Well, that's exactly my point. I'm not a braggart, but I spent most of my (at sea) career on the bridge of a ship. I earned my qual as an OOD back when I had..... oh 11 yrs in. Prior to that I was a Lee Helmsman, Helmsman, Master Helmsman, BMOW, Navigator, JOOD, CIC Watch Officer and EOOW (Engineering Officer of the Watch) all those steps to the OOD. BUT, I have more "experience" as a ship handler and bridge watch stander to know the "Rules of the Road" and as to how this could have happened. I know through my "experience" with the Surface Warfare Officer community that they only spend enough time on a command to get their quals and get off. That by having their SWO pin (Surface Warfare Officer) they know everything and are not to be challenged. I know that these SWOs have little to no ship handling experience and arrogance takes precedence when it comes to the OOD. (Standard sea shore rotation for a junior enlisted person is 5 sea/2 shore, Officers are 2 and 2) So it's beginning to sound to be that there was some major comms issues between the watchstanders and someone was "overruled" by the time the OOD realized his indecision put the ship in extremis his course of action was too late. I still take into consideration of the "high traffic" mentioned in the area. However to ME I don't see it as high traffic in MY opinion based on MY experience. I reviewed many maritime sites to try and get as many perspectives as I could on this.

Did I mention that I have a sore spot for Naval Officers? The last four at sea commands that I was on "I" trained junior officers how to be a shiphandler and an OOD, how to build weapons before I let them shoot them, how to build "mission packages" without out blowing themselves up..............back to the bridge. First they had to learn how to drive like an enlisted man before you could tell one "how" to drive. I had that luxury because I actually had a few good COs, that didn't know how to drive the ships either. Sometimes knowledge is power................make sure you wear sunglasses though cause their golden SWO pin is likely to blind you.

Yeah, that's what "Chiefs" do. Or that's what we used to do...................what's that? Fuck me? Oh I was just reminded that there are some serious ass kickers still out there that just kicked me in the balls and said they were CHIEFS! Tuff crowd....there's a few good ones still left! Hoo-Yah!

Still would like to see the track on the Fitz...............