U.S. Navy blames crew, command for fire aboard George Washington

Wednesday 08th October, 09:59 AM JST

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5 Comments

rjd_jr at 01:51 PM JST - 8th October

An embarrasing breakdown, fortunate no one was killed. But only 6 enlisted got punished, how fitting as the officer corps seems to always escape punishment.
Triumvere at 05:13 PM JST - 8th October

"Willard in July ordered the carrier’s commanding officer and executive officer be relieved of duty."

Read between the lines, rjd. Some careers just came to and end.
USNinJapan2 at 06:44 PM JST - 8th October

rjd jr

Enlisted personnel receive disciplinary punishment where as Officers usually receive administrative punishment. The disciplinary punishment these Sailors probably received, like demotion and reduction in pay, may be painful to them at the moment but they are completely able to recover from them and with hard work able to continue on with their naval careers. For us Officers though, an administrative punishment, such as a letter of reprimand, may seem light and inadequate (especially to laymen like you) but in reality is a guaranteed career-ender as it will almost definitely prevent us from being selected the next time we are up for promotion and in a few years will necessitate our being involuntarily separated from service. You'll meet a lot of senior enlisted with stories of how they got into all sorts of trouble in their past but you won't meet many Officers that can say the same...
rjd_jr at 10:19 PM JST - 8th October

Thanks for the clarification USN, but I wasn't referring to the CO and others who were let go. I'm tallking about those closest to the actual incident. Article says it was recommended that 11 officers to be given disciplinary actions but that actually only 6 enlisted were disciplined. So the other 11 were not.

I am reading fine between the lines, thankyouverymuch.
OgieDoggie at 12:34 AM JST - 9th October

investigators said unauthorized smoking in a space where there were improperly stored hazardous materials was the likely cause of the fire.

There's something being covered up in this because unauthorized smoking that leads to a fire is a court martial offense (the Military likes to make an EXAMPLE of offenders to get the point across).

I suspect that the enlisted man has to have some political connections, that's why the Navy isn't releasing any names or having a court martial.