An in-port party that resulted in sailors showing up drunk to fight a shipboard fire contributed to the February dismissal of a San Diego-based destroyer's commander, according to a Navy report obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Cmdr. John J. Pinckney Jr. was relieved after a Navy inquiry revealed how he encouraged other officers and sailors – even those on watch duty – to drink during and after the Nov. 2 reception aboard the Halsey for dignitaries in Kagoshima, Japan.
The investigation also indicated that Pinckney changed a report to hide the seriousness of the fire that damaged one of the ship's two main reduction gears, which help drive the propellers.
The Halsey returned to San Diego on Dec. 24 without further incident. But the Navy linked an explosion and fire in the same gear the next month to Pinckney's incomplete account of the first fire.
Damage from the second blaze cost $8.5 million to repair and knocked the destroyer out of commission for six months.
At the time of Pinckney's dismissal, Navy officials refused to say why he was relieved, citing privacy restrictions. A brief news release said that Vice Adm. Terry Etnyre, commander of Naval Surface Forces, “expressed his loss in confidence in Pinckney's ability to command” and reassigned him to shore duty.
No one else was disciplined in the case, Navy officials said.
The Union-Tribune sought a copy of the Halsey investigation in February through the Freedom of Information Act, but the request was denied. The newspaper appealed, and the Navy released an edited version of the report this week.
Pinckney, 46, has retired from the Navy after 27 years of service. He could not be reached for comment.
The Halsey was commissioned in 2005. Pinckney took command of the destroyer in May 2006, three months before it left on its maiden deployment to the Western Pacific.
On the evening of the Halsey's arrival in Kagoshima, Pinckney hosted a two-hour reception for 30 crew members and 40 guests on the ship's fantail. Such parties are a routine courtesy when Navy ships visit overseas ports.
The guests left by 8:30 p.m., and Pinckney later opened the party to the entire crew, several officers told naval investigators.
Pinckney wanted the sailors to “decompress,” an officer said. Some sailors took their beer to the mess hall, which another officer said “smelled like a brewery.”
Two officers said Pinckney insisted that they drink alcohol even though they told him they were on duty.
“The (command duty officer) and I realized we may be the only sober line officers on the entire ship,” the duty operations officer that day said in a statement to investigators. “I was fed up, and this situation was totally (unsatisfactory).”
Shortly after 10 p.m., alarm bells signaled a fire in a dehumidifying unit of the No. 1 engine room. The duty officers became angry when only about 15 members of the firefighting team responded, several of them too drunk to put on their gear, investigators said.
One officer said he randomly grabbed sober-looking sailors to help out. The blaze was extinguished within minutes, but not before it spread to the main reduction gear.
The duty officers said they had trouble reaching Pinckney, who had retired to his stateroom. Over their objections, he ordered them not to enter the burned area until morning and not to send a report up the chain of command.
An inspection the next morning showed that the fire had charred some wires but had not severely damaged the main reduction gear. Pinckney deleted all references to the gear from the report he filed on the incident, investigators concluded.
The fire's spread to the reduction gear might have stayed hidden if not for the second blaze.
Pinckney's superiors could have been able to prevent the second fire had they known the extent of the first incident, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a Naval Surface Forces spokeswoman.
Cmdr. Paul Schlise, an 18-year Navy veteran who served in the Persian Gulf War, took command of the Halsey in March and has shepherded it through the extensive repairs.
The ship completed sea trials in late July and is expected to make its second deployment next year.
Jesus Christ. I wonder what the hell the train of thought was in letting on-duty personnel drink.
And then the asshole proceeded to GunDeck the damage report. Great.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
I was never aware of those kinds of receptions on our boat when overseas. We did get a lot of people coming through on tours so maybe they did have that kind of reception and I just didn't see any of it other than people coming onboard.
The couple of times we had beer days on my ships the people on duty would be temporarilly relieved by someone so they could go and get their two beers. The first beer day I was envolved with I was kind of buzzing when I got back to watch. I've never been much for drinking alcohol and then I got all dehydrated standing in the sun on the flight deck waiting to get my two beers. I'm not a big beer fan so I slammed the two that I got which added to the other things meant I got a pretty good buzz off of them, and a bit of a headache.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
“The (command duty officer) and I realized we may be the only sober line officers on the entire ship,” the duty operations officer that day said in a statement to investigators. “I was fed up, and this situation was totally (unsatisfactory).”
Heh, wonder what word was replaced with "(unsatisfactory)" .
"There is no "taboo" on using nuclear weapons." -Julhelm
What is Project Zohar? "On a serious note (well not really) I did sometimes jump in and rate nBSG episodes a '5' before the episode even aired or I saw it."- RogueIce explaining that episode ratings on SDN tv show threads are bunk
I can think of several words he might have used and all start with the letter F.
