Explosive bolts detaching command pins are not that new, but this is, at least in my experience:
The commanding officer of the Yokosuka, Japan-based cruiser Cowpens was relieved of duty Wednesday after being punished for “cruelty and maltreatment” during her time in charge, the Navy announced. In an unusual move, she is being permitted to continue on to an assignment in the Pentagon.
Capt. Holly Graf was brought before an admiral’s mast with Rear Adm. Kevin Donegan, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, after an inspector general’s investigation found problems with her “temperament and demeanor vis-a-vis her subordinates,” said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for 7th Fleet.
Perhaps she studied under the congressman from PA-7?
“Cruelty and maltreatment” and “assigned to the Pentagon” really don’t go together.
Unless someone is figuring on leveraging the fact that Virginia is a shall-issue state to dispose of this problem.
Obviously, you’ve never been assigned there.
+1
- SJS
I’m pretty sure the five sided paradox was listed as one of Dante’s levels…
Two observations: First, she ain’t got squat for commendations/awards/whatever. Sounds like a risk averse individual to me (but hey, I’m just a civilian, what do I know?) and second, that is one scary damn looking woman. I sure hope that isn’t what passes for her smile, she could freeze liquid helium.
Byron, the good Captain is only wearing her three highest awards and not all of her “salad”. Unless I am color blind, she is wearing the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. All three are pretty high up there. She does look like she could chase a hungry bull dog off of a meat truck though (LOL as if I have room to talk). I’m just wondering if the entire crew will receive the Purple Heart for enduring her mal-treatment.
I can put up with a “Reverse Sukolomikov Effect”.
(For those of you who came in late to class, it refers to a trick well known to military historians. If you want to know who is likely to win a war, look at the official photos of the commanders involved. The best-dressed leaders will probably lose.)
I wonder how much political correctness was involved in the decision. “We can’t end this womans career! Think how that would look.”
Byron, the things that struck me were, like you, the lack of stuff on her chest considering her rank, the fugly hats that the military inflicts on women, and that she does look a bit like the eager young soldier/sailor who always gets killed in the first reel of a 1940s WWII movie.
I wonder how much political correctness was involved in making this ‘liquid helium freezer’s’ career. It’s the ol’ problem of WITS. Now Mullen wants them in subs, YIKES!
she commanded the destroyer Winston S. Churchill, among other assignments
Wonder what the Churchill crew had to say about the Lady Boss? It seems there should have been some detection of this Captain’s demeanor prior to arrival at Cowpens, let alone during her time aboard as CO.
In an offhand way, that the Admiral waited this long reminds me of a recent tragedy at Ft. Hood. This situation didn’t pop up overnight, so why wasn’t it handled sooner? What value was gained by waiting?
As for scary looking, it’s in the eyes.
there was… just too little, too late. You can bet that those in “SWODOM” are NOT surprised. And ironically, the SNA symposium is going on this week in DC … bet the tongues are a-waggin’
Wonder what her FSH level is?
Yep, lot’s of folks will wear their “Top 3″ after the fruit salad gets to be unwieldy. I always did wearing khakis, although I didn’t in service dress blues – didn’t think it was authorized in a dress uniform, but maybe the regs are different for females since there’s not as much room on the typical blouse. Or maybe I was wrong about the regs.
And they don’t hire us as COs for our looks, thank God.
I did once know a captain who wore their (deliberately gender neutral) “Top 4″ ribbons. None of which, as it turned out, was a Sea Service ribbon.
Never quite figured that out, how you get to be an O-6 without having once spent 90+ continuous days deployed.
Thanks, Lex. I would have thought that for an official type photo like that one would wear everything.
It’s photoshop, I tell ya. Ask anyone who’s actually met me.
Or George Clooney
……..Right!
Too bad I won’t be out your way to serve the drinks for that little sea story.
Of course, if you ever made it to Houston, By God, Texas, you’d never go away hungry, sober, or uncheerful. And George Clooney can’t even say that!!!
Subsunk
Lex:
“Never quite figured that out, how you get to be an O-6 without having once spent 90+ continuous days deployed.”
By being in a squadron that (was) based OUTCONUS, sending Det’s to the CVN for every at-sea period, then returning the Det’s aircraft to home plate for maintenance every in-port, all on TDY orders. Voila: Three years, six different Air Wings, never any record of being on any one boat for more than 89 consecutive days, but being, in reality, gone more than had one been in a single air wing for the same 36 month period. OTOH, given the nature of the job, we were everyone’s best buddy when it came time to ensure the hosting JO Jungle was, er, “well supplied” upon our return to the boat the first morning of the new at-sea period.
VR,
Comjam
I have pictures somewhere around here of the General wearing his top 4 (1 solid row, not two like us navy guys). It was at my sister’s wedding and she asked him to wear his dress uniform and of course he obliged. It was left to us lesser mortals wearing the rented tuxes to push the cars out of the muddy field in front of our house. Ever done a full length sprawl in a mud puddle wearing a rented tux in Detroit? Still, what me and my brother did to the groom (USAF) and the West Point fullback who had to go to the hospital……Honestly, it was just quarters and beer! Even the Goddess didn’t get drunk. She was also pretty good at quarters. Oddly enough, she attended college in a place called Norman, OK or some such where they ban the sale of booze. How she learned to bounce quarters into a glass of beer remains a complete mystery but she surely was a mistress of getting a quarter into a glass of beer…and sophomore cadets admitted to hospital the day before their big family ski vacation to North Peninsula Michigan. I’m blaming Jane!
