They say that being a CO of a warship is the loneliest job in the world. My own observations of my own two Captains are that is probably true. It doesn�t mean that you have to be a delusional hardass, but it does mean that you have to make decisions that are in the best interest of the ship first. Believe me, the ship�s best interest was not always my own. Long years have taught me that I could and I did trust my CO�s to get it right. If Captain Conway called me tomorrow and asked me to do something, I would do it without question. The same applied to my Division Officer, Lt. Fritsch and my Master Chief, Joe Adamson. Why? Because that is the kind of leadership that those men gave me. Not mindless obedience, but trust. I was a part of a ship, and what was best for the ship, was ultimately best for me.
A few days ago, the news was abuzz with the word that a US Navy Captain had begged to get his crew off of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Pacific, which was being ravaged by the COVID-19 disease. The Navy reacted swiftly and relieved the Commanding Officer, and video soon surfaced of his crew chanting his name and cheering him as he left the ship.
Depending on your political views, this was either a gross overreaction by the �bad orange man� who �doesn�t care about the sailors,� or it�s a call for a Congressional investigation into the Navy�s decision which is clearly bad because �sailors are dying.�
There�s an old saw that says that �hard cases make for bad law.� Navy Regulations are harsh because, at the end of the day, the Navy isn�t a Yacht Club, filled with weekend sailors and retired Judges who play bad golf. It is a fighting force designed to break things and maintain control of the Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC) in defense of our freedom and liberty. Anything � anything � that distracts from that mission is a problem. And problems have to be addressed quickly and directly.
And like a Tiger King Documentary, don�t believe everything that you�re shown as the entirety of the story. First off, we will never know the whole story. Secondly, the Navy Regulations are designed to deal with these things.
Navy Regulations 0802. A commanding officer who departs from orders or instructions, or takes official action which is not in accordance with such orders or instructions, does so upon his or her own responsibility and shall report immediately the circumstances the officer from whom the prior orders or instructions were received. Of particular importance is the commanding officer�s duty to take all necessary and appropriate action in self-defense of the command.