Lets just assume he used "unsat" and not "fucked", "fucked up", or even FUBAR.
I wonder how many of the drunk sailors are going to get reamed on this one. Whether their CO pressured them into drinking while on duty or not getting fucking drunk is still all on them.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
It's not that hard to nurse a drink and appear to be drinking without actually getting drunk. So yeah, tough shit for them.
Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares, release thy heavenly retribution. Blade of cold, black nothingness: become my power, become my body. Together, let us walk the path of destruction and smash even the souls of the Gods! RAGNA BLADE!
Lore Monkey | the Pichu-master™
Secularism—since AD 80
Av: Elika; Prince of Persia
Molyneux wrote:I can't believe no-one's said this...
Put 'im in the longboat 'til he's sober, o'course!
"Throw 'im o'erboard and drag 'em on the anchor!"
"Feed 'em to the sharks til 'is bones is floatin'!"
"Hang' em from the mast as a Jolly Roger!"
Ok... so I know a very Bloody Version of the song.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
"And the sign said, 'Anybody caught tresspassing, will be shot on sight.' So I jumped over the fence and yelled at the house, 'Hey! What -'" BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
LadyTevar wrote:"Throw 'im o'erboard and drag 'em on the anchor!"
"Feed 'em to the sharks til 'is bones is floatin'!"
"Hang' em from the mast as a Jolly Roger!"
Ok... so I know a very Bloody Version of the song.
"Throw 'em in bed with the Captain's Daughter" came to mind to me.
"Show me an angel and I will paint you one." - Gustav Courbet
"Quetzalcoatl, plumed serpent of the Aztecs... you are a pussy." - Stephen Colbert
"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
LadyTevar wrote:"Throw 'im o'erboard and drag 'em on the anchor!"
"Feed 'em to the sharks til 'is bones is floatin'!"
"Hang' em from the mast as a Jolly Roger!"
Ok... so I know a very Bloody Version of the song.
"Throw 'em in bed with the Captain's Daughter" came to mind to me.
"Roll them" was what occurred to me. "Rolling drunken sailors" is an old, old cliche.
LadyTevar wrote:"Throw 'im o'erboard and drag 'em on the anchor!"
"Feed 'em to the sharks til 'is bones is floatin'!"
"Hang' em from the mast as a Jolly Roger!"
Ok... so I know a very Bloody Version of the song.
"Throw 'em in bed with the Captain's Daughter" came to mind to me.
That's the standard version of the song...and "Captain's Daughter" is a cat o'nine tails, for anyone who doesn't already know.
My version was just from the somewhat-sanitized version that Mr. Gibbs sang in PotC.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Darth Yoshi wrote:It's not that hard to nurse a drink and appear to be drinking without actually getting drunk. So yeah, tough shit for them.
I can certainly picture some guys I was in the Navy with going, "Woo hoo! Captain said we could drink on duty" and then drinking as irresponibly as possible because of the novelty of being able to drink on duty. Plus, it sounds like the command was supplying the booze. So you now you have sailors being told to drink free booze while on duty.
I knew more than a few people who enlisted in the Navy after not doing well in college because they spent too much time partying. Others didn't get into college because they spent too much time partying in high school. Both groups often continue doing the same shit in the Navy. Plus, it's kind of a Navy "tradition" to be able to get drunk and stupid whenever possible. It's right up there with tattoos, swearing and retarded ass looking uniforms.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Put 'em in a boat and make 'em row it
put 'em in a boat and make 'em row it
early in the morning.
I don't remember the second version but even as kid I figured being drunk/hungover in the morning and having to deal with the pitching and rolling of row boat, plus the exertion, would be pretty good punishment for a drunk sailor. They'd probably be hoping they'd puke.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
This is just the most extreme of example of a phenomena that I saw in the Navy. It seems they encourage you to drink until such time as you become and embarrassment to the command, or in this case, until the command becomes on embarrassment, then they get all indignant.
Sidewinder wrote:How the hell can a guy this incompetent end up in command of a warship? Did he suck superior officers' cocks throughout his career?
Or he could've been very popular among the enlisted men, earning respect from his superiors in being an “appealing” leader among the sailors if he allowed them to have a drink or have fun (but then went figuratively overboard with his party policies this time).
Big Orange wrote:
Or he could've been very popular among the enlisted men, earning respect from his superiors in being an “appealing” leader among the sailors if he allowed them to have a drink or have fun (but then went figuratively overboard with his party policies this time).
That's called the "2 beer" rule if you're at sea for x amount a days without hitting a port.
This guys was in a foriegn port encouraging his guys to drink. You think it was a smart thing for guys with guns to be drinking that day?
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
