First, read Scoop Deck’s take on the recent cereal faker scandal that has rocketed its way around the Internet, to the point of drawing an official response from the Navy about Cap’n Crunch’s personnel records, or lack thereof. A Navy spokesman says NCIS will soon get involved in what will certainly be labeled “Crunch-gate,” and since the real NCIS couldn’t possibly be bothered, it’s a natural assumption that he means these guys. But really, if you want a TV show to address this mess, it’s best left to the experts. Stephen Colbert weighs in below, but here are some key…
Browsing: Commanding officers
As many in the fleet found out last week, the Navy is serious about penny-pinching. The Navy’s No. 2 officer ordered all commanding officers and senior enlisted to stop using appropriated money to purchase command coins, those treasured tokens that are practically synonymous with command. It also bars them from buying plaques, ball caps and other souvenirs given to sailors and civilians alike. To be sure, skippers can still use official representation funds, earmarked for banquets, or pay out of their own pocket. Not surprisingly, the Navy’s cutbacks have made command coin dealers gloomy about sales through the rest of…
Seeking to cut the tally of fired commanders whose behavior has embarrassed the service and raised questions about how they were selected for the service’s most prestigious positions, the Navy’s top officer has tightened the standards for command and ordered a pilot study of an evaluation that allows sailors to rate their own bosses. The end goal is officers better suited for command. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert spelled out his plan in a June 4 instruction that overhauls the command screening process and applies it fleetwide. By June 4, 2013, every new CO will have to go…
It’s one of those end-of-year best-of/worst-of lists that multiply like flies this time of year. But this one caught the eye for two reasons: It purports to list America’s Worst Bosses — and who hasn’t got a story to tell about an awful supervisor? — and it lists a former Navy commanding officer and a fired executive officer among its 100 worst for 2011. According to “the eBossWatch panel of workplace experts,” coming in at No. 25 was Cmdr. Liam Bruen, former commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 136 out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., who was censured by…
On May 7, 1970, the Beatles released their last single: “The Long and Winding Road.” Last week, the amphibious transport dock Ponce, launched 13 days after the song and commissioned in July 1971, completed its own long journey, coming home for the last time after four decades of service. Those years were filled with significant events. Ponce helped evacuate nearly 300 mostly U.S. and British Westerners from Lebanon during the 1976 civil war, and supported 6th Fleet air strikes on pro-Syrian militia positions in defense of U.S. Marines ashore. It supported military disaster relief in Florida following 1992’s devastating Hurricane…
The photo says it all:
Capt. Tushar Tembe was an avid golfer and was no doubt looking forward to playing in a local tournament he’d help plan that would pit golfers from his carrier, the Harry S. Truman, against players assigned to the carriers Dwight D. Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Enterprise. Tembe, sadly, collapsed Nov. 8 while debarking the Truman at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., and subsequently died — two days before the scheduled one-day tourney at Naval Air Station Oceana. Rather than postpone or cancel the event, the East Coast carrier commanders taking part — the Norfolk-based carrier George H.W. Bush is…
[HTML1]Proposing call signs like “Fagmeister” and “Gay Boy” — and the winner, “Romo’s bitch” — one can only assume that at least a few of Lt. Steve Crowston’s fellow officers in Strike Fighter Squadron 136 felt pretty sure the unit’s administrative/legal officer and avid Dallas Cowboys fan was a homosexual. But Crowston, who filed multiple inspector general complaints over what he regarded as anti-gay hazing in the unit, had steadfastly refused to acknowledge his sexual preference, saying it was irrelevant and that his concern was over inappropriate workplace hazing. Tuesday evening, on the 6 p.m. newscast of Norfolk’s WAVY-TV, with…
The officer fired Aug. 5 as commander of Beachmaster Unit 2 posted an oblique defense Sunday in the Facebook comments section following the story about his relief posted on navytimes.com. Oblique, because Cmdr. Robert M. Brown said not a word about being fired or the circumstances under which he was fired, instead posting the famous “man in the arena” quote from President Theodore Roosevelt. Brown’s post had attracted a couple dozen comments, most of them expressing support of Brown, and 25 “likes” as of Tuesday afternoon. He had earlier declined to comment until the investigation is complete. Naval Surface Force…
