In June of 2017, I was stunned by how many people who had never been to sea on a Warship and never stood a deck watch felt the need to inform me that there was no way that the USS Fitzgerald collision was not a terrorist attack. You see, with all that equipment there was no way in hell that they didn’t see the CRX Crystal coming, and if they didn’t it was because the Russians had hacked them. “It was an attack, Dave!” they screeched.
There’s an old saying, Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
The Navy, which tried to suppress the report on the collision, has at last been compelled to admit what every sailor already knew. There was no attack. There was a failure of leadership.
In the parlance of Boot Camp, nothing was up to and touching.
Seven people died because of it…