TO MISQUOTE Oscar Wilde, for one of your ships to be involved in a collision may be regarded as a misfortune, but for three to meet the same fate in four months looks like carelessness—or worse. On August 23rd Vice-Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the Yokosuka-based Seventh Fleet, from which two of the three vessels involved in the accidents came, was formally relieved of duty. Two days earlier the chief of naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, had taken the highly unusual step of ordering the whole navy to take an “operational pause” for a couple of days so his sailors might reacquaint themselves with the basics of good seamanship.
The collision on August 21st between the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (pictured) and a heavier oil tanker near Singapore was the final straw for Admiral Richardson. Ten sailors are missing in the latest accident (bodies have been...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2wJe8G4
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