Killed by careless shipmates
May 14th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Mishaps Navy Times | Posted by Sam Fellman
Our cover story on newsstands this week focuses on the accidental death of Personnel Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Regan Young, who was killed Nov. 23, 2011, aboard the amphibious assault ship Essex. That day, Essex was anchored off Bali, Indonesia, and Young had been sitting beneath a NATO Sea Sparrow launcher all the way aft on the ship, using his cellphone to make some calls before the ship weighed anchor. Around the same time, technicians began maintenance on the aft launcher. But they didn’t post the required safety observer, didn’t sound the warning bell and didn’t follow standard start-up procedures, triggering a violent and known launcher error. Here’s an excerpt from our story:
“At the turn of the switch, the launcher’s stow locks disengaged and its servo motors energized. And then, unexpectedly, the massive launcher moved. It spun clockwise nearly a full turn as its cells rose skyward, a dynamic and random motion that can be triggered when the system is improperly initialized.
It struck Young, a 37-year-old father of two who was three weeks from transferring, its lower edge pinning him down as it dragged him across the non-skin deck.
Alarmed to hear the mount spin, the fire controlman rushed topside. He saw Young stagger into the ship, blood running down his face. Young collapsed. At 8:22 a.m., a medical emergency was called away. One of the missile cell covers had shattered and Young’s cell phone, multitool, watch and sunglasses were strewn inside the red painted circle around the launcher, which warned in white block letters: “DANGER AREA.”
Young was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. of “severe blunt force trauma to his body” from the launcher’s impact, concluded a subsequent command investigation, which was obtained by Navy Times via Freedom of Information Act request. It found complacency and lax oversight among the factors that led to Young’s death, the fleet’s first maintenance-related death in 1.5 years and a preventable tragedy that has raised renewed questions about whether the Navy is getting safety right.
Indeed, the busted alarm bell — a $1,352.56 part — and the unusual, violent motion of the launcher seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary to the fire controlmen entrusted to safely operate the system.
“Sometimes when you turn on the launcher, it will move on its own, the 28-year-old FC, who had flipped the launcher into remote, told a master-at-arms in a statement signed four minutes after Young was pronounced dead. “This is not something that happens all the time, but there is a danger circle around the launcher for a reason.” He added that he was going to act as the safety observer after he had powered up the launcher.
The final report, which provided the timeline of events that led up to the tragedy, made clear that Essex’s maintenance problems went all the way to the top.“
For the rest of the story, pick up Navy Times at a newsstand this week or click here to subscribe.
Bad in Bahrain on the newsstand
April 2nd, 2012 | 5th Fleet Investigation leadership Navy Navy Times | Posted by Sam Fellman
Our cover story this week focuses on how a hard-partying, hard-drinking commanding officer warped the morale and authority lines of the Bahrain-based task force he led. He attended a string of parties at a subordinate’s apartment over the summer of 2011, where heavy drinking frequently led to public indecency, a highly inappropriate spectacle in an Islamic country where modesty is the norm. Officers were afraid to warn him or report his behavior. And so it continued until he became the 19th CO of the 22 fired in 2011. Here’s a short intro to the story:
By nightfall June 3, what began as an officer’s move-in bash at her new apartment in Bahrain’s Floating Citywas getting out of hand. Partiers had been drinking all day Friday. And the party had spilled from her patio onto rafts in the canal alongside.
Then, something startled her guests, a mix of colleagues from her command, friends and neighbors: The host stripped off her bikini top.
The party — while not an official command function — included enlisted, junior officers, even the commanding officer of her 100-member logistics task force based in Bahrain. The sight of her topless changed the party’s dynamic. Men drew closer to leer. Another woman removed her top. And a man took off his pants, exposing himself. While guests stared, all three went skinny-dipping.
That’s when the commodore jumped in.
Capt. David Geisler, commodore of the logistics task force responsible for supplying all naval assets in 5th Fleet, who had spent the afternoon drinking and floating in an inner tube on the canal, removed his bathing suit and swam nude, witnesses said.
His participation in this and other such parties would lead to his firing later in the year, according to an investigation into his and others’ behavior in Bahrain.
For the rest of the story, pick up Navy Times on a newsstand this week. Click here to subscribe.
The Navy and the budget: What’s getting cut?
October 10th, 2011 | Budget Carriers Navy Navy Times Uniforms | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy is about to start seeing significant reductions in spending for operations and maintenance, spare parts, new ships and aircraft, research and development, and personnel, all essentially the result of a flagging U.S. economy. In the new Navy Times, analysts and insiders assess the areas at risk, while readers offer suggestions on what they’d cut if they could be king for a day.
What sort of changes are they talking about inside the Pentagon? Try eliminating the scheduled 2016 nuclear refueling of the aircraft carrier George Washington, commissioned in 1992. How would readers save? Stop the perpetual uniform and sea bag changes.
The stories aren’t yet posted online, save for subscribers. But if you’re a subscriber with that access or are buying a newsstand copy, we’d like to hear your thoughts about what they have to say. Check out the stories, then come back and weigh in on the Scoop Deck.