"Doug Kanter" wrote in message news:
The article says the Navy fired the men in charge. