<p>
[quote]
"The nation needs you, the world needs you, and obviously our Navy needs you," Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, told submariners today at the submarine base here. The CNO’s visit came as the undersea fleet wrapped up a weeklong safety standdown following several recent mishaps.</p>
<p>It also came the same day Navy officials announced the firing of Cmdr. Edwin Ruff, captain of the attack submarine Minneapolis-St. Paul ....
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[quote]
The Navy announced Friday it relieved the commander of a nuclear submarine that was involved in an incident that killed two sailors. </p>
<p>On Dec. 29, rough seas swept four American sailors from the deck of the submarine off the coast of southwestern England. The USS-Minneapolis-St. Paul was leaving Plymouth harbor when the sailors were knocked into the water by surging waves. The four men were taken to a hospital in Plymouth, where two were pronounced dead....
<p>My stomach goes into knots whenever I read these kinds of things. Command is unforgiving, especially on a sub. A lifetime of work and dedication..one human error...and THE END rolls immediately on the credits.</p>
<p>This is what I think the 'burden' of command really is all about. </p>
<p>How long before the Captain of the sub that mildly collided in the Straits of Hormuz last week gets sacked??</p>
<p>
[quote]
Two sailors from the attack submarine Minneapolis-St. Paul were killed Dec. 29 off Plymouth, England, after being washed overboard in rough seas that soon threatened to sink the ship, according an investigative report released Monday under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Navy Times.</p>
<p>Senior Chief Electronics Technician (SS) Thomas K. Higgins, 45, chief of the boat, died in the accident, along with Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SS) Michael J. Holtz....
<p>The Wall Street Journal editorial below refers to the collision between the carrier USS WASP and the destroyer USS HOBSON in April of 1952. The Hobson sank with 176 sailors including its CO. It was written to answer those who said that it serves no purpose to hold a court of inquiry to determine whose fault the collision was, since the officer most obviously at fault (the Hobson's CO) lay at the bottom of the sea."</p>
<p>Accountability - HOBSONS CHOICE</p>
<p>"One night past some 30,000 tons of ships went hurtling at each other through the darkness. When they had met, 2,000 tons of ship and 176 men lay at the bottom of the sea in a far off place."
"Now comes the cruel business of accountability. Those who were there, those who are left from those who were there, must answer how it happened and whose was the error that made it happen."
"It is a cruel business because there was no wish of destruction that killed this ship and its 176 men; the accountability lies with good men who erred in judgment under stress so great that it is almost its own excuse. Cruel, because no matter how deep the probe, it cannot change the dead, because it cannot probe deeper than remorse."
"And it is even more cruel still because all around us in other places we see the plea accepted that what is done is done beyond discussion, and that for good men in their human errors there should be afterwards no accountability."
"Everywhere else we are told how inhuman it is to submit men to the ordeal of answering for themselves; to haul them before committees and badger them with questions as to where they were and what they were doing while the ship of state careened from one course to another."
"This probing into the sea seems more merciless because everywhere else we have abandoned accountability. What is done is done and why torture men with asking them afterwards, why?........"
"We are told men should no longer be held accountable for what they do as well as for what they intend. To err is not only human, it absolves responsibility."
"Everywhere else, that is, except on the sea. On the sea there is a tradition older even than the traditions of the country itself and wiser in its age than this new custom. It is the tradition that with responsibility goes authority and with them both goes accountability.”
"This accountability is not for the intentions but for the deed. The captain of a ship, like the captain of a state, is given honor and privileges and trust beyond other men. But let him set the wrong course, let him touch ground, let him bring disaster to his ship or to his men, and he must answer for what he has done. He cannot escape...."
"It is cruel, this accountability of good and well-intentioned men. But the choice is that or an end of responsibility and finally as the cruel scene has taught, an end to the confidence and trust in the men who lead, for men will not long trust leaders who feel themselves beyond accountability for what they do."</p>
<p>"And when men lose confidence and trust in those who lead, order disintegrates into chaos and purposeful ships into uncontrollable derelicts."</p>