I was an ensign long ago and so proudly wore both the MUC we got for sweeping nonexistent mines in the Red Sea with some help from HM14 but also the Sea Service Ribbon that one year aboard that FDNF ship qualified me for. Haven’t worn either of those ribbons in over 20 years. OTOH, since 1989 I mostly wore a working uniform that was supposed to blend well with forests or deserts. I must say that desert one, it blended real well at the KNB Officers club’s dessert table. Sucker practically groaned sometimes under the load of mouth watering desserts.
Only disenchanted Vietnam vets get to wear ribbons with their cammo uniforms. OK, them and dictators from South America. Oddly enough, after a rich and fulfilling career I don’t have a LOM or Bronze Star or any “joint” awards.
Long long post. I worked for VADM Redd twice. Once up in Kuwait and the next year as one of his staff. Other poster was spot on. That man was a gentlemen. I still remember him calling all of us to a little ceremony in ASU to memorialize his friend who shot himself just hours after Admiral Redd had spoken on the phone to him.
I wore black shoes. I once worked for a moron. Funny thing he never knew….I worked for an evil SOB who had been on the CRUDES staff that was sent aboard to determine if there was a problem with the CO of a destroyer who had already fired 2 XO’s and 3 department heads. The moron was the sole surviver! Following his departure from the mine battle force he was given command of a giant Spruance Class destroyer while his much smarter and better peers left to command frigates before moving up command cruisers.
Oh, the DD the moron caught command of was the one that had been T-boned by something really large in a narrow strait. Ship spent most of his months in command in a shipyard in Pearl Harbor and spent most of the rest of his time at SIMA and the loser declined to start engines to move it across the harbor to tie up where further ship to shop work got done. Loser never spent a single day underway on that giant boat. Now one of his peers, with his frigate actually blew the crap out of a BB during some sort of unpleasantness. Raked it with 20mm depleted uranium slugs. He played golf at the academy and retired honorably as an 06. Me too natch. well, other than being retired. I’m semi-retired. If the general has his way I’ll find myself the OIC of some provincial reconstruction team and wind up with another Bronze Star and LOM. Personally, I think we have enough of both in the family. All they do is clutter up the wall in one of the bedrooms at home.
Oh it’s easy. I met one on OHARP duty right after graduating OCS and before going to my first fleet command. He was some professor of something or another the Navy decided was so important they DCO’ed him in as an O6 (maybe O5 and he’d been around long enough they decided to promote him) and only asked him to drop by to weird recruiting events so far as I know (might have taught at PG school too though). The one I met him at was a La Raza convention of all things. No one signed up for any of the branches there, but there was a non-Hispanic MOH winner and plenty of people to take our free mousepads and crappy government pens. This Captain wore a civilian white -almost c-thru- collared short sleeved shirt with the shoulder boards PINNED in place, and had a wrinkly yellow combination cover that looked almost like a severely abused scrotum. He had on the correct pants however. Nevertheless the Lieutenant recruiter filed a complaint against him for making the Navy look so sloppy and a$$-clownish, in public at least.
Like any other issue, can’t judge a book by the cover – after all, women’s prisons are full cuties who had MURDER on thier mind and came wrapped in a very pretty exterior…
Hate to say but there is sometimes a need to “overcompensate” for Female Commanders in CO position to compete with the MALE environment in the Ward Room…Ran into one in a command that made every Non-Com with a lick of sense pull the “eject handle” to get away from her – She couldn’t figure it out & held a Captain’s Call to see why people were abondoning ship under her command – When she finally pressed me & demanded an answer, I let her know the God’s Honest truth – She was the cause & no one wanted to serve under her Command.
She took it well – no worries she said – we will make changes. About a half hour later, the Chief came to see me & said, “SK1, you best get the F–k outta Dodge..”
I handed him my transfer & he endorsed it & had her signature on it within an hour – packed up & moved to new command….
When I got there, the Command Master Chief met me & reviewed the “transfer eval” – For a guy who had been a 4.0 sailor for years, this was way off – all below 2.0 on all categories..DO NOT RETAIN Stamped all over it….the Master Chief knew of her & said, ” What did you say to her???” – I told him, he looked at me, reached into my jacket, pulled the rotten eval out & said, “We seemed to have lost your eval…Carry On SK1..”
“Aye, Aye Master Chief !” was my response & that was the last I ever heard of MRS. COMMAND BATTLE AXE during my illustrious career in this man’s Navy….
No other issues with women in uniform…like’em lots BUT that one was NO DAMN GOOD.
What era and coast was that SK1? Playing a bit of a guessing game and have one in mind from my personal experience…
New England – Reserve Personnel DET…..Sub Base Groton based reserve unit
Lady in question was also high level muckey-muck in RI State Government – GO FIGURE….she also was a State Hack… shocked – shocked & amazed…
SK1,
I was such a bastard. OTOH, I could write the best eval you ever saw and even write up NAMS…We black sheep never paid any attention to rules limiting the number of NAMS, we figured those losers would get lost in the dark anyway. Sometimes, it was nice working for the dark.
