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USS John L Hall Commanding Officer Relieved
- Thread starter Seafort
- Start date
GroundPounder
Well-Known Member
Probably a dumb question, but what is the process for the new CO? Would they take someone who would have been going to another ship, or move someone in for a short term? It would seem that it would throw the entire schedule that they have into disarray.
I had a CO who was in those shoes...he was enroute to another ship to take command and had his orders changed in transit. In other cases, the Squadron Commodore directs his COS ("XO") step down and take it until they can get a more permanent relief.
Now THAT'S confidence in ability to command.
No. SWOland is very complex. Unfortunately more complex than it should be.
Remember the relevant line in the movie "Hang 'Em High" just before the executioner pulls the drop floor handle, "...may God have mercy on your soul- PROceed". That line seems all too common these days for many loco SWOCO's.
Worked with a sub guy who was selected for command but was not given one (not sure if it is the right terminology but you get the point) and was being sent to a sub squadron to be on staff. According to him there were usually 2-3 CDR's per squadron staff who were basically qual'd to command but would not have one, part of the point behind them being there was that they could take over command of one of subs in the squadron if a skipper was relieved or incapacitated. Not sure if they went to the CO schools or not, an interesting tidbit to learn.
CO's firings are great for morale. New blood keeps it fresh. Guys on the deckplates like that.
Floppy_D
I am the hunted
Hats off to SWO CO's. They can be canned for an incident that occurs during the 2 hours of sleep they managed after a long transit/RAS/????EX/48 hours awake. There literally isn't a minute in the day during their command when they can take a deep breath and take the skipper hat off. After seeing what kind of hotplate a good freakin' CO can be put on for things genuinely out of their control, I'll never armchair-quarterback a SWO CO.
Now THAT'S confidence in ability to command.
Not really, a ship's XO of Destroyer/FFG is a LCDR not a screened XO/CO assignment and counterpart in aviation is Dept Head. I was really struck when reporting to Pentagon in 1991 and going through AO course in which literally all SWO/Sub LCDRs had come from XO tours whereas all aviators were lowly hingehead Dept Heads. And some Marine majors had also been XOs due to difference in how Marines select and slate their COs.
I was "Acting" for 2 weeks during my DH tour (XO was TAD with a Det and CO went on emergency leave). We flew a full flight schedule.
Ops was pissed. He thought he should be "Acting" due to his position and the fact he had 6 months lomger in the squadron than I did. I was senior by 3 months.
Ops was pissed. He thought he should be "Acting" due to his position and the fact he had 6 months lomger in the squadron than I did. I was senior by 3 months.
I think that's changed. Now XO's screen through a XO/CO fleet up board, and go through the same PCO school AFAIK.
Not too familiar with it as all the XO/CO's I served with were on the old program, but I'm told that's how they do it now.
Sounds like the kinda guy that called himself "commander" as an O-4. At least you got a sweet parking spot for two weeks.
I was the Admin Officer.....I managed to clear up a big backlog of paper work during that 2 weeks too....