Article on the USS Fitzgerald accident

[SilverFang01]

https://features.propublica.org/navy-acc...ign=buffer

The collision of the vessels was the Navy’s worst accident at sea in four decades. Seven sailors drowned. Scores were physically and psychologically wounded. Two months later, a second destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, broke that grim mark when it collided with another cargo vessel, leaving 10 more sailors dead.
The successive incidents raised an unavoidable question: How could two $1.8 billion Navy destroyers, protected by one of the most advanced defense systems on the planet, fail to detect oncoming cargo ships broadcasting their locations to a worldwide navigational network?

[Black Aeronaut]

Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin was commander of the 7th Fleet at the time of the collisions. A Naval aviator who fought in the Balkans and Iraq, he made repeated pleas to his superiors for more men, more ships, more time to train. He was ignored, then fired.

More than 18 months later, Aucoin believes that the Navy has yet to disclose the full story of the disasters. Navy leaders, he said in his first extended interview, have not taken accountability for their role in undermining America’s sea fighting ability.

“I just want the truth to come out,” Aucoin said.

I can personally attest to this.  Ships that rotate out from Seventh Fleet have been beaten to hell and back again.  While the fleet repair and maintenance facilities at Yokosuka maintain normal business hours, the workers there are always busy, even for Japanese.

Captains regularly get only four hours of sleep per night.  12-hour watches at sea are the norm.  Systems have to be bypassed or locked out entirely in desperate "good enough for now" quick fixes.

Other telling signs: 7th fleet, unlike any other fleet in the US Navy, literally has a blank-check budget for fuel expenditures.  Keep in mind, this is a fleet with only one carrier, a few cruisers, and a single DESRON.  And yet 7th fleet will burn through more fuel than any two other fleets combined.

This should be telling.  But the Pentagon ignores 7th Fleet.  And then they got the gall to wonder what happened when shit like this happens.

[Dartz]

But the Pentagon ignores 7th Fleet. And then they got the gall to wonder what happened when shit like this happens.

This not unique.

The Irish Navy is almost unable to put to sea due to lack of qualified sailors. They stopped recruiting a few years ago to keep costs down, cut pay due to the recession, never raised them again and were surprised when nobody stuck around. They can just about manage to do the job in the mediterranean.

Same thing that happened with the nurses, actually.

Or the Coast Guard helicopter that was up flying solely because anyone qualified in the Air Force had gone home for the night - and which flew into an island that hadn't been loaded into its flight map.

[DHBirr]

"We are the Daleks.  Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min—"  

[Crashing noise from off-screen]
[Long, considering silence]

"Oh, fuck it, we're just going to stand back and let you idiot humans wipe yourselves and your planet out with pure stupidity; no action needed on our part.  Not even that Doctor can save you...."

[Daleks roll away in disgust]