Never the Criminal's Fault, Is It?

Transitions

John Donne wrote:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

While I doubt Donne, former naval warrior, had in mind the firing of ship commanding officers, the message still fits. Fire one CO and the ripples flow throughout the fleet.

I will not debate Admiral Harvey's removal of Captain Honors from command.

What's done is done.

But what lessons to draw from it?

As anyone who has served in the Navy knows, there is a fine line between adequate leaders, awful leaders and great leaders. Sometimes that line gets drawn by circumstance, as was noted in the scene in the the movie In Harm's Way where Captain Torrey is being relieved of command by Admiral Kimmel for hazarding his vessel:

Captain Torrey: My mission was to intercept and engage an enemy of greatly superior strength, sir. I could only take that one way: that my group was expendable.
Admiral Kimmel: I doubt if a court of inquiry will accept that. Captain, you're about to be caught in a vacuum between a peacetime Navy and a wartime Navy. Six months from now, they'll be making admirals out of captains who exhibit some guts. But right now, they're only reacting to the Pearl Harbor disaster, and punishment is order-of-the-day. Of course, you don't have to abide by what a court of inquiry decides. You can ask for general court-martial, get yourself a couple of crack sea lawyers, and make a fight of it.

Sadly, many of us are familiar with that "vacuum" - only from the reverse side - when the transition from a wartime Navy to a "peacetime" Navy occurs. During heavy wartime operations, combat leadership rises to the fore, mission accomplishment matters more than appearances and it is the job of combat leaders to inspire young men and women to exceed what they believed to be their limits to keep them and ships and aircraft on the line and fighting.

Rarely does a pure bureaucrat succeed in that environment. Bean counting takes a back seat to bombs on target. War operations do not take place like shift work at a warehouse or in a sales office or law firm. Real warriors rise to the top, "admirals {get made} out of captains who exhibit some guts."

Ah, but when the war winds down - well, then- out come the bean counters, the staff weenies and those who have disdain for warriors. Peacetime rules (sensible or not) are invoked  and past actions are to be judged by standards that were waived during time of war. Some warriors get shunted aside by the internal politics of the Navy as those internal politics get adjusted to the external politics of society at large.

The transitions can be a little rough. And the warriors? Well, there is a little gap in understanding, as John Spartan learned in Demolition Man, standards change:

Taco Bell Patron: What would you say if I called you a brutish fossil, symbolic of a decayed era gratefully forgotten?
John Spartan: I don't know... thanks?

So out there in the fleet, the ripples spread.

Wannabe admirals are burning old videos from 7th grade in which they uttered some now politically incorrect phrase that may have offended someone today.

It's a time of transition - and as set out in the classic (and long out of print) When in Doubt Mumble: A Bureaucrat's Handbook, "During a change in administration, keep a low profile."

I suppose Captain Honors missed the lesson on "keeping a low profile" long before a change in administration. Let that be a lesson to you.

New, Cheaper Littoral Fighters: Someone is going "EagleSpeak" in their thinking

According to the May issue of Marine News:

Horizon Shipbuilding, Inc. is in final negotiations for a two-boat contract for 180-ft multi-role security vessels. This vessel is based on Horizon’s 170-ft and 182-ft fast crew supply boats delivered in 2008 and 2009. The MRSV will be constructed of aluminum and is envisioned to be powered by four Cummins Q-60 diesel engines driving four Hamilton waterjets. Armed with machine guns and a 25mm bow mounted rapid-fire cannon, the MRSV will patrol the waters surrounding offshore oil fields, protecting them from terrorists, pirates and other threats. Armor plating will envelop the house as well as vital machinery spaces to protect the vessel from small arms fire. The MRSV will be capable of speeds in excess of 28 knots and will accommodate eight passengers in addition to the crew.

I don't know who the negotiations are with, but I think this is an excellent idea (as you might learn from visiting here, Multi-Purpose Offshore Patrol Vessels, Department of Cheaper Pirate Fighting, Department of Crazy Ideas: How about a cheap inshore fleet? and all the links therein).

Top drawing is from Marine News article and shows armed vessel. Lower photos are from Horizon Shipbuilding and show their 175' and 182' fast crew supply vessels.

Looks like they would be perfect pirate and inshore patrol craft.

UPDATE: DJ Elliot notes in the comments a similarity to some Iraqi Navy OSVs allegedly to be built by RiverHawk Fast Sea Frames LLC. See  here:

When Naval Sea Systems put out a solicitation for these vessels last year on behalf of the Iraqi Government, specifications included that they be a steel mono-hull design with a hull length overall at water line of at least 55 meters but not greater than 65 meters with a draft: not greater than 5-meters (planned depth of water at low tide of the Umm Qasr pier. Range was specified at not less than 1,500 nautical miles, speed as 16 knots and endurance: not less than 15 days.

The OSV was to be capable of launching, recovering, refueling, and maintaining three 9-meter FABs and be capable of mooring, refueling, and providing potable water to a 35-meter Patrol Boat (PB),

Capability requirements included high hover helicopter vertical replenishment during day time

Deck space was to be provided for one 30 mm gun and four .50 cal machine gun weapons stations.

Cool.

Things that make me wonder on Friday

Does anyone know if using small aircraft to spool out wire, as projected in the cover art below, ever came to pass?