Say! Did somebody turn out the lights~?
Yeah – NAMS were like getting bubblegum at the supermarket – anyone could get on if they had the right change. Only thing that ever mattered to me was the respect of the Senior Enlisted Leaders. They were the ones who made things happen. My Master Chiefs and the meembers of the Goat Locker were the ones that counted to me in the Seabees.
I was in Fallujah in 2004 -2005 and had a relationship with the Command Sergeant Major of IMEF while there as he and I had worked together. I handled supplies from the Seabee side of things. When I got ready to leave, I expressed my thanks for his support. He replied that I made a believer out of him when it came to Seabees, and that I could serve with his “devil dogs” anytime.
General Satler (IMEF CO) could not have paid me a higher compliment and a COMM from him would not have meant as much as the CSM’s respect.
Keep the NAMS… I’ll take the CSM’s respect over medals anytime.
SK1,
Did you know our command master chief? Right about then he took the job and served as Force Master Chief out there for whossname at C5F/COMUSNAVCENT. He spent grunches of time in Iraq back then and I know him well enough to know he went where the light was brightest (flames and such) Ramadi, Fallujah. He was also a whossname for our man in Iraq before that. His name is Covington. Good man.
He didn’t look a day over 25. Blond guy.
Dude, NAMS=2points. Don’t piss them away. When the CPO board meets they look for the routine accouterments in your service record. They can hardly look for or find the respect there of senior enlisted leaders unless they troubled themselves enough to provide you with a written record of respect. The senior enlisted leaders I worked with were always happy to make work for me and suggest so and so for a NAM, NCM or Sailor of the Quarter or Sailor of the Year.
I figured I owed anybody recommended the time it took to write them up.
Sheesh! just reread that. Write them up. All these years of duty and I never once wrote any sailor up in the old sense of the words.
I’ve only got the one NAM and it joined the MUC and sea service deployment long ago but it came as an absolute surprise and I thought it was a nice gesture from the skipper. Technically, it’s one of the top 3 but I’m a maverick and prefer to wear the CAR as the 3rd ribbon.
I could probably get in trouble for that.
Understood…I’m retired so points/ribbons/etc. are all in the rear view mirror
Only regret I have is that we never got the CAR for our time in Fallujah because we were assigned to a Marine Command – The Marine Standard was in effect which means you had to engage in an actual firefight with the enemy to reach the threshold.
Under Navy Standard, you only had to be under fire, not neccesarily return fire. Like the USS Carl Vinson which had a rocket fired over it’s bow while in harbor in Suez area… every sailor on the ship got a CAR, even guys asleep in thier racks got the CAR.
I was under rocket/mortar attack in country for 6+ months, even sustained small arms fire but because we were not allowed to engage (they had Marine react groups for that), NO CAR for you Seabee….Bastards….got screwed over by the regs.
Sir,
I waited 10 years for mine. Yours may take as long. I only fought in little wars that nobody ever heard of. (Army so not allowed!) You were in a big one.
I served uner a CO on Courtney that was abusive to everyone. Kinda reminds me of Dick Marcincko’s shtick in “Rogue Warrior” where he treats everyone the same “line S**t.”
The guy cursed at the 1st LT from the bridge wing when the poor 1st Lt was near the capstan. I was told he could be heard back on the fantail.
I wonder if we had another Arnheiter Affair about to occur if soemthing weren’t done. Being merely abusive has never gotten a CO sacked before, at least to my knowledge.
I don’t care what she looks like. First, it is immaterial, and second, very, very few women are flattered by the SDB and the official portrait.
I’m intensely curious as to what actions she took that rose to the level of relief. Was this a pattern of behavior? Was she counseled previously on her relations with subordinates and her command climate and style? Or was this a single incident that precipitated this?
And it is indeed very curious that she was allowed to proceed to the Navy Staff. But I suspect this may have had to do with the fact that her PCS was imminent, and finding a replacement for her there on short notice might be difficult. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to find her applying for retirement just as soon as a relief can be found.
Brad, what caused me to say that wasn’t her overall appearance; it was the eyes and the mouth. Frankly, she scares me a little bit, kinda like a grenade with the pin pulled and a thin piece of twine holding the spoon down…
To the point, I usually judge a womens “beauty” by her eyes and her mouth. That’s usually a good indication of a persons general demeanor.
I didn’t look at the pic. Does she look like Martha Coakley?
Bronze star huh? I’ve always had a problem with a blackshoe sitting in an air conditioned CIC drinking a cup of coffee and telling the TAO “go” for a Tomahawk strike getting a bronze star. Heroism? Really? She’d been a fast mover up to this point.
We called MNF-I HQ (Green Zone palace) a Bronze Star factory for the Army officers who served there.
We had one CDR who served in a ministry out in injun country and we had to fight like hell to get him a Bronze Star. He joked about keeping a mental checklist of who he’d shoot if things went pear-shaped while he was there.
You need to rethink it. If you have a Blue Jacket’s Manual just open it and read what it says about Bronze Stars.
