A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

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Grayling813
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A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#1

Post by Grayling813 »

A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET
https://www.cotton.senate.gov/imo/media ... report.pdf
This review was conducted at the direction of Senator Tom Cotton and Congressmen Mike
Gallagher, Jim Banks, and Dan Crenshaw as a strictly nonpartisan exercise in Congressional
oversight. The authors of this review conducted long-form interviews with numerous active-duty
and recently retired or detached officers and enlisted personnel about their insights into the
culture of the United States Navy following a series of high-profile and damaging operational
failures in the Navy’s Surface Warfare community. The discussion below is intended to inform
Congress of the findings of these interviews, with an emphasis on subjects including funding,
maintenance planning, administrative management, and operational employment.

The review did not focus on any single failure, each of which has been thoroughly investigated
by the appropriate authorities, but rather examined the broader question of whether the episodes
taken as a whole indicate any underlying systemic problems affecting the performance of the
surface Navy. The incidents that formed the impetus for this review included the catastrophic fire
on the USS Bonhomme Richard pier-side in San Diego, the collision of the USS McCain in the
South China Sea, the collision of the USS Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan, and the surrender of
two small U.S. Navy craft to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in the Arabian Gulf.
The direction from members of Congress was to establish if these incidents were part of a series
of isolated, unit-level breakdowns, or if they instead indicate larger institutional issues that are
degrading the performance of the entire naval surface force.
TL:DR - the Navy has a huge problem.
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

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Post by anygunanywhere »

Micromanagement is a term that can be misused. But it is fair to note that the United States Navy has several centuries of sound experience growing warship captains who have been wholly autonomous and independent in commanding their vessels. The ability to communicate instantly with deployed ships is a relatively new development in the Navy’s 245-year history. This is generally unique to surface Navy as submarines still have a more limited and less persistent communications path with higher headquarters and pilots in combat have almost none. The “1000-mile screwdriver” is, for now, a primarily surface warfare officer concern.
Heh heh. Skimmers.
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

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Post by Grayling813 »

anygunanywhere wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:13 pm
Micromanagement is a term that can be misused. But it is fair to note that the United States Navy has several centuries of sound experience growing warship captains who have been wholly autonomous and independent in commanding their vessels. The ability to communicate instantly with deployed ships is a relatively new development in the Navy’s 245-year history. This is generally unique to surface Navy as submarines still have a more limited and less persistent communications path with higher headquarters and pilots in combat have almost none. The “1000-mile screwdriver” is, for now, a primarily surface warfare officer concern.
Heh heh. Skimmers.
Heh heh. Targets.

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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#4

Post by bobby »

Death from Below. RM2(SS) USS SeaDragon SSN584
:txflag:

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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#5

Post by powerboatr »

skimmers we are thats for sure

nothing says I LOVE YOU like seeing a big orange torpedo float up in your wake. :biggrinjester: :biggrinjester:


we used to have a picture in our ready room sent from a sub commander of our helicopter hovering over the water...trying to find them.

his periscope image was damming and funny
Proud to have served for over 22 Years in the U.S. Navy Certificated FAA A&P technician since 1996

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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#6

Post by Weldonjr2001 »

USN 1969-1973 I served on the USS Biddle DLG-34, saw combat off the coast of North Vietnam in 1972, during the bombing of Hanoi and the mining of Haiphong harbor. Back in those days it was seamanship and compass, no cell phones, no laptops, no tablets, no email, no FaceTime, no Google, no cute apps on cell phones. No phone calls to loved ones or family unless you were in port.
Some of our higher tech systems at the time were still using electron tubes as opposed to transistors.
We, the enlisted men, generally always had a degree of confidence in the seamanship of the officers who dictated ship’s movement, not their reliance on “gadgets”.
I have been very embarrassed for the Navy by all the incidents mentioned, as well as the USS Cole incident.
Disgusted when a destroyer, which are always named after Naval or Marine heroes was named after a Congress woman whose only claim to fame was, sadly to be sure, getting shot.
I have always wondered if the distractions provided by the newer technology was contributory to the incidents, as well as weakening of talent in the officer corp due to “wokeness” and “inclusion”, and as well as reliance on technology as opposed to learning “seamanship”.
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#7

Post by Grayling813 »

Another article of interest:
“It Failed Miserably” – What If the US Lost a War and Nobody Noticed? | Whiskey & Gunpowder
https://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/posts/i ... dy-noticed
I’ll skip to the takeaway here. The U.S. should refrain from fighting the next war because we’ve already lost, long before even one shot has been fired.

