Fmr. US Navy 7th Fleet commander on string of deadly mishaps

Retired Admiral Robert Natter reacts to dismissal of commander over incidents on 'America's Newsroom'

[thrummer]

The ship must have been built quite well. It took a broadside from an oil tanker but still sailed back to port under its own power. RIP those who perished.

[ayushbatbaatar]

Greatest army my ass. Can't even see big oil ship. Embarrassing

[sambananas]

That report is not believable. We have a multi-billion dollar vessel and we can't seem to be able to afford three lookouts so we use one? You have the temerity to actually report that with a straight face? Yikes!

[robertmorris]

There is no excuse for a navy ship colliding with anything. The crew is on duty 24 / 7. And they all have radar. I was on carrier enterprise for 4 years. We never even came close to hitting anything. The captain of that ship was not doing his job.

[suchitotoelsalvador]

Why would the lookouts be cut and where did he get that information???? Their are X amount of personnel on the ship and duty sections why would they put less people on watch??

[lsgap]

You think with all that technology on board these accidents would be easily avoided

[oldgoatf]

Why was the collision alarm not sounded to alert the sleeping crew, that would have saved some lives. There is no excuse for this. I understand the manning shortfalls, my last deployment on an Lhd as the Navigation Leading Chief Petty Officer our manning was supposed to be 36, we left port with 13 and had two tad personnel show up halfway through. I retired as soon we returned, as I saw the writing on the wall. I cannot see how this happened twice with no firm explanations or actions yet. The personnel being relieved so far are typical for any type of navigation accident. I did retire in 2004 so I guess the level of personnel competency could have fallen this far but it is unlikely. The captain of every ship writes a set of standing orders for watch standers directing them in carrying out their duties, it defines when to call the captain to the bridge and when to notify him of "potential" close calls. My summations are either minimum manning and total incompetency of unqualified watch standers relying only electronics using only one watch team to maintain the plot when the ship should have been in at least some form of a modified navigation detail(Possible but not very likely on two ships in similar circumstances). They did not complete a navigation brief or conduct propulsion and steering checks that should have all been on the entering port checklist and ended up having a catastrophic mechanical failure. (Not very likely since they continued into port under their own power). There was some type of sabotage or electronic attack(possible as well but hard to prove and we would never be told if it was). Bottom line no matter what happened some one should have seen "with their eyes" that huge ass tanker heading for them and alerted the sleeping crew!! SMCS(SW) Ret..

[backoff]

What's the point of this interview, the Admiral states the obvious without saying anything that's not already known. I spent two and a half years aboard the 7th.flt flagship during the 80's and we never had any incidents of ship to ship collisions or reports of close calls due to equipment failure or incompetence with the exception of foreign navy aggression towards U.S. Navy patrolling the South China seas. It's peculiar that only Destroyers are having these same problems, there hasn't been any other incidents with LHA's, LST's, Air Craft We had better get to the bottom of these accidents fast, before a war breaks out with China, North Korea and Russia or we'll end up with a bunch of dead in the water escorts and unprotected carriers sitting like ducks in the water !!!

[aon]

You have a military that is run down by to many wars and to many commitments. One report told us that the USMC F18 only got 4 hours in the air every months. Another reoport told us that US infantry couldnt work at group and squadlevels before the where sent ovesea.

Don't stop there. Were the ships checked regularly? These mishaps never happened in the past. anything fishy??

[DasUBT]

When is Navy Intelligence gonna figure out you cannot let Chocolate Pudding faced people at the Navigational Computerized controls of a ship, time to hire White Officers who can handle this job without running into other vessels while sailing on the High Seas !