Without the V, its an MSM. I think that’s legit.
Word on the street is one shouldn’t grab one’s subordinates by the throat whilst counseling…
- SJS
I believe that lesson plan had already been taught.
There are (anonymous) sources here stating that no one should have been surprised about any of this. Another commenter defends the former CO, essentially saying, “Grow a pair.”
I will say two things: The black shoe Navy had a well-deserved reputation back in the day for eating its young, back in the day. Patterns of relief for cause over the last decade or so reveal that the senior SWO leadership is aware of that rep, and has been fighting vigorously to change it.
I could go on a tear when I had to, but always believed that if everything was a crisis, nothing was. You’ve got to save a few rounds for the right opportunity.
It can be a hard service, but it doesn’t need to be a vituperative one. Child abuse is a learned behavior.
Screaming all the time lessens its impact.
If you’re generally a quiet guy, just the right tone, never mind volume, will marvelously focus people.
I thought Obama had returned the “Winston S. Churchill” to the Brits along with his White House bust.
Zing!
+1
Oh come on. Y’all gotta stop this +1 crap. Seriously. What?!!! do you all have teenage girls in the house? My girl is only 6 going on 7 and she doesn’t have a clue what this plus 1 nonsense y’all are using is.
All, repeat all that I have for reference are nephews but it sounds like such a girl thing and all 8 of them profess great cluelessnes.
+1 indeed.
and remanded to moderation again darn it.
Bad CO’s come in all races, ethnic heritages, religions and genders. Truely diverse. Guess I didn’t get the “the measure of an officer by their official picture” gene. I can’t tell a thing from the photograph.
Doubtless this one will do good work when not allowed authority over other human beings, until she retires. What damage to good sailors was done in almost a full command tour? Plenty, and no one will go back and correct the victims’ records.
This bad behavior by senior officers happens more often than we all would hope.
It is rewarded more often than we care to acknowlege.
Bad Captains into bad Flag Officers grow, unless plucked. Regrettably, both are widely available at Navy commands near anyone.
Better that this ISIC nailed her late than never. No Kudos to the ISIC though, this late in a command tour.
Well, Grampa, unfortunately you are right, but the only really expedicious way to immediately remove them with a minimum of hissing is to “promote” them to an undeserved upper-level staff position, hence the old saying: “F**k-Up and Move Up.” I was unfortunately exposed to one such officer in the very first active duty squadron I was assigned to. Not pretty, not funny, and was unbridled relief when he was gone. Wiser heads used the Tet offensive as excuse to clean house of corrosive deadwood–thank God.
VX,
joined a little later and the navy since the Air Force after two years said FU2 you can’t even qualify as a navigator in our airplanes which was deeply hurtful but on the other hand I knew my eyes disqualified me for a seat up front but I had thought I still had a reasonable chance at Navigator…..on the other hand, who exactly do they blame when one of those big jets gets lost….oh yeah, the blind guy in back.
Us in the navy enjoyed something we called bottom blow until some point after 1985. 10% got a free return to civilian life. There was somewhere here today where I made comments about decimation. I think officers ought to get the juice to decimate their command……..I also think CPOs should get the juice to decimate their wardrooms.
F-up and move-up seems to work at all levels, JO’s included. One of the guys I commissioned with, an earnest enough human being but one who couldn’t successfully even finish his first sea tour as an entry level maintenance officer, got transferred to shore duty more than a full year shy of his sea tour projected rotation date. This also just so happened to put him in a better bracket of available billets and got him a plum position working 9 to 3 in K-bay in Hawaii. So let me get this straight, you do well in your first sea tour and they give you a back to back one in some location you never chose to go in the first place, but you f-up so royally right out the starting gate you can’t even make it once around the track and they give you the sweet job that should be reserved for sunset tours in paradise???
Um, yeah they do.
Flew to Bahrain once and joined a ship’s company as Senior Watch Officer with a LT that had been aboard for 4 years on a little bitty ship and never earned a SWO pin or an OOD letter. He didn’t just not earn a fleet OOD letter that loser never qual’d as an OOD in port. He left after all the torture I could impose on him; to command a Reserve Center. Right there, it cemented my respect for admirals and TARS.
That loser was one of just 6 watchstanding officers. 6 of us and that bastard couldn’t contribute anything.
Ever know a pilot that the skipper didn’t trust to fly and thus actually do his job?
Hmmm, some of those posts on “cut of his jib” apparently coming from the non-male persuasion do seem rather defensive and protective of Capt Graf. And to end with a comment like
“Her courage and commitment to her country will carry her forward – what will the whining of junior officers do for them??” brings to my mind some teary-eyed female whose “friend” has just had a nasty dose of reality thrown in their collective face.
I’m thinking the peons at her next duty assignment are burning the wires to the detailing shop. Hell hath no fury and all. Good luck to Capt Marin, hope he quickly puts this behind them.
Story now appears at “Le Portail des sous-marins”:
Le commandant d’un croiseur de l’US Navy relevée pour ‘actes de cruauté’
Wonder how Capt. Graf will be connected with sous-marins. Can we guess?
“…perhaps you would have enjoyed grinding your axes together.”
Ouch. Zing! Let’s hope Lori already “grew a pair” and can handle some return fire.
