Friday, December 6, 2019

HEADS NEED TO ROLL

The Navy is suffering from a rather severe leadership catastrophe and it seems to be accelerating in the wrong direction as it tears apart the Navy.  If this story is true the Navy needs to sack the senior watch officer, the duty section leader, the CO and the XO of the boat.
US Navy identifies sailor who killed 2 civilians at Hawaii base. MMFA Romero, 22, was said to be dissatisfied with his leadership, was undergoing counseling, and had a history of non-judicial punishment. 
He used his service pistol and rifle in the attack, which he was authorized to carry while providing security for the Columbia.
I have trouble believing that the submarine in question was stupid enough to give weapons to a man like Romero. You're supposed to know exactly who you can and who you won't ever issue weapons to and I don't like the thought that one of the latter category was even assigned to a submarine.

The leader's job is to keep an eye on the young and possibly crazy, not give them weapons. I'll be honest, I've served as senior watch officer and had no problem arming two sailors disciplined by an idiot at captain's mast but I had good reason to think they weren't going to kill anybody that didn't need killing. In Columbia's case, I don't think they had any right to assume that of a 22 year old loser.

God only knows what happened at Pensacola but it doesn't look good at all.

8 comments:

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Pensacola was a Saudi AF trainee.

Tsquared said...

It's not just the Navy. All the services are still reeling from the hole in leadership that Obama created. Most competent field grade officers were either fired or left the military during Obama's tenure. Those that stayed in the military were liberals who embraced gay and transgendered soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines. Diversity was shoved down the throats of our all-volunteer forces. Go back to pre-Obama and break down the demographics of the elite fighters and compare them to the end of the the Obama reign and see where they are now. You will find that the demographics are starting to return to where they were pre-Obama.

Anonymous said...

So he was standing his 4 hours of topside watch - while in dry dock- and snapped? There's got to be more to this story.

PrairieAdventure said...

What a crappy thing. It really is hard to imagine a command where arming this kid seemed a prudent idea. That's much more shocking to me than the fact that there was a kid this sick in the navy. On the one hand, an AVF can't help reflect the society from which the volunteers come. That fact coupled with this particular kid's rampage doesn't imo mean that our society is a murderous one. There are murderers in the civilian world and murderers in the navy. But that a navy command where arming such a sketchy kid makes some kind of sense makes me think that the ills of our 2019 society might run deeper than I would have imagined. I obviously don't know any details so my speculation may be way off the mark. Sure hope so. Plenty of food for thought here. Sure appreciate the post.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Indeed! Mr. Obama purged the Military of warrior GFOs, and replaced them with Progressives. Only a weasel could come up with such an idea.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Alas, rejecting him for being mad would be oppressing him, in the eyes of the Progressives.

capt fast said...

same thing happened during the peanut farmer's tenure. For a guy that was a Nuke engineer, he was as ignorant as a muddy shoe.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

How can one be a former US Navy officer, and not be aware of the role it plays in national security?