Lest We Forget

Has it really been five years?

December 29th is a day that will always cause me to stop and reflect, give thanks for the many blessings in my life, and say a special prayer--a prayer for the Holtz and Higgins families and prayer for all my Mighty MSP shipmates who share my heartache on this day every year. I would never wish such an experience upon anyone, but having lived through it with the images painfully burned into my memory, I hope it makes me a better naval officer and leader to have experienced such a tremendous loss. I feel I owe it to COB Higgins and Petty Officer Holtz.

For background, please see this post.  Also, last year's post had a video put together by an MSP shipmate.

Sailors, Rest Your Oars.

Lest We Forget

Just recently, a very talented MSP shipmate of mine put together this video in memory of COB Higgins and STS2 Holtz.






The families and fellow shipmates of COB Higgins and STS2 Holtz are in my thoughts and prayers throughout the year, but they weigh heavily upon my heart today.

Sailors, Rest Your Oars.

Teenage Independence and ORM

Did you know about this?

At this very moment as my fingers clatter across the keyboard, there are not one but TWO separate 16 year old girls sailing solo around the world. Each are attempting to earn the title of the youngest person to sail solo and non-stop around the world.

Jessica Watson was the first to depart her home on the east coast of Australia about four months ago. She has already crossed the Pacific and is most of the way across the Atlantic on her way toward the Cape of Good Hope.

Abby Sunderland left her home in Southern California heading south a few weeks ago. That ended up being a sort of shake-down cruise because she had to pull into Cabo San Lucas for repairs. She has embarked again on her around-the-world cruise a few days ago and just crossed the equator southbound.

There's a fair amount of open-press criticism of these girls' parents for allowing them to take on such a challenge.

I have mixed feelings about it.

I've written before about how much I appreciated my parents fostering my independence and giving me a "long leash" so-to-speak. Most of my friends parents would never let them do half the stuff I did as a teenager - such as solo international travel to Canada (from San Diego - that's a long trip), Japan, Korea, and England, or driving hours to the Oregon coast to go scuba diving for the weekend. The former-proudly-independent-teenager in me thinks it's awesome that Jessica and Abby's parents trusted them to embark on such an ambitious journey.

However, my perspective has changed significantly as a naval officer and as a parent. I'm sure Jessica and Abby are both very responsible and trustworthy, but there's more to it than trust.

As an officer in the Navy, I have had Operational Risk Management (ORM) chiseled in the back of my head and traumatically reinforced in watching two shipmates lose their lives in rough seas. In layman's terms, ORM is all about cost-benefit analysis. Are the benefits of doing something worth the risks, and if so, what things can you do to reduce the likelihood and severity of the risks?

In the case of my solo travels as a teenager, I think my parents exercised good ORM. In each case, I may have been flying alone (as a passenger on a major airline), but I was staying with friends of the family at each destination and knew where and how to seek help if I needed it.

From an ORM standpoint, I don't think letting your teenager (boy or girl) sail solo around the world passes the cost-benefit analysis. In the Navy, we use justifications like "national security" as the benefits for taking such risks. What possible benefit could possibly be worth the risk of death in rough seas or a collision or a medical emergency in a civilian recreational sailing vessel? Each of these girls are sailing thousands of miles from shore and have little to no hope of rescue or assistance. What happens when one of them gets appendicitis and needs emergency surgery? On a nuclear submarine, even though our corpsman is technically qualified to remove an appendix in an emergency, we will fully employ the many thousands of shaft horsepower under the hood to hurl us toward the nearest port for a MEDEVAC (medical evacuation) of a crew-member with symptoms of appendicitis.

Backing up just a bit, I mentioned above that Abby had to pull into Cabo San Lucas for repairs. It turns out, she wasn't the only one. Jessica Watson also required a stop for repairs before she got very far from home. Between reading that article about Jessica and watching some of the interview videos on Abby's website, I have serious doubts about each of these girl's qualifications to embark on such a journey. As a submariner, we go through a lot of qualifications, and they start out with basic system knowledge - understanding the theory behind the how the equipment operates so you can then understand your equipment's limitations and operating precautions. Reading the article about the Jessica's accident and watching the interviews with Abby didn't give me a warm-fuzzy feeling about either of their technical understanding of the capabilities and limitations of their gear.

