(CNN) Former sailors on Navy aircraft carrier describe working conditions
The Navy has a culture problem. See Why I Defend Captain Crozier. Quoting,
Sometimes the hardest task is the most perfectly done. Because land warfare is so upfront personal, the Army and the Marines had no choice but to excel in human resource management. The last steps of perfection have come only in the past few years. The Navy is a little behind. While PBS Carrier displays the best of Navy human resources, there have been serious lapses, concentrated in the commissioned ranks.
The George Washington is such a lapse, preceded by the firing of Brett Crozier, C.O. of USS Theodore Roosevelt. A hero to his crew, he actually cared about their welfare. The Navy has endorsed the mindset of (Wikipedia version ) Six Phases of a Project:
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- Unbounded Enthusiasm,
- Total Disillusionment,
- Panic, hysteria and overtime,
- Frantic Search for the guilty,
- Punishment of the innocent, and
- Reward for the uninvolved.
Defenders of the Navy might point out that it has the (USNI News) lowest suicide rate of the services. Given the specific remediable circumstances, it’s not good enough.
Contemporary with the George Washington: (Navy Times) ‘Passion bordering on anger’: The inside story behind the CO’s firing on the destroyer Forrest Sherman.