The source for this ultra-defeatist news is not just a teacher at a sailor’s college, sited on a salty bay. No, the source is no less than a serving, 4-star general whose job title is Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Let’s dig in…

Here’s the long and short. The U.S. military conducted a major wargame last fall and “it failed miserably,” said U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten earlier this week.
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#8

Post by Grayling813 »

bobby wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:36 pm Death from Below. RM2(SS) USS SeaDragon SSN584
Greetings steely eyed killer of the deep!

I was RM3(SS) USS Pintado SSN672, USS LaJolla SSN701

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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#9

Post by bobby »

Yep Served on the Sea Dragon and the Sturgeon. West pac was much more fun...
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#10

Post by wil »

always the same with the damned bubble heads, always wanking on the surface boats......... then get in a boat that's designed to sink...... :mrgreen:

At least the truth of the current state of things is getting out, that is a start for changing things for the better.

Watched the Bon Homme Richard burn at dockside and it was hard to believe damage-control training has gone that far downhill. Can't put out a fire at dockside? What do you think is going to happen when you're 3000+ miles out at sea?
Back in my day damage-control was fundamental, your job is to fight, the boat will probably get hit either from the surface or the underwater dweebs, better know what to do to keep the boat alive.

it was or is hard to believe the social justice agenda had done that much damage within the military, they can't even put out a damned fire? Wait till a fight starts and the boats start getting hit.

At least people are recognizing the dangers of the agenda the left is attempting to instill in the military.
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#11

Post by surferdaddy »

I served aboard the USS Fitzgerald DDG62 in the 1990s. I am a plankowner having been among her first commissioning crew. We, the crew, helped finish the boat in Bath Maine at BIW and then conducted LOEs before her commission when we officially took command. We then sailed her round the east coast through the Caribbean and eventually through the ditch.

Now I know that we were all selected for a pre-com crew and were therefore pretty squared away but I just can’t believe the state of the military now, I don’t know whether I believe all the reports or not but when I heard about the “Fighting Fitz” colliding with a ship and the subsequent loss of seven souls it felt in some ways like losing a loved one. It was and still is a difficult emotion to explain.

When I saw the images of the damage the feelings turned to anger…when I saw that she was damaged on her starboard side my anger turned to fury.

I was the Fitzgerald’s first master helmsman and when I saw that she was bashed on her right side I knew this was not an accident as much as it was negligence, I knew she didn’t yield right of way.

I know that anyone and everyone would say that this wouldn’t have happened in their day but….this wouldn’t have happened in my day.

Still makes me sad,
…and mad,
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

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Post by anygunanywhere »

Submarine Sonar Technician STS1(SS). I made 9 deterrent patrols.

USS George Bancroft SSBN-643. The second pic is her last surface before decommissioning, an emergency surface from test depth. Over 8,000 tons out of the water.

Her sail is on display outside the King's Bay, Georgia Submarine Base, the memorial dedicated on the 100th anniversary of the US Navy submarine Service.


Image

Image
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand

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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#13

Post by bobby »

Who here have had the Chicken switch's hit for real not as a test.

I have ridden up on the failed stern planes while crankin the pump as hard as I could trying to raise the damn things. I went from 19 yo to 190 in 10 mins.
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

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Post by anygunanywhere »

bobby wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 6:08 pm Who here have had the Chicken switch's hit for real not as a test.

I have ridden up on the failed stern planes while crankin the pump as hard as I could trying to raise the damn things. I went from 19 yo to 190 in 10 mins.
We did. Reactor scrammed. Main and vital hydraulics failed, pumps went on full recycle to accumulators. Bow planes failed to full dive. Stern planes failed to full dive. We were in the mouth of Straights of Gibraltar fixing to shoot the straights to go into the Mediterranean. We had settled backwards to 550 feet when skipper ordered emergency surface. Failed hydraulics caused by accumulator limit switch failure. Two switches failed at the same time. Watching the depth gauge will increase the pucker factor.

:shock: :shock:
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand
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Re: A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET

#15

Post by Grayling813 »

anygunanywhere wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 5:56 pm Submarine Sonar Technician STS1(SS). I made 9 deterrent patrols.

USS George Bancroft SSBN-643. The second pic is her last surface before decommissioning, an emergency surface from test depth. Over 8,000 tons out of the water.

Her sail is on display outside the King's Bay, Georgia Submarine Base, the memorial dedicated on the 100th anniversary of the US Navy submarine Service.


Image

Image
Those who have never experienced emergency blow from test depth can’t imagine the puckered thrill.
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