Writes one officer:
She is and always has been an incompetent boob. Fortunately, I am senior to her, so she was and is zero threat to me. I know people, good people who have served under her, and she is, by all accounts, also a supremely incompetent tyrant.
So... Graf appears to have been quite the stinker when dealing with human subordinates. But what about innocent marine life? Comments from yesterday's post raise the spectre of something dreadful involving a whale...
We hit a whale about 8 months ago off the coast of Japan.
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i was on the fantail (the very back part) when we hit it. it made a really loud noise, and very soon after i saw the bloody mess right behind us. everyone was forced to go inside. nobody was allowed to take pictures. we couldnt send any emails whatsoever for a few hours.
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If you were not on watch, you were asked to stay below. One lucky guy took pics on his cell phone. Gruesome, very very gruesome. You definately felt the thud when we stuck it. We were aksed not to talk about it. Someone needs to stand up for the whale!!
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Navy policy is to notify the CNO any time a ship hits a whale and any time a dead whale is spotted.... There's no reason to cover it up but if you do, it says something about you.
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The poor whale, no one gave voice to the whale. No one was allowed to speak of or photograph the poor mangled whale!!!
Some correspondents have tried to present the incident with balance.
The hiting of the whale was not her fault we did not pick it up and the whale it self ran stright in to the side of us causing the ship to skip. She was sadden at the fact that we hit the whale and only kept us that were not on watch in the skin of the ship so that the problem could be fixed.
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To be fair, by navy doctrine, she was ultimately responsible for the whale, but realistically, she had nothing to do with hitting it. There were more whales than you could count popping up on the sonar. its not like we tried to hit it, it was just a matter of probability, and unfortunate timing. However, as far as trying to cover it up, thats another story.
But the Navy officer - who knew Graf to be an "incompetent booby" - sends this:
I hit a whale while in command of a CG, and the only trouble I got in for it was sending pictures of it to my buddy, who was CINCPACFLT's EA without sending them to my boss first. "Trouble" in this case was a mild admonishment from the CSG COS. Of course we sent the Unit Sitrep out, we had done nothing wrong. Trying to cover something like this up is a sure sign of someone who is totally insecure in their position and more importantly, in their professional ability. Her biggest fear was being required to answer questions about the whale strike, which sounds funny if it was not so pathetic.All of which still leaves me to wonder why, exactly, the crew was put on lockdown when the Cowpens hit the whale. And... how closely did this incident coincide with the ship's Mongolian BBQ party?
19 comments:
Once again I thank you for your caring of us smaller sailors and the whale, but honsetly I do not know where you are getting your information form and you ever the friendly officer is just as in the wrong as she is for sending the little information he or she knows on the subject. I understand you want to share some light on the sitaution and make Captain Graf look bad, but because of the area we are stationed in you are making us all look bad. Not to be disrespectful but maybe should think if your source is really telling you the turth because I am on the ship and I know what happen and the information that you are getting a lot of it is wrong. Once again thanks for the support.
I think you meant to link to Captain Queeg from _The Caine Mutiny_, not Queequeg from _Moby Dick_.
;>
There is enough info being contributed to acknowledge the fact a whale was hit. Was it right to cover it up? Was it right to cover the officer choking incident ....no. SO, allowing these things to happen shines a good light on the navy? If you are on that ship, then you are in the wrong for not reporting the whale incident as well. Chew on that.
Why is the second in command not at fault?
It is common SOP to secure email following any sort of event that happens to a ship. This way, false information is not flooded to the media, not to mention any classified information. And why are we crying over not getting to take pictures? A lucky individual got a picture with his cell? Seriously, how sick and twisted is it that all we care about is that she didn't let anyone take a picture of a dead animal. Obsurd. Concern yourselves with the actual things she did, such as try and choke another officer. That is something to be concerned with.
No photos were taken of the officer being choked! Does that mean it didn't happen?
A Sailor: Yes, I really do care about the sailors - not just on the Cowpens, but throughout the Navy. And I very much care about our people in the other services, as well. I am not trying in any way to make the Navy or the ship look bad. I am trying to highlight the fact that our senior leadership needs to hold everyone to the same standard. Holly Graf got away with horrible behavior for a very long time. I want the senior leadership to think about that one, and ask themselves the same questions we all are asking. As for the whale... I wrote about it because Graf apparently went into overdrive to hide something she didn;t need to hide. Another example of her disordered command. The officer-choking episode was appalling. Grounds for throwing her out of the Navy entirely. Lastly... Roland, I linked Capt Queeg because he was supposed to be a savage cannibal; but Queeg is actually far more appropriate. Thank you! Thanks, all, for commenting.
the whale was reported by message and with follow-on photos up the navy navy chain of command as was required. Jumping on this bit of untruth to impugn the integrity of the CO or the sailor on COWPENS is neither decent nor is it fair.
If it the reports were not made and it was covered up, then perhaps you would have a case.
I am a former sailor that served under Holly Graf at one point. We had incidents happen on our ship that were much more detrimental to the ship than hitting a whale and she attempted to keep everything hush hush. She even went as far as falsifying deck logs. She was anal about all sailors on board following uniform regulations to the T, but many times came into Combat in coveralls with no belt, fuzzy slippers and hair in a ponytail with a brightly colored scrunchy. This woman is incompetent and would be much better managing a McDonalds or the like, she certainly is not capable of efficiently commanding a naval warship as she has shown multiple times with multiple commands.
