Supervisory error

Ok, it has been a few days between the events surrounding USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). There has been a lot posted about the decision made to fire the CO, CAPT Crozier. To be blunt, a lot of those thoughts are utter bullshit. Posted below are some reasons why.

Generally, the lines of thought about the event come down on one of two sides:

1. Crozier is a hero for sticking up for his crew
2. Crozier should have been fired for violating the chain of command and violating OPSEC and making the crippled state of his ship known to the world.

Neither point of view adequately captures the issues at play and it certainly does not excuse the chain of events that happened after the “acting” SECNAV decided to fire CAPT Crozier.

Let me state my position clearly and for the record as it will provide context for what follows: CAPT Crozier should not have been fired from his position as Commanding Officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The “acting ” SECNAV was wrong to do so, and big Navy leadership was wrong not to have defended him against what is clearly a politically motivated action taken against a servant of the Constitution.

And as for those who support position number 2 above, well maybe you should just.

OPSEC? Really? The news was already out about TR. The fleet knew it, so did Stars and Stripes. So too did a lot of agencies that don’t use classified networks, thus the reason for a lot of unclassified e-mail traffic. So do us all a favor and put that tired argument to rest. Same too with the “wide distribution” argument regarding the e-mail. It’s not a violation of accepted business practices and happens all the time. Some of the biggest practitioners of that business practice are Navy flag officers themselves.

As I have noted elsewhere, “Chain of Command” has become the new version of “but her e-mails”. It was a tired phrase then and it’s a tired turn of phrase now.

Not every problem requires a sledgehammer to solve. Certainly, that was true in the case of the communication from the Captain to a higher authority. Whether it [the e-mail] was truly necessary is a debate that will go on for some time to come. But the events have clearly vindicated CAPT Crozier’s conclusion that drastic action was warranted. And if you think CAPT Crozier should have been fired then you should be demanding the Battle Group Commander be fired as well.

I don’t feel that either should be fired, but I do think that the CVBG Commander is not without responsibility here. Or senior Navy leadership either. They are guilty of what is known in aviation mishap reporting as “supervisory error”. In aviation, the term supervisory error is used to denote those causal factors which are “supervisory and/or organizational influences that lead to or contribute to their occurrence. Mishaps are rarely attributable to a single cause, but are often the end result of a series of errors.”

Big Navy itself is guilty of supervisory error that led to this “mishap” and its wrong to attribute the cause or the results to just one man. And without a doubt, “Big Navy” deserved the kick in the teeth it got after CAPT Crozier was fired.

I wrote in another article at the time this happened:

This is going to be a PR nightmare for the Navy. It’s sending entirely the wrong message at the wrong time. In a proper world, they would have thanked the CO for doing his duty, made whatever decision they were going to make anyway, and they could have had the “win” of supporting their own leadership, while still acting in a prudent way to maintain deployment readiness. This just opens the Navy up to well-deserved scorn, trashes a man who’s done nothing wrong, and invites a lot of unnecessary scrutiny and “weeping wives and mother” stories. Hell of a job guys.

And that is exactly what DID happen. It was entirely predictable and entirely avoidable.

As I said, not every problem requires a sledgehammer and this case, to forgive an action that you might not have agreed with would have been entirely the right thing to do. There is nothing in Navy training that prepares a CO to deal with a pandemic. Seriously there is not.

When the “acting” SECNAV made the decision to fire Crozier, it sent a huge message to the fleet, and don’t kid yourself, they noticed.

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And certainly, we have never seen such a stupidly coordinated display of vindictive asshattery as the “acting” SECNAV’s speech to the crew of the TR one week later.

“So, what’s it going to take to contain this problem, guys?”

“Go talk to the crew and insult them and tell them that looking good in DC is more important than their lives – that oughta do it!”

Where do they teach the concept of “poisoning the well for the successor” these days? Is that a concept learned at Harvard Business school? Or was it learned by Modly while on shore duty while all his classmates were out at sea?

And so, 24 hours later Modly was back in DC contemplating his return to hedge fund banking.

In the end, its the fleet that pays the price – because nothing useful is getting done. And there are a lot of things that do need to be getting done.

Modly should never have been appointed to his position in the first place. And certainly, the Navy should not have had an “acting” SECNAV for six months.

But if there is one silver lining to this whole mess, it is that you should take cheer in the fact that one man can change the world. Certainly, CAPT Crozier did that – although at great personal cost to himself– and in the process exposed Trump lackeys as what they truly are, sociopathic sycophants. That may be the greatest service he has performed in a successful Navy career. He’s got my support and respect.