Doesn’t seem like “an unusual move” to me. I did a tour in DC once and noticed I knew a few people in the Palace hallway who had been underway a few weeks or months before and who showed up in the news. Being such a huge manpower sump, DC could be seen by some detailer in a hurry as a good option to put someone who got fired out of the situation with a minimum of humiliation. (Perhaps relevant: the 1110s are way short of O6s apparently and are doing some weird things to fill the billets.) Alternately, perhaps orders were already cut and moving the PRD up was the best choice.
I could translate the sentence about continuing career in DC as “officer was relieved early, DFC determination in progress, and is assigned to a staff long enough to transition to retirement”.
Is “cruelty and maltreatment” just a more focused version of “poor command climate?” If it was some kind of assault, then why isn’t that the charge?
Just trying to figure out what that phrase means…
I wonder – does any “up the food chain” organization track Captain’s Mast/Art15?
As I recall from my XO tour on RUSSELL, not really. The only time I recall that an NJP had to be reported as a data collection measure was if the member was referred for administrative separation or if the victim might have an ongoing fear of the accused after some sort of violent crime. And the reports never contained any details or list of charges, just raw numbers of cases.
Seriously dude,
You must know that all commands file quarterly reports on NJP, discipline and courts martial? Perhaps it was only a requirement levied on echelons with our own JAG.
I remember the quarterly reports well, but I don’t recall there being detail about specific articles that were violated. Unless I’m remembering incorrectly, it was just “How many NJPs did you have?”, “How many referrals to courts-martial did you have?”, “How many were violent in nature?”, etc…
oh yeah. Every single quarter.
Command throttling the help, goes unnoticed in official records.
I went to the referenced site and found a comment that said that Captain Graf had “put her hands in anguish” on an officer’s throat. I don’t believe that “anguish” was what the Captain might have been feeling as she tried to choke the living bejabbers out of a subordinate.
My military experience is limited–six years National Guard and Army Reserve service. But my experience with leadership–both in being led and leading others covers 35 plus years of a legal career. The worst chewing out that I ever had was from a senior lawyer I respected who told me, “I wish you hadn’t done that.” The words could not have been heard 10 feet away. More than 30 years later I can still recall the sting of those words.
I’ve had lots of guys chowder at me for one perceived wrong or error or another—including my old drill sergeant in Basic Training at the top of his redneck Oklahoma lungs. But none of them impacted me like those quiet six words. If you respect your leader, or if you have earned the respect of those reporting to you, that’s all you need.
MM, You said… ” If you respect your leader, or if you have earned the respect of those reporting to you, that’s all you need.”…a clear consise declarative sentence conveying a complex idea… hard to improve upon, I tried, and very well said. Best
Finally I know why the Chief Engineer on my first divo ride threw a 3M manual at me; he was anguished.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Chris, that is EXCELLENT! Now you can “bring closure” to the trauma.
My first week in my first DIVO job I got back the weekly 3M report from the skipper that the guy I relieved had submitted. The thing was routed you know. It went via the CHENG who commented not. The XO used gallons of green ink to comment and the skipper another gallon or two of purple ink. Both of them were really unhappy. Neither threw a book. It wasn’t me but man did I learn a lesson from that. Simple things that navy leaders are expected to accomplish need to be accomplished.
The best part of the story is when I told my BTC, he cracked a big smile and replied, “Then you must be doing alright, sir; he threw a chair at your predecessor.”
If she did grab someone, the victim should have decked her. Commit Assault and RHIP no longer applies, but the victim has a right to self-defense. And at that grade, if she did violate Article 128, she should have been sent to a court-martial.
Been a bad week:
Bet the CO of Carrier Air Wing 17 doesn’t get the same duty station he might otherwise have. Just a guess.
Supply school CO also relieved this week – evidently ISIC wasn’t happy with the light judgement handed-down at Mast for a fraternization incident.
- SJS
Was Kilkenny your classmate? He’s the one that pulled the trigger.
Think he was ’76 or ’77, I was ’78
- SJS
The flag who approved the removal, RADM Ted Branch, was a first tour A-7 pilot in the wing during my CO tour. I must be getting old.
Lex:
Let us be glad they are still clorinating the (gene) pool. These things usually come in threes. What’s next?
I recall that retired VADM Scott Redd fired a CO when he was COMMIDEASTFOR for being abusive to his officers and crew. That had to be 10+ years ago. VADM Redd was my first CO, and I would follow him through fire. He never raised his voice, but had a way to motivate anyone in any situation.
The only terrorist CO I ever worked for was an Airdale doing his deep draft tour on his way to carrier command. He abused his officers, including the helo det Air Boss (because he wasn’t good enough to fly jets). None of his XOs ever command screened, none of his department heads ever XO screened, and none of his JOs stayed in beyond their end of obligated service. He got SERB’d at the end of his tour, but as one commenter said, they don’t go back and fix the records of the officers he damaged. As Lex implied, Surface Warfare is a single elimination tournament.
Funny to hear that they are having a hard time finding O6 COs. A lot of great officers that idiot trashed would be perfect fills, if they hadn’t been 2FOS because of him.
