Words by Wes O’Donnell, Managing Editor InMilitary.com and Veteran, U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force
Editor’s note: Last week, we secured an interview with a recently retired U.S. Navy captain who spent 20 years at sea and 10 in the Pentagon, working on process improvement projects. He asked to remain anonymous due to a number of political considerations and a need for privacy. For the purposes of this interview, we will call him Captain F.
Editor’s note: Last week, we secured an interview with a recently retired U.S. Navy captain who spent 20 years at sea and 10 in the Pentagon, working on process improvement projects. He asked to remain anonymous due to a number of political considerations and a need for privacy. For the purposes of this interview, we will call him Captain F.
InMilitary: Thank you, sir, for sitting down with us and giving us your time. As you’re painfully aware, there have been a number of at-sea incidents lately, most notably the two separate collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain with merchant vessels. Sailors’ lives have been lost. There are conspiracy theories of Russian spoofing of GPS and other nonsense. Our most pressing question is: Why is this happening now and with such frequency?
Captain F: First, the big picture. The nation, like every nation, has to balance guns and butter. Just a fact of life. Limited resources and unlimited requirements, needs and wants. Congress and the executive branch must lead that discussion based on the threat and the capabilities of the required force to meet those threats.
After each war, although they do not term it as such (actually, they did after the collapse of the Berlin Wall), there is always a great deal of pressure to provide a “peace dividend” – or more precisely, to move funding from the military to social projects. I have been through two significant drawdowns in my service from 1974-2003.
IM: So it’s a leadership issue?
Captain F: What gave out was leadership.
The admirals did not put their careers on the line and object about anything. They rolled over to save themselves.
That is the big picture.
From a more localized perspective, the direct in-line people, COs, XOs and MCPOs, also rolled over.
There is no way on my ships that would have happened.
We always had direct leadership.
Leadership that was there, present and capable.
I am willing to bet that those ships involved in incidents with merchants had all their sexual orientation, transgender training, and environmental training all completed at the expense of the safety and operational training.
If you put the emphasis on social issues, you get a social force.
If you put it on operational issues, you get an operational force..."
