More on the USS San Francisco and the required Navy sacrifices.
By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat
Published on 3/23/2005
Six submariners assigned to the submarine USS San Francisco (SSN711) have been punished for dereliction of duty or putting a vessel in danger in connection with a Jan. 8 incident in which the submarine slammed into a seamount in the Pacific, killing one sailor and injuring 98 others.
The San Francisco was making a trip to Australia when it came to periscope depth to fix its position accurately a little more than 400 miles southwest of Guam. Minutes after diving, and while traveling at a high rate of speed, the submarine hit a seamount in an area where official Navy charts list 6,000 feet of water.
The Executive Officer, a lieutenant commander, and the navigator, a lieutenant, received permanent punitive letters of censure, Navy sources said Tuesday.
The assistant navigator, a Senior Chief Electronics Technician, received a similar letter and was stripped of his Navy enlisted classification, which ousts him from the submarine force. (Ouch!)
Three other enlisted men, all members of the San Francisco navigation team, were demoted one rank, one of them from Electronics Technician 1st Class to Electronics Technician 2nd Class, and two others from 2nd Class to 3rd Class.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the Pacific Submarine Force, said Capt. Bradley Gehrke, commodore of Submarine Squadron 15 in Guam, conducted hearings on the charges Tuesday.
“Six crew members received punishment for actions that led to the grounding,â€?? Davis said. “Because this was a non-judicial proceeding, we’re not going to release names.â€??
Davis also declined to identify by job any of the submariners punished, and would only confirm that punishment included demotions and letters of reprimand. He said the investigation into the accident “is ongoing.�?
“My understanding is that the investigation is being reviewed and is very close to complete, but I don’t have a time when it will be released,â€?? Davis said. He also could not comment on whether there has been a decision on whether the San Francisco will be repaired or scrapped.
Machinist Mate 3rd Class Joseph Ashley was killed in the Jan. 8 collision when he was thrown more than 20 feet and struck his head on a large pump. Almost two dozen others were injured so badly they could not perform their duties.
Despite the injuries and extensive damage, the crew got the ship back to its home port of Apra Harbor, Guam.
Navy sources have said, however, that the damage to the ship, particularly the alignment of some of the propulsion equipment, is worse than initially believed and that the submarine may have to be scrapped.
The grounding destroyed three of the four ballast tanks in the bow, shattered the sonar dome and smashed the sonar sphere. In addition, a bulkhead at the front end of the ship was buckled.
Sources said the sailors were all punished as a result of an administrative proceeding known as a Commodore’s mast, which lasted 10 minutes or less for each of the men and focused on two areas of inquiry: whether the crew had obtained the most recent charts on board and
whether it exercised sufficient caution when there was evidence that the charts being used might be faulty.
The punishments, and the lines of questioning, seem to support claims by Navy sources last month that the submarine had not updated its charts with notices to mariners, some dating back to the 1960s and some made as recently as last year, that would indicate a seamount in an area where the water was supposed to be several thousand feet deep.
In addition, the same sources said, the navigation crew had taken a sounding that showed the water to be thousands of feet shallower than on the charts. Though still showing ample water under the keel for safe operation, the discrepancy should have prompted more caution, the sources said.
Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, the captain of the San Francisco, was permanently relieved as skipper early last month after an
administrative proceeding known as an admiral’s mast. Mooney was found guilty of failing to follow “several critical navigational and voyage planningâ€?? standards, a Navy spokesman said without elaboration.
Sources said Mooney is being reassigned to the Trident Training Facility in Bangor, Wash. He is expected to retire from the Navy from that job, the sources said.
The punishments are likely to be controversial, particularly among submariners, active duty and retired, who contend that the crew should not have been held responsible when the official Navy charts showed thousands of feet of water below the keel.
But other submariners have said navigation teams are expected to take extraordinary measures concerning any area in which they will be operating, and when there is a mistake, particularly one involving a fatality, the captain, executive officer and navigation team
are always held responsible.
The future doesn’t look good for the mighty San Francisco. For that I am very sad. However, I’m more profoundly upset over the Navy continuing one tradition that should have been scrapped ages past – the tradition of Scape-Goating. Someone has to go, and not just the Skipper. It is said that shyte rolls down hill. These punishments support that Naval theory.
Omar, out.