Aside: One of the first things I learned during sailing lessons in San Diego Bay with aircraft carriers and cruise ships passing by was the "BGT Rule" (Big Gray Thing), a.k.a. the law of gross tonnage. Jessica didn't really violate the BGT Rule because she was in the rack and her radar alarm didn't warn her there was a big-ass many-thousand-ton merchant (63,800 tonnes to be exact) about to turn her into road kill flotsam. Can you imagine if Jessica's collision had happened in America? If it had, there certainly would have been some wacko frivolous lawsuit filed soon thereafter blaming the radar manufacturer for the collision because the proximity alarm didn't go off.

Sorry, I digress. Back on topic now.

As a parent, I will encourage my boys to be responsible and earn the level of trust and independence so that they can go forth on their own. We all have to let our kids go out into the world on their own someday. Even when they have earned that trust though, it is still my responsibility as a parent to provide a safety net and to provide that "forceful backup" we talk about so often in the submarine force. As their ISIC (Immediate Superior in Command), it's my responsibility to evaluate their training, qualifications, equipment, and readiness to embark on adventures that will take them away from home and out of range of my ability to render assistance. Based on what I've seen and read on Jessica and Abby's blogs, if I was their father, then I would not have allowed them go to on this around-the-world cruise solo.

I'm sure if Jessica or Abby's parents and supporters read this, they will say that they did carefully evaluate the risks and implement safety measures to mitigate those risks, like having a "ditch bag" of emergency supplies in case they have to abandon ship. Personally, I think the ditch bag is probably more for easing the parents' fears than an actual, practical life-saving measure (unless she ditches like 100 yards from some tropical island). Going back to ORM - even with things like a ditch bag, there is a RISK of a small craft like these sailboats succumbing to rough seas, or the single crew member getting washed overboard, or colliding with a merchant (or, gulp, dare-I-say - a submarine?), all of which hold the possible outcome of death to that single crewmember. Again, what's the benefit of this endeavor? What's to be gained that makes it worth risking the death of your daughter? That's permanent. You can't turn back the clock to undo death. It's too late - no amount of lawsuits will bring your child back from the dead.

It just doesn't pass the ORM test.

Although I don't agree with the decision to let them go in the first place, now that they are out there on their own, I am praying for Jessica and Abby's safety. I wish Jessica and Abby all the best and sincerely hope they both make it home safe and sound.

Lest We Forget

Rest in Peace, Shipmates. You are not forgotten.

Plymouth Sound
(Photo taken 28 Dec 2006)

For those who aren't familiar with the details, see last year's post (which also includes links to two previous posts on the topic).

I'm alive

Sorry my posting has been light. It was a looooooong week.

On Tuesday, any plan I had for the day flew out the window as I read the message traffic and said, "Oh crap..." I was at work until 11:30 p.m. that night preparing an urgent memo and had to be at work at 6 a.m. Wednesday to start hand-routing it around the Pentagon.

Thankfully, my friend Nate lives just around the corner from my office and let me crash at his place for the night instead of spending the time driving home and driving back again 6 hours later. It wasn't a very good night's sleep though. It had nothing to do with Nate's guest bedroom and everything to do with my cell phone ringing three times through the course of the night.

Wednesday my sweat pumps shifted to fast speed before I even finished my first cup of coffee. Oh wait... ONLY cup of coffee. I didn't even get to eat breakfast until 11 a.m. when I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the Pentagon. Just as I THOUGHT things were calming down at 1 p.m., the next message hit the boards that had us resume crisis-management mode. I made it home close to 8 p.m. Wednesday night just in time to tuck the boys in for bed and kiss them goodnight.

Thursday was another long day that was supposed to end with a VTC from 4 to 6 p.m. so that it would be daylight on the other side of the world. After the VTC, I was about half-way home when my phone rang. Went back to work and was at work until about 11 p.m. Another not-so-great night's sleep thanks to two telephone call updates.

Friday started once again at a fast pace and before my caffiene level was really up to spec for high speed operations. As I walked into the first flag's office to deliver briefing materials on what happened the night before, I was immediately confronted by another flag officer on a totally unrelated topic that I wasn't prepared to discuss.

My predecessor in this job said he judged how "bad" his week was by how many stars he had to brief.

It was a 37 star week for me.

I was frustrated that I haven't been able to go to the gym since Tuesday morning. At the same time, my ankles and feet hurt from speed walking around the Pentagon multiple times per day multiple days in a row.

My MIL was here visiting us this week, but I barely saw her, and I don't think she enjoyed the telephone ringing in the middle of the night. Sorry Mom!

So what were my high points and low points for the week?

Low points I guess I've already covered, but the worst had to be the Thursday night phone call that the HARTFORD had been in a collision. Thank the Lord that nobody was seriously injured! I'm praying for those guys now as they endure the investigation and repairs to follow.