BTW, I’m not down on Airdales commanding ships. I worked for a few others, and they were universally terrific leaders and all got their CVN command.
Interesting post here:
http://aquilinefocus.blogspot.com/
MoltenEagle is a good blog that i check regularly.
He seems to hint that the good Captain might have been heading towards a position regarding women on submarines, and that that is the main reason for her retention.
He also references comments about her trying to choke the living sh!t out of another officer.
Anyway, just tossing in my 2-cent’s worth.
Tim,
I translated the story into English with Babelfish. I think it was just posted as a general interest story and not because it had anything to do with submarines. A CO choking a subordinate is a pretty odd event.
I’ll have to check it out.
I once laid hand on a First Class Petty Officer on the fantail one morning at 0500. He wrote me up for assault. Went to my 5th XOI. That XO went on to enjoy a full……well OK, he retired as an LCDR.
But going back to the assault thing, left hand laid on shoulder of the duty LPO and me, CHENG, mustering the crew to get the boat underway with, as I recall, the Starboard section telling a dirtbag that I got up at 0400 to start main engines since that was a requirement the skipper levied on me every single day and I just couldn’t get down to crew berthing and wake up all the missing crew who were going to take us to the minefield and why the f*** wasn’t he doing his job since there were only about 5 of us on the fantail at that point just one minute before setting -sea and anchor detail?
I was averaging about 3 hours of sleep per day and did that for about 90 days. Get up LT, start mains, move to the bridge as OOD to raise anchor and head off to the mine fields and oops, too much black shoe stuff. Nothing sexy or fun here! Sexy, fun reserved for brown shoe guys.
I’m pretty sure I’m the only guy of my rank who’s been to XOI five times. My only times at captain’s mast were as Legal Officer or witness for the defense. Lord, I liked serving on LaSalle and Esteem. There was something wonderful back then with being FDNF and it wasn’t all barefoot darts at the Chief’s Club at ASU.
Hey Curtis,
Anyone that has served in the less glamorous parts of their service for any length of time has seen some physical altercations. Me, USMC, I know of a Captain and a Gunny settle things, Captain and a CWO3, CWO4 and a SSgt. And a few between officers of more or less equivalent rank. I have even had strong conversations with some Officers and SNCOs of mine. They might have thought I was gonna pop them.
Difference is, none of those people I saw get into it were Commanding Officers. As a CO, you haven’t the leeway of an unofficial act in your command, let alone snatching someone my the stacking swivel out of frustration. The fact that she did means she had either marginalized her Dept Heads, First LT, and XO, (which seems likely), or she can’t control her temper. Neither of which is the least bit desirable in a Ship’s Captain. Seems like she should have been rooted out long ago. But my suspicion is that she was anointed, and if she’d survived the CO tour at all, would have been an Admiral shortly. Because, as is pointed out elsewhere in here, those whose job it was to honestly evaluate said minority special interest group Surface Line Officer hadn’t the courage to do the job. Shame.
When did Matt Damon get a command?
Bada bing, ZING Great one, CW. Great one indeed.
After many years of growing up in, being in, and working for the services
1) This did NOT happen overnight. Somewhere, sometime some senior officer should have stepped in and said unfornicate yourself or get of my deck plates. This was allowed to happen.
2). Of course in the interests of protecting her career, those under her had to embrace the suck. You can remove her-but you cannot remove the useless suffering that those around her and under her endured. Not one eval or NJP will ever be removed.
3). I worked for a mean drunk CO for too damn long-the Navy still eats its young and still wonders why they have no damn senior enlisted or officers. Face it, being a black shoe sucks way too much-not even the vestige of honor, just the wonderful feeling that you are rung on the ladder of someone else’s career.
4). The NAV needs to get off its ass ICW with this crap and LEARN from it.
“You can remove her-but you cannot remove the useless suffering that those around her and under her endured. Not one eval or NJP will ever be removed.”
ONe thing I can say about the last CO of the Courtney, when the crew that would not remain for decommissioning were being separated, he called a number of people to his stateroom and tried to make amends for much of what he had done. Some of them didn’t deserve it as what he did to them was righteous (a fellow QM, for example, missed movement simply because he hadn’t been home in 2 years and decided to take an informal extension of Christmas leave). Most of them didn’t deserve what he did to them, and he tried to remedy that. I have no idea what happened to him after he left Courtney, but chances are he held no further commands as the Navy was in the post Vietnam draw down and many worthy officers saw their careers at sea side tracked.
Holly Graf is 5’3″ and goes about 120lbs dripping wet. Interesting that she would get violently physical with anyone. IG investigation went on for almost six months. You would think they would yanked her immediately if the charge had been so serious. Instead they left her in command for her full tour. She was reportedly a competent ship-handler and warfare commander. They squeezed all the blood out of the turnip and then shot her in the head a couple of weeks ahead of her scheduled change-of-command. Nice.
Had one CO that thumped me hard in the chest when we were debating his overall stupidity in his cabin after 8 O’clocks. Me, I grabbed those fingers bent them way back and told him I’d kill him if he ever touched me again. I used to do sincere menace really well. Bruce really well and truly understood sincerity when he heard it. Lucky guy.
