USS Connecticut Final Investigation Report

The amount of failure that began over a year before the event is astounding. The one voice that documented this command's problems was removed. The immediate actions of the crew would determine the fate of this submarine.

#final #investigation #report

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[marklaplante]

I spent 20 years in the submarine force as a Sonar Technician. My first major deployment was a Western Pacific (WestPac) 7-month long cruise. One of the ports we stopped at was in Guam. For people unfamiliar with this location, Guam is literally the top of a mountain. I was assigned to the fathometer (depth to keel sounder) during the maneuvering watch. Pretty sure the Sonar Chief did this on purpose. So we're coming in and the soundings are at maximum scale. Then within seconds, we go from deep ocean to shallow (red soundings) faster than I could change the range scale and I'm pretty sure the pitch of my voice rose just as quickly. Of course this sudden change in bottom reflected the steep incline of the mountain and it was totally expected by the more experienced members of the Navigation party, but it definitely made an impact on myself. The Navigation drill involving red & yellow soundings brought back all of the sheer terror that I remembered!!

[Bena]

So massive command failures at nearly all levels, but the sailors manning their stations saved the day despite the lack of command leadership.... that says a lot for the young sailors and non-comm's involved.

[marvinterrell]

22 year retired submariner TMC/SS. I have just one word listening to your report and the arrogance of this crew. INEVITABLE! COMSUBPAC should’ve been relieved as well!

[michaelsearnest]

I was surface warfare during my 20 years as a QM. During a small snapshot of time in the early 2000's our FTG in San Diego evaluated my nav team as insufficiently trained. I addressed everything FTG listed in their final evaluation and re-evaluation was scheduled for 3 months later during our work ups for deployment. 3 months later, again, my team was given low scores even though we passed every single navigation and ship handling exercise. The navigator appealed the evaluation. It was found that the evaluator had less experience than my entire nav team and he was replaced. We received a passing evaluation a short time later before deployment. Sometimes its just political.

[kenroubik]

I’m a former sub qualified officer. It’s been many years since I served, but this summary provides some insight as to why people were relieved of their duties. One thing that wasn’t mentioned (I assume because it’s not in the report) was when was the last time they had a navigational fix. It would be interesting to know. If they were traveling at those speeds I assume they were transiting and not doing a specific operation. If so the two OOD’s involved weren’t doing their jobs, nor was the navigator and the QM. At the very least when the watch section switched over the oncoming OOD should be verifying the ships position and identifying possible hazards. It sounds like everyone was in a relaxed “business as usual “ transiting mindset.

[Archangelm]

"More counseling sheets than a seaman after a liberty call." I loled very, very hard at that. Well done, sir. :heart:

[MajesticDemonLord]

Although not Military, I've worked in Corporates - and when there is an issue that gets escalated up the chain and then suddenly the issue is a non-issue:
Either someone is sleeping with someone or that issue is the door that is hiding a skeleton.

[Samoaka]

Holy smokes those guys must have been shitting bricks when they flipped the chicken switches and kept sinking out. Can't even imagine that feeling of dread.

[marksamuelsen]

I’m a 69yo disabled USAF veteran and have only been on a USN Submarine once in Pearl Harbor. My friend Manny Irwin brought me aboard to show me around. Very impressive. We spent about an hour in the sub and I was in awe the whole time. How you men do this is an amazing feat. Thank You for protecting America.

[jacobgreve]

Having the Fathometer in deep mode while being shallow is roughly the equivalent of using a Geiger counter to test the radiation of a spent nuclear fuel rod. To those who do not know what I mean by that, it is that the amount of radiation produced by the rod is so ridiculously high that it causes the Geiger to essentially have a seizure which causes it to not give a reading at all, giving the false perception that there is no radiation at all. The same thing happens with a Fathometer, that is expecting a fairly weak signal from deep water, suddenly being blasted by high energy soundwaves coming up from a bottom directly below it. The fathometer was getting such a strong return, that in the deep-water mode, it was being oversaturated by return signals to the point where it could not give any reading at all.

[davidwood]

I worked for General Dynamics in the late 80's to early 90's and was part of the SSN-21 class design team. Those guys did a great job saving that ship. We only have a total of 3 SeaWolf class ships out there. These 3 ships are among the best Subs with extraordinary equipment and capabilities. We can not afford to lose a SeaWolf class ship!

[brobsonmontey]

Thank you for doing this. As a person who has never served in the military forces it is an outstanding insight into the hows and whys of the way things are done. There are many lessons that are applicable outside of the military context. For example, your discussion of the need for "formal" language was very interesting to me as I run a cyber-security team which can also suffer from degradation of communication when the adrenalin is pumping, in the middle of a cyber breach event.

[bencolburn]

A friend of mine had a brother working on this sub, and he won't talk about what happened. I guess now I understand why. Thank you for making this easily available and understandable

[JacksonPlant]

As a former QM both sub and surface red and yellow soundings were drilled into our heads as well as procedures. I was Chart PO on paper charts and every day I was updating the charts and adding and updating them. I can not imagine going 24 knots blind with no situational awareness. I hope this has taken care of the attitudes so it never happens again. We are way past statistical probabilities of losing a boat since 1968 we have had several collisions and almost lost at least 4 boats I know if including mine while on it. I have PTSD from our almost catastrophic event but there was not such thing as psyc help for it in the 90’s.

[lbe]

I'm not Navy or military, but the lessons learned here can be applied to many kinds of teams with similar command structures. Thanks for this vid.

[zhubajie]

The Engineering crew really was on their toes. This navigational error could have easily become an imploded sub had Engineering not been able to recover.

[siggishwiggish]

as nothing more than an old landlubber I thought to myself wow they hung these guys out to dry for striking an uncharted undersea obstacle. Now I know why. Nothing is as simple as it first appears, especially with systems as complex as an SSN. thanks for a fascinating update.

[entropiated]

**Walks into the surf and bangs toe on a rock**
Damn you, you unexposed bathymetric feature!

[michaelmiller]

I'm on a sub out here in Guam, and seeing the damage to the bow with my own eyes when they pulled in next to us really gave me a different view on just how crazy our job is as submariners!

[seanthornton]

We had an XO that spent his time during ship yards scalp hunting destroying enlisted and lower rank officers enlistments and planned careers to try to get command of the boat after the yards on the blue crew. We had an nuke engineer that had just made chief that received so much crap from said XO that he walked out the front gate of the ship yard and bought a bag of pot and walked back to the crew barge and turned himself in just to get himself transferred off the boat. I found out back during the 2000 to 2010 period that the reason the sub was decommed because the sub was run aground coming out the firth of Clyde. They found the damage so bad the command crew was relieved and another command team was assigned to return the boat to New London. Yes there has been crappy officers that CYA and scalp hunt to further their career to get to the Pentagon to get into the perfumed princes cliché to get their flag. You are correct we are damned lucky we did not lose the boat and crew it was totally the enlisted and lower rank officers that saved the day my congrats to the crew that saved the CT.