Did we not learn??? US Navy???

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Arnie123

That's the thing though. To put it bluntly, civilian and media opinion doesn't mean jack. It comes down to the leadership and Congress. If civilian opinion meant that much, we wouldn't have a lot of our new weapons systems.

Our opponents are going to see a fleet that has had a few accidents. They use the media, but they have other sources besides them that are better than the idiots that write for the media.

Even with these accidents and the 24 hour stand down, we're still one of the safest forces in the world, especially given the size of our fleet and the operations we have going on.

You make a damned good point.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks for clarifying that. Makes more sense now.

In the case of the McCain, things break...and, according to immutable laws of the Universe, they'll usually break at the worst possible time imaginable. Which they did.

Nothing can really be done about that. Especially if the fleet is being pushed to its limits. Something has to give, and it's maintenance.

Those cargo vessels also hold some blame, too. Those are not exactly cream of the crop crews on those things...I've up close and personal experience with 'em. Dunderheads, many of them. Ill-trained, thus ill-equipped to handle emergencies of any sort, much less emergencies that require instant reactions.

With the Fitzgerald, that seems to be coming down to lack of training and leadership, both of which were, and are being, addressed.

We can, I think, be fairly sure that this will serve as a service wide wake up call for those in need of such.