Shooter, that is a load of crap. She got to be an 0-6, commanded at sea twice. Put her hands on a subordinate without cause, and all she got was NJP? She got off very easy following a very sweet career path.
Shooter, you don’t EVEN understand (tho you probably really do.) Squeezing the blood and then s**t-canning is SOP by the big kids in ANY branch of the services if they are short-handed and need the warm, otherwise competent, body to pass an upcoming inspection, Tac Eval, etc. Then once that hurdle is vaulted and the big kids reputation is secure and his command has passed with flying colors it’s deep six time.
And the poor fools under the gun are usually desperate enough to fool themselves into believing that, if they work real hard and turn in a super outstanding performance going forward it will save them from the axe. So solly, THAT decision was made long ago–the big kids are just getting their last drop of useful blood.
IG stuff is not meant to last forever but it always does. I just wish the stuff I have in my refrigerator had a half life of any IG investigation.
IG investigation went on for almost six months. You would think they would yanked her immediately if the charge had been so serious.
Woman on the fast track in today’s Navy? I hate to say it, but it makes me wonder whether they were scared to act until it was unavoidable…
You got it! Right on the money.
I recall a rumor going round the deck plates after her outgoing change of command from USS Winston Churchill. Something to the effect that the crew was literally singing “Ding Dong the witch is dead” as she walked down the pier.
Not sure if it’s true, but I had a chaplain relate it to me so I’m thinking it wasn’t far off.
One thing I will say. A command often takes on the character of the person in charge. Good, bad or indifferent. A person often starts looking for a new career because of who they work for, not how much they make.
Very true, RetiredinTexas. As an old friend who was the head Tax-Shelter guy at the old Dean Witter in Scottsdale way back circa 82 told
me at the time: “I really like it here, making damn good money and enjoying it. I really can’t be lured away–but I can certainly be DRIVEN away.”
Dang, I find all the above very depressing. That’s not the Navy I imagined I’d join when I was a little kid. I was thinking more along the lines of what Lt.(jg) Kleiss and RM/3C Snowden have just done in this picture:
http://home.comcast.net/~r2russ/midway//temp/kleiss-gray.jpg
You can click on the image and make it bigger.
The Douglas SBD is my favorite airplane, EVAR!
P.s. The guy in the Zero is fixing to die. In Kleiss’s account at the roundtable site, he said that Snowden disposed of the Zero in about five seconds, and then disposed of another one. They were not bothered further on the way back to the ship.
I discounted all the comments about the Graf visage, for reasons cited by those above, as well as knowing that I am not a good judge of facial expressions, except in extreme cases. I have just looked at her pic, and, well, she’s an extreme case and she frightens me.
When I was a child, sex-ed was a taboo subject; however, I knew enough mechanics that I knew to keep my zipper zipped.
Apparently, some CMCs never took said class in school.
When, O when will SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE in the five-sided maze figure out that sailors, stuck at sea get horny?! That said horny sailors will try to assuage said horniness–especially if a WAVE (or, WIN, as I have heard ladies of the Naval Uniform are called) happens on board, sex, or “fraternization” will happen!?!
UNSAT. Morale suffers, readiness suffers, the Navy suffers, people suffer, families suffer, the nation suffers. Will SOMEONE in the Pentagon get his or her head out of the sand (or wherever else) and address this?!
TOTALLY UNSAT.
I was in a battlegroup where a CO alledgedly “threw” a subordinate up against the bulkhead. He was relieved of command that same day. CAPT Graf’s alledged “chocking” seems far fetched to me given her size and the fact that a lengthy investigation took place. Contact? Maybe. Chocking? Not so much. A SWO CO is tough on the crew, using abusive language and demanding the impossible. Hmmm, that’s never happened before. If that were a firing offense, we’d be out of ship COs. It’s a tough job and, sometimes, it takes a tough personality. Wonder if this would even be an issue if she were a male? Some folks just can’t take that sort of thing from a woman.
While we’re at liberty to speculate upon psychological states, I wonder whether the diminuitive CO didn’t feel like she had to overcompensate for size and gender?
See – anyone can do it.
And since this thread refuses to die, it is interesting to see the extension of comments at this place. The captain did not wholly engender the best teaming efforts of her crew, or peers apparently.
One wonders how things came to such a pass.
I read the comments Lex–would seem to confirm everything I’ve always said about the cancerous effect on morale and trust within the force/command of PC promotions in artificially advancing “diversity” and feminism for it’s own sake. Can’t even imagine what Skippy would say about this incident….and we all know what the ‘Phibian thinks…
I have just read all of the comments at that other post, Lex, and all I can say, is just, wow! Usually, military-type folks are very reticent about making complaints like that, but if Graf inspired that much anger, there must be some fire under that smoke.
I can’t help thinking about Lieutenant Hornblower assisting Captain Sawyer to descend that ladder more swiftly.
Hello,
I’ll have to take a look at this thread later; no time now. Drat.
But I love the visual of explosive bolts detaching command pins. It sounds like something out of the Empire in Star Wars for when Darth isn’t around. Not only does it reduce in rank, it removes the sentient beings head, or whatever some of those things in Lucas’ universerse had for a head(s).
