Last week the Navy relieved the commanding officers – Commander Jay Wylie of the guided missle destroyer, USS Momsen; Commander Etta Jones of the amphibious transport dock ship, USS Ponce; and Captain Donald Hornbeck in command of Destroyer Squadron 1.  The Navy has not fired ten commanders so far this year. In 2010 the Navy dismissed 17 ship commanders.

Navy Fires Third C.O. — This Week!

Adm. John Harvey, head of U.S. Forces Command, wrote on his blog about the spate of firings. “Most of the Commanding Officers (COs) detached for cause on my watch were for personal misconduct,” he wrote Tuesday. “In every case, each Commanding Officer, whether through personal misconduct, negligence, or exceptionally poor judgment, lost the trust of their subordinates or their superiors and without that fundamental building block in place — trust — they no longer had the ability to command.” The firing frenzy has naval blogs buzzing — are they happening because the Navy is getting tougher, people are getting weaker, or some combination of both?

An officer responded to Harvey’s post with a question. “Do you think it is time to examine the selection board process used at Naval Military Personnel Command, considering the high number of Commanding Officers being relieved and their associated reasons?” Commander K.J. Sudbeck asked. “Devious personality and flawed professional/character traits such as the ones noted above can be identified if leadership only looks for them. As we see, the good old boy network or academy hookup doesn’t seem to be working as it did in the past.”

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus spoke about the flurry of firings over breakfast Wednesday. He noted the annual toll canned represents about 1 percent of the total. “There’s a lot of accountability because of the amount of responsibility,” he said. “It concerns me that were relieving, but it also, I think, reinforces that we’ve got a pretty good check in place — if somebody does stray, if somebody does fall short of the mark, something will happen.”