I'm not trying to make anyone look bad about the whale strike. I understand that it happens. But when the CO goes into wierd lockdown mode, you have to wonder. My take on it (and obviously I wasn't there) is that she had poor judgment - and this is just an example. But choking the officer and falsifying deck logs are criminal. As for the scrunchie and the fuzzy slippers.... are you kidding me????? (p.s. Notice her bare head in the Russia port call photo)
WSC Sailor - it wasn't just CIC she came into dressed like that - she was usually dressed like that for the morning brief in the ship's classroom as well. Guess she wanted to be comfy when smacking the XO around (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively) before anyone else arrived each morning - excpet, yeah, I was usually already there & had to witness it. The slippers thing was just plain stupid on a ship, but I could have done with a scrunchie in my hair instead of those blasted bobby pins stabbing me. :-)
So, the slippers thing... you folks aren't joking???
Sadly we are not kidding. This woman is the epitome of professionalism.
This Holly Graf thing would make for a great Hollywood movie...seriously.
I served during the Cold Ward when Russia was still Communist 1976-79. If a captain or commander struck a subordinate, he was off the ship! We didn't have female officers or enlisted personnel at that time although the lads probably wouldn't have minded it a bit. I was on a frigate now being turned into razor blades. USS AYLWIN FF-1081
Protection and promotion of incompetent Navy officers - male and female - is a continuing Navy tradition. Ring-knockers (95% of whom are wastes of skin) ALL have "friends in high places" since the rank of Admiral has been maintained as a 90% ring-knocker social club for more than one hundred years (when the requirement to be an Annapolis grad was abolished).
The promotion of abusive officers is dear to the Navy's heart - which somehow has institutionalized the concept that being hated by peers and subordinates is somehow the mark of a "leader." Being respected by subordinates and peers and being an outstanding officer is not as strong a marker for promotion as being a ring-knocking martinet.
When I was on my second sea tour ('79-'82) flying the old ERA-3B Skywarrior with VAQ-33 as EW Equipment Aircraft Model Manager, Aircraft Commander, Mission Commander, and Event Commander (Lisa Nowak later served with VAQ-34) I wrote up and recommended a "stashed" (awaiting an advanced training slot) female Naval Flight Officer be relieved from flight duty and court-martialed for conduct unbecoming, dereliction of duty, and failure to follow a direct order.
Considering I had been through survival training at P'cola with the very first group of female Naval aviators and had been impressed with almost all of them, it actually took no soul-searching because she had missed one pre-flight briefing ("I was on the phone with my boyfriend."), been late for two briefings, had refused to perform her duties while Squadron Det Duty Officer ("I was asleep!"), and had sexually-charged conversations with enlisted watch personnel following long conversations with her boyfriend in the Duty Office while not standing Duty.
As a result of filing a report of her documented behavior I was called to the CO's office and "counseled on equal opportunity." That was one of the several reasons (along with six of my seven COs while in the Navy being utterly incompetent) I chose to quit flying and quit the Navy after nine and a half years of service.
Imagine my surprise when, years later and courtesy of the Internet, I discovered that this completely worthless and incompetent female Naval Flight Officer retired after 20 years as a Navy Captain.
The bottom line is that Graf had two no-expiration date "get out of jail free" tickets in her pocket - she was a ring-knocker and could count on protection from the highest Navy offices; and she was female which put her under the shield of "equal opportunity."
The Navy makes a habit of pushing out the REAL best and brightest - male and female - and promoting stupidity, incompetence, and indecision, and protecting them until they do something so absolutely egregious that the Navy "suddenly discovers" that for 15-25 years they have been mysteriously "mistaken" about these "top one percenters".
Of course, along the way other genuinely good officers and enlisted personnel have been sacrificed over the decades as scapegoats to protect the Sacred Band of Annapolis.
I am glad I went to West Point and joined the Army. The leadership that was taught at West Point emphasized Soldiers first, yourself second. We were taught to take care of Soldiers before ourselves and to lead by example. We were taught to get into the chow line after our Soldiers had the opportunity to eat first. There does not seem to be much animosity or distrust against West Pointers. And the Army promotes on merit...you have just as much chance to make General Officer as an ROTC officer.
Posted this on the other one, but I'll post it here too, there was nothing to be done about the whale.
We weren't active on sonar, hadn't been for a week or more. Passively, you just don't know where they are for sure, and they don't always sing enough for us to hear them. There was literally nothing anyone could have done.
The cutting off of communications like that is standard out there, they did the same thing when the Hawk lost a plane back in '07, and other times when something goes wrong in the fleet. It's so that the CNO finds out first, and bad information doesn't get leaked out. Pictures were taken by the ship's photographer with the ship's camera, so everything was official, and noone got blindsided up the chain.
By no means do I support her, the Admiral made the right call her, I don't think she was fit to command, however, on this one incident, she is blameless.
why hasn't the Xo of the COWPENS been held accountable for any of this?
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