The Navy seems to be in one of its periodic cycles where many CO’s are being relieved for many reasons. My sense is that Captain Graf is getting a great deal of attention because of her gender, her apparently being, prior to NJP, on the fast track, and because many folks, some with firsthand knowledge, felt compelled to comment on several blogs that this relief was a long time coming.
As a retired SWO whose service included two Commands at sea and a tour as a Carrier Group Chief of Staff (with the greatest OPS Boss ever … Lex), I’ve seen this movie before – it’s gender neutral and Warfare Device neutral.
Despite our best efforts, some folks get selected who fail, sometimes spectacularly, to properly discharge their Command responsibilties. As the Brits say, they never acquire the “Nelson Touch.” Problem is, you never REALLY know how a person is going to perform in Command unitl they take Command. Most folks do a fine job, some do an exceptionally fine job, some do an incredibly bad job – thankfully for us all the bad job doers are truly notable exceptions (but manage to get f our attention).
I know Captian Graf – and I’ve known other officers like her (male & female) who are remarkable performers at the shore based, headquarters staff level and who, to a point, do well enough in operational jobs to get the nod to keep moving up the chain. The common trait I observed among these folks is their complete (but often well-hidden) lack of confidence in themselves. They don’t trust themselves = they don’t trust anyone. In the operational environment, Command becomes a mighty lonely place where everyone places their confidence in a Skipper without confidence in themeselves and by extension the crew. Cruelty and choking invariably ensues.
Oh, and for the leadership of the Navy wondering how all this happened, yet again, feel free to re-read The Caine Mutiny. Best book, EVER, on this topic.
COS, what a delightful surprise to see you about these parts! Had I known you were dropping in, I would have tidied up the place
Checking in via PM.
I certainly appreciate the perspective of my fellow Naval officers who have also had the pleasure of command. But I’d like to amplify on the good COS’s thought above about how we wind up good staff officers who are Peter Principled into command — not once, but twice in this case.
Came time for ranking my CDR’s in my O6 command. I convened the brain trust — three O6s and two E9s, and told them I valued their inputs when it came to ranking. I didn’t intend to give over my responsibility, but I wanted a second set of eyeballs on how I thought they should be ranked. But what I told them was that I wanted two sets of rankings — one on officer like qualities, second, based on this question: Who would you want as your CO? Amazing the difference between the two — and you can guess which one I gave more credence to. CAPTs are supposed to be leaders — you can make CDR as a very capable staff officer. But we aren’t supposed to have O6s that aren’t leaders, and I didn’t intend to let the Bureau or boards make that mistake. I have a feeling that CAPT Graf was judged her entire career by the first standard, and rarely by the second.
Scott, Well said and good on you for soliciting a second set of eyes to gut check your own assessment. I did a similar gut check in my major command.
This gut check is a great help to Selection Boards. For those who are not familiar, we Navy folk hold Selection Boards to pick who gets the nod for all manner of things – promotion , Command, etc. We rely on the CO’s assessment (the Fitness Report) to make the call. It’s a gut wrenching process – the Navy version of the Sorting Hat.
So imagine this – two dozen successful Naval Officers pouring over hundreds of records on fellow officers to pick who gets the nod. Some are easy to pick. Everyone agress this person is the next Bull Halsey. Some are easy to reject. Everyone agrees this is the next Captain Queeg. Then comes the “crunch.” Big Navy (that is CNO and SECNAV) says we need 100 people in line to relieve those currently in Command. The Board comes up with 97 names to do so, but we gotta get to 100. The last 3 picked? It’s a crap shoot at this point and the CO’s Fitness Report becomes critical – if some CO writes a Halsey Fitness Report on a Queeg because they don’t want to hurt Queeg’s feelings, the Board might pick a Queeg and EVERYONE suffers the inevitable result.
FLETA, I think you are being unjustly harsh on Captain Queeg. Wouk tried to make the case in the book that Queeg, though flawed, might have made at least an ok and mediocre Captain were it not for the the guys in the wardroom, particularly that novelist fella, undermining him at every step instead of supporting him, which was their plain duty.
Graf is plainly no Queeg, who was a weird guy with no social abilities.
No, from looking at the comments on the other blog, she has all too many social abilities, of the wrong bad kind.
P.s. Captain Graf (again according to comments on that other blog) kinda reminds me of Dian Fossey (of Gorillas in the Mist fame). When Miss Fossey was found murdered, the list of suspects included every human who’d ever met her, because, well, she was that kind of person.
P.p.s. I looked again at the comments on the other blog, and somebody wrote “psycho-chick.” If yer people are thinking thoughts like that, it’s obvious to a person of the meanest understanding that that is prejudicial to good order and discipline whether you are one or not.
Commenting again on this:
1). Sick people make other people sick
2). Toxic people make for toxic commands
3). Dysfunctional people make others dysfunctional.
I strongly suspect that Capt. Graf has plenty of enablers and co-dependents working their way through the food chain. Think of this situation as taking a dump in the potable water tank-everyone gets to enjoy the after effects for quite a while. And they spread all over the damn place.
I just wonder how many from the Cowpens will ultimately vote with their feet?
Business Week, of all people, visits this affair, and points in a direction, that frankly, I hadn’t considered:
Maybe I had too many “sea daddies” to see this as a problem.