service personnel to his or her immediate officer or NCO.

This may signal the start of service personnel questioning their own loyalty to the Commander in Chief. The Russian Revolution happened when soldiers refused the order to fire on citizens.

Food for thought.

Ps. The way the captain was sent off by his crew, is quite telling. Apparently, it has got some feathers ruffled. Good for them.

(no subject)

Date: 13/4/20 16:47 (UTC)
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
From: [personal profile] dewline
And there's no taking back the US$ 243,000+ that got spent to get Modly to Guam to yell at the USS Theodore Roosevelt's crew either.

(no subject)

Date: 13/4/20 18:18 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
It’s worth reading this lass’s take on it: may I present Ms Kimberly Wooster.

https://twitter.com/KimWooster11/status/1249480330404417538

I’ll reprint for those who don’t have Twitter; I’ve assembled the tweets into a timeline. Copyright Kimberly Wooster, obvs.

It started in Reactor Department. Alright, guys I need y'all to buckle in because Miss Wooster is going full ET1(SW) Reactor Operator on this. I don't want anyone left in any doubt as to why what Capt Crozier did was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. /1

First off, you need to know a few things:
Only two rates are allowed to stand watch on a Naval Nuclear Reactor- when it's operating an enlisted ET who is qualified Reactor Operator & that can take 6-18 mos. depending on your ship. /2

If it's shutdown- then either an ET or an EM who is qualified Shutdown Reactor Operator can stand the watch. Now for us ETs we usually qualify RO/SRO simultaneously. EMs qualify SRO only, but again this can take up to 18 mos depending on what your ship is doing. /3

There are anywhere between 4-7 extra watchstations & auxiliiary duties that Reactor ETs & EMs will qualify BEFORE their RO/SRO qual. It's their Senior-in-Rate. That's not negotiable. Sea-returnees qualify PPWS/SDWS and maintain RO/SRO proficiency. /4

Why am I taking you thru this boring ass journey of Rx Dept Manning? Because Crozier would have seen this. You can't just Omni Domni new guys into RO/SRO. It's not as simple as "flying replacement bodies" out. AND HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT. That was his urgency. /5

To give as much lead time as possible to NAVSEA and others to be able come up with a solution if they needed one. Even if you could find enough former TR sailors at NPTU & NNPTC to fly back to watch a shutdown/cold-iron plant, you still have to make damn sure they're proficient.

And beyond proficient, you need to keep what Rx & Eng Dept you have "healthy" for a turnover. You CANNOT walk into a plant blind. Material condition, equip status, all of this matters heavily. Not to mention where the plant gremlins are. GODDAMNIT I AM STEAMED OVER THIS!

Full disclosure: I was an RO/SRO on the USS Enterprise. That big steamy bitch had 8 Reactors & was an absolute monster to keep running. The TR has 2 RXs & is 30 yrs newer but the principles are always the same for Nukes- Safety, Procedural Compliance, Watchstanding Principles.

Capt. Crozier had to go through Nuclear Training before taking an XO position on a CVN. He would have stood watches with us, watched our maintenance, & had to qualify at NPTU through his own program. He already would have known this.
But Modly wouldn't have.

And all I'm saying is that Modly needed to put his ego aside & understand that Crozier was atop the Intel pile on this one. He understood the criticality (pun intended) of the situation. Backing Crozier would have been the smart (& right) thing to do.

What I don't know right now is the situation with Rx Dept on the TR currently or what NAVSEA's plan for relief for them is. We did A LOT of what's called 6/6 on the Big E bc we were short on watchstanders. That's 6 on/6 off (repeat forever). And it wears on you.

Because you still have to do maintenance (yep, even in a crisis) bc the Rx still has to work. And you're never getting a full night's sleep. I hope the Navy already has a plan in motion & isn't just hoping on Rx Dept's history of "Do more with less".

Anyway, it's why I've been asking, every chance I've had if the TR had released the Departments affected. Because this was my worry. Reactor Dept. never matters to anyone until we're gone. Because you can't just replace us instantly.

I don't know if the TR has River City set, but on the off-chance they don't and any of the Nukes see this. I'm so sorry, guys. We always get the longest shaft in the Navy. Hold tight to each other & hang some gremlin fighters for all of us. It gets better after ORSE.

Clarification 1: Any Nimitz-class Nuke would be familiar with the Rx/Eng setup aboard the TR. My tweet about former TR nukes is just that if you HAD to do a rapid turnover you want ppl who recently operated that specific plant. Gremlin-specific and all that.


Just in case folk think the good captain was just being a bleeding heart librul.

(no subject)

Date: 14/4/20 06:24 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
Don't look at me; I didn't sack him for behaving in accordance with necessary safety requirements for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in an emergency pandemic situation, and then call him naive.

Wanting to make sure that the ship was able to shut down its reactors was much more important than the safety of the crew.

(no subject)

Date: 14/4/20 01:22 (UTC)
oportet: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oportet
There are rumors of reinstatement - while plenty of rumors tend not to be true, I'm not sure which 'sides' case would be helped by starting it, so I'm leaning towards believing it.

(no subject)

Date: 14/4/20 06:44 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
Trump hasn't quite worked out that some rational responses to the Covid19 problem aren't necessarily direct insults to him personally. (Though just being rational may be lèse magisté in the Trump administration - look at poor old Dr Fauci.)

I'd guess most folk on that ship were Trump supporters before this debacle; many of them might have wavered slightly after this.

You have four more years of this. Gerrymandered districting and pruning of the voter registers in the vital swing states will ensure it. I'd guess the Republicans should be happy in their victory; after all, party before country.

Unless, of course, Covid19 decimates the Boomers; then the demographics get skewed.
Edited Date: 14/4/20 07:49 (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 14/4/20 11:45 (UTC)
oportet: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oportet
Trump has been lucky, in the sense that everyone the dems have gotten giddy about and paraded through the political talk show circuit the last 3 years in hopes of bringing him down has been a slimy partisan piece of shit. This captain seems like he could have been the exception, like he could actually reach folks in both bubbles. Best to get him back on the boat and let the left latch on to someone more...Avennati-ish.
Edited Date: 14/4/20 11:47 (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 14/4/20 14:37 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
Well the Don has been fireproof up to now. So I guess it's time for the GOP to circle the wagons and begin to see how they can both protect the chances of re-election and get things done without needing too much input from Trump's actual administration.

Difficult task, if not impossible, if Trump's lost most of the swing voters over Covid19. I think it's down to Tom Cruise and the chaps to pull the Don's irons from the fire here; but as we know, the Dems can screw any advantage they have been given, so it's never over etc...

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