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Re: U.S. Navy Ship Collides With Merchant Vessel Off Coast of Japan [spudone] [ In reply to ]
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spudone wrote:
big kahuna wrote:
Many of us are awaiting the report describing what went on and what the crew was doing on the bridge, at lookout stations and in the CIC in the minutes before the two ships collided. You know better than I what probably awaits some of the ship's crew, including its skipper.

From the initial reports, it sounds like in addition to the Captain and XO, they are also going after the COB. Those careers are probably over. Although the captain is lucky just to be alive.

It really depends on what they are charged with. My suspicion is that the CO, XO, and CMC (COBs are on subs) as well as the watch team and possibly one or two others, could be in danger of disciplinary action of one sort or another.

It depends on whether they find that this was an isolated incident, or a result of a command climate or widespread lack of training.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: U.S. Navy Ship Collides With Merchant Vessel Off Coast of Japan [slowguy] [ In reply to ]
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slowguy wrote:
spudone wrote:
big kahuna wrote:
Many of us are awaiting the report describing what went on and what the crew was doing on the bridge, at lookout stations and in the CIC in the minutes before the two ships collided. You know better than I what probably awaits some of the ship's crew, including its skipper.

From the initial reports, it sounds like in addition to the Captain and XO, they are also going after the COB. Those careers are probably over. Although the captain is lucky just to be alive.


It really depends on what they are charged with. My suspicion is that the CO, XO, and CMC (COBs are on subs) as well as the watch team and possibly one or two others, could be in danger of disciplinary action of one sort or another.

It depends on whether they find that this was an isolated incident, or a result of a command climate or widespread lack of training.

Something had to have gone horribly awry that night at some point for that entire ship to have missed the merchant vessel looming on its starboard side. Or maybe some watchstanders were ignored or made to doubt their own senses? It's a mystery right now, I freely admit.

Here's something to think about: There's a phenomenon known as "inattentional blindness" (also known as "perceptual blindness" or "situational blindness"). We see it in aviation security sometimes, it's a well-known factor in many auto accidents and it's been observed among air traffic controllers and other professions where routine observation of routine activities can lead to "your mind playing tricks on you and/or your vision."

Basically, inattentional blindness can occur when you're focused on a task and expecting to see only that one task occurring -- such as standing routine watch on the high seas. You don't expect anything out of the ordinary and, therefore, you're not going to "see" anything out of the ordinary even if something out of the ordinary is actually occurring. It's the difference between "looking" and "seeing," in many cases.

"Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object." (Scholarpedia article: Inattentional blindness - Scholarpedia)

Here's a short video called "Gorillas in Our Midst." Watch it and see what you can see. In many cases, expectation can lead to inattentional blindness: selective attention test - YouTube

Here are a couple of pieces on the phenomenon:

Sights unseen (from the American Psychological Association)

"Inattentional Blindness occurs where attention to one thing causes us to miss what to others may seem to be blindingly obvious." (Inattentional Blindness)

If you think about the task of helming that ship through that particular corridor, which was probably both routine and yet also requiring a great deal of attention to certain piloting, seamanship and watchstanding activities, one could almost see the minds of the sailors that night at work, convinced that nothing was awry, even when their electronic sensor arrays and even their own eyes might have been telling them something different...

At any rate, my guess is the same as yours in one regard, the CO, XO and Command Master Chief, as well as various of the watchstanders (OOD? JOOW? Lookouts on the big eyes?) should be lining up a really good JAG officer defense team right about now, because the Navy is probably going to go headhunting on this one.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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