Challenges facing surface fleet

[unhappycamper]

A failure of leadership
Command structure may be to blame for woes


Challenges facing surface fleet
By Donnie Horner
Posted : Sunday Mar 15, 2009 10:36:37 EDT

I read with great interest the March 2 article “Surface standdown,” which outlined the challenges facing the surface fleet. Of note is that the current series of challenges led to a “safety standdown” — something that sounded eerily reminiscent of the “operational pause” ordered last April.

I was inclined to conclude that this standdown probably won’t work, either — meaning that it will not produce real, permanent changes. To order “all stop” is unusual for any organization of any size in any business. Doing so twice in one year may hint at the depth of the problems faced.

At about the same time Navy Times was reporting the series of mishaps that led to the recent standdown, I noticed that I was receiving an increasing number of letters and e-mails from former students now serving as surface warfare officers. Folks in my business enjoy hearing from former students as a means of keeping in touch with what’s happening operationally, as it provides a great means of fine-tuning what we teach in the classroom.

The typical recent query from these young officers goes something like this: “Why, Professor, is the leadership you teach and the leadership we learn not in line with what we’ve encountered in the fleet?”

One junior officer in Mayport, Fla., explained: “I typically get thrown off the bridge at least once during a watch by a senior officer in some sort of profanity-laced tirade. Most of the time I have no idea what I did to cause the explosion.”


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_horner_swoculture_031509/%2e