History, Politics And Current Affairs

Bad leaders, a complacent crew and maintenance cost-cutting by the Navy contributed to a series of engineering failures on the USS Boxer that prevented the ship from going to sea for more than one year, a recently-obtained Navy investigation says.

Investigations into three separate incidents in the ship's engineering department found problems with parts, crew training and a lack of supervision from Navy leaders.

One leader in the ship's engineering department "failed miserably" in their responsibilities, the investigation says, and was also the subject of assault allegations.

Boxer's inability to go to sea and perform its mission left the Pacific Fleet "less ready and less capable," the expeditionary strike group commander wrote in a memo attached to the investigation report.

The Boxer was last deployed in 2019. As it was going into dry dock for overhaul in 2020, another amphibious assault ship — the USS Bonhomme Richard — was just coming out after undergoing $250 million in upgrades.

The Bonhomme Richard was destroyed by fire a month later. Since then, the Navy has been down two big-deck amphibious ships for more than three years. Politico reported on the strain left on the amphibious fleet in a January report.

KPBS first reported problems on the Boxer last July and requested the investigations under the Freedom of Information Act.

While in dry dock, an important engine components — called Forced Draft Blowers — were overhauled. But after coming out of dry dock in 2022, those overhauled components failed, so in August 2022, the Navy again repaired and overhauled them.

But then those components also failed, the investigation says.

Poor craftsmanship, lack of shipyard repair skill and lack of Navy oversight were among the causes of these failures, the investigation says.

The investigating officer writes that in 2020, the Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees ship repairs, reduced certain "checkpoints" for the sake of "production schedules and overhaul costs across the waterfront."

The next major incident was in May 2023 during a boiler light-off event, which is when the crew lights the ship's boilers in preparation for at-sea operations.

The complete investigation into this incident wasn't provided by the Navy, but a memo from the expeditionary strike group commander says complacency led to a casualty to the boiler safe cabinet during the light-off. The departure from "sound shipboard operating principles" could have resulted in "severe injuries" to personnel, the memo says.

While the boiler safe cabinet incident was under investigation, the Boxer experienced a third mishap in its engineering department when crews operated the main reduction gear without oil for two hours — something that could have damaged its engines.

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

Poohbah wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 12:09 pm Need to bring back keelhauling...

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 1:05 pm

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

ChEng needs to go to jail for that shit, end of the story. Give him a fair GCM, find him guilty, bust him out of the USN, and send him to prison for a couple years. This is the only possible way to stop this nonsense.

Mike

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 1:05 pm

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

ChEng needs to go to jail for that shit, end of the story. Give him a fair GCM, find him guilty, bust him out of the USN, and send him to prison for a couple years. This is the only possible way to stop this nonsense.

Mike

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 1:05 pm

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

ChEng needs to go to jail for that shit, end of the story. Give him a fair GCM, find him guilty, bust him out of the USN, and send him to prison for a couple years. This is the only possible way to stop this nonsense.

Mike

kdahm wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 4:07 pm

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 1:05 pm

After learning of the incident, the ship's chief engineer withheld the news from the captain for more than 24 hours, the investigation says.

ChEng needs to go to jail for that shit, end of the story. Give him a fair GCM, find him guilty, bust him out of the USN, and send him to prison for a couple years. This is the only possible way to stop this nonsense.

Mike

I rarely would say this, but it is a case of pour encourager les autres. Busting him out and sending him to prison for a few years is too merciful. Bust him down to E1, with a note not to promote, and put him in an engineering department as the fetch-and-carry schlump, where he's never taking readings, doing tests, or anything else of importance. Let him go with a BCD after a few years.

Johnnie Lyle wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 5:03 pmThere may be extenuating circumstances if the CO and/or XO ran a culture of “don’t tell me bad stuff”/“reacting badly to bad stuff” that trained people to hide problems rather than proactively involving the command team. Similarly, the CO and XO allowed this to happen, and so shitcanning CHENG and going easy on the CO and XO would not prevent the problem from occurring on other ships. Instead, it will tell the department and division heads (especially those unlikely to make CO) that they will take the fall, and so you will get more CYA and lack of initiative, not less.

CHENG and staff are fuckups, but the people whose job it is to supervise the engineering staff fucked up worse. So whatever you do to the CHENG, you have to do worse to the CO, XO and maybe even the strike group commander and chief of staff.

As the senior enlisted engineer aboard USS BOXER ,*** has a responsibility to lead and train junior engineering personnel and control the engineering plant. *** failed miserably in this regard.
*** also blatantly disrupted the engineering watch team by attempting to move watchstanders from their positions despite a watchbill signed by the commanding officer.
*** was also the subject of allegations of assault which lead me to believe that *** should not be in a leadership position in any capacity.

Drunknsubmrnr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:38 pmBoxer also has one of the last non-nuclear steam plants in the USN. That generally means she’s an Omega unit for engineering.

Pdf27 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 7:12 pm
TBH it sounds like the CHENG had a very weak department and insufficient training, but was also utterly out of his depth and shouldn't have been appointed to the position. Same seems to apply to several of the senior enlisted.

The actual incident wasn't as severe as it sounds - the shaft was being turned by an electric motor at 0.1 RPM after a boiler test, and due to a miscommunication the lubricating oil pump was switched off for maintenance. The CHENG carried out the right engineering actions afterwards in terms of inspecting it, and while he didn't notify the CO or XO as required the ship was at least tied up alongside for an extended period at the time. No actual damage was done, and TBH in the circumstances it's a pretty low risk failure.

Drunknsubmrnr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:38 pm Boxer also has one of the last non-nuclear steam plants in the USN. That generally means she’s an Omega unit for engineering.

delfin wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:23 pm

Drunknsubmrnr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:38 pm Boxer also has one of the last non-nuclear steam plants in the USN. That generally means she’s an Omega unit for engineering.

What does "Omega unit" mean?

delfin wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:23 pm

Drunknsubmrnr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:38 pm Boxer also has one of the last non-nuclear steam plants in the USN. That generally means she’s an Omega unit for engineering.

What does "Omega unit" mean?

kdahm wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:18 am

delfin wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:23 pm

Drunknsubmrnr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:38 pm Boxer also has one of the last non-nuclear steam plants in the USN. That generally means she’s an Omega unit for engineering.

What does "Omega unit" mean?

So in the armed services, there is a bell curve for both ability and wisdom. Normally, the people on the low end of the bell curve are scattered around, so that everyone has a couple, but they're not overwhelming.

An Omega unit is what happens when due to planning or mischance, the nuts are all gathered together, put under officers who are either on the low side of the ratings system or who have screwed in some various inconvenient ways, and left to rot together. Notable Omega units in movies which succeeded due to the pure power of Narrativium include the US side of The Devils Brigade and the sub crew in Down Periscope. In real life, it usually ends up with a bunch of relief-for-cause, destroyed equipment, a few court martials, and publicity so bad nobody can buy it. Like the Abu Ghraib prison unit.