High points of the week:
- My wonderful wife was VERY supportive this week. I was totally stressed out and having a horrible week, and she had every reason to be annoyed and pissed off, too, but she remained upbeat, positive, uplifting, and encouraging throughout the week. I'm VERY grateful for that. Thank you, Sweetie!
- Last night (Friday night), my wonderful MIL watched the boys and let my wonderful wife and I go out for an AWESOME dinner at Bonefish. Man that was a good dinner - especially the martini(...s). We got back home and I was just exhausted. I went to bed about 8:30 and slept straight through to 7:30 Saturday morning.

It was one of those weeks where I had to stop and remind myself that things COULD be worse and I needed to be thankful and count my blessings. Still, I hope this was the worst week I'll have in this job.

Sailor, Rest Your Oar

My blog posts over the past couple of weeks have been devoted to documenting our trip across country, but I need to take a break from the travel log in order to pay my respects to two fellow submariners.

For those of my family and friends who may not have seen it in the news or read other submariner blogs, the submarine force has lost two shipmates recently.

First, CDR Scott Harrington lost his battle with cancer on Saturday, 13 Sept. I did not know him personally, but I have heard from multiple independent sources that he was an outstanding naval officer and a truly wonderful person to be around. You can read more about him at Checks with Chart or on TSSBP.

Then, MM3(SS) Michael Gentile tragically lost his life in an accident on board USS NEBRASKA (SSBN 739) on Saturday, 20 Sept. There are many posts about this on other blogs. TSSBP has details and a lot of discussion in the comments. Checks with Chart actually sheds some light on another aspect of the accident that has been going through my mind since I heard the news of the accident on Monday. I'd like to elaborate on that a little.

Before I talk about that though, I just want to offer my sincerest condolensces to both CDR Harrington's family and to MM3 Gentile's family. You are in my thoughts and prayers.


As CwC alluded to, the men on the NEBRASKA will now face a difficult experience that is almost as emotionally traumatic as the accident itself. Anytime there is an major accident in the Navy such as a collision or a grounding or a loss of life, there are normally two investigations that follow. (I've been through two such incidents myself).

The first investigation is the legal investigation called a "JAGMAN" (Judge Advocate General or JAG Manual). This investigation has a lot of legalities, reading people their rights, and strictly examines factual evidence (logs, plotted data, photographs, official statements of what people did) in order to determine if anyone had any sort of criminal culpability. The JAGMAN determines if anyone should be punished for their actions that contributed to the accident, and it's actually the easier of the two investigations.

After the JAGMAN is done, then comes the really hard part - the Safety Investigation. The goal of the safety investigation is to find out what policies, procedures, equipment, or training could have prevented the accident from occurring.

As a result, the interviewers from the Naval Safety Center come across as abbrasive, insensitive "arm-chair quarterbacks" asking a lot of "what if" statements. They ask a lot of really emotionally disturbing questions like, "Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Did you think of this? Were you trained on that? IF you had done it this way, would the accident have happened? IF you had done it that way, would the accident have happened?" They cause you to relive the accident over and over again and to second guess yourself backwards and forwards with 20/20 hindsight. Statements gathered for the safety investigation cannot be used for criminal prosecution because they want frank and honest opinions (that could not stand up to the rules of evidence) to really get thought processes out in the open. Then, the safety board guys actually have the power to make the Navy change policies, change procedures, buy new equipment, or create new training requirements in order to prevent accidents from recurring.

Now, when the investigation is for something like a grounding or a collision where nobody got hurt, the safety investigation is frustrating and annoying and stressful, especially for those people who lost their jobs or were otherwise officially punished for the accident.

When the investigation is for something that cost a shipmate's life, it is absolutely heart-wrenching and emotionally draining to have someone who wasn't there sit across the table from you and ask, "Why didn't you do X, Y, and Z differently, and in your opinion, if you had done X, Y, and Z differently, would your shipmate still be alive today?"

CwC superbly summarized this.

"What’s worse is trying to deal with the pain as the Navy conducts its necessary investigations to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it from ever occurring again. Lots of our procedures are written in blood because of, and thanks to, these very necessary proceedings.

It won’t be easy, but it must be done. My thoughts go out to the Sailor’s family and friends, and to the Crew of NEBRASKA for the trial they have endured, and for those to come."

You're absolutely right, FastNav, it must be done so that we can prevent more lives from being lost, and it's not going to be easy.

So in addition to the families of CDR Harrington and MM3 Gentile, please keep the officers and crew of the NEBRASKA in your thoughts and prayers as they both grieve for their fallen shipmate as well as face the ordeal of reliving the accident through the investigation.