Image via WikipediaReady, Aim, Retire: 7 Top Officers’ Epic Implosions | Danger Room | Wired.comIt is very hard for me to say this and part of me doesn't want to jinx it: this is the first thing I have read in Wired in over a month that comes anywhere close to real writing instead of mindless drivel. There, I said it. Yes, it was a good read.
We were arguing about the CO debacle yesterday. I am sure some dumbass right now is working himself up due to this, but in reality it is simple: certain people need to be held to a higher standard. When a country spends decades grooming you for a position of high trust and responsibility, then they give you command of a $450 million or more warship that helps project American power anywhere in the globe, you are expected to show some common fucking sense.
This is not George Constanza ("should I have not done that? nobody told me..."), this is a Naval Academy and Naval War College graduate with almost 30 years of meritorious service and 85 combat missions. And this is no trivial post, the Enterprise is the oldest deployable commission in the Navy, the only older commission is the USS Constitution, so you would expect that competition to command this ship would be fierce.
Yeah but how is this different from something like crossing the line ceremonies? Those are pretty lewd. I say give him him a break. If he kept the warship fighting ready then that's all that counts.
ReplyDeleteYea, but the crossing the line ceremonies as you see them now are toned down since, *gasp* they were considered hazing. The difference here is that the line crossing is a maritime tradition in more than a few countries and it goes back a few hundred years, what this guy did was being guilty of "being stupid while in command," which makes the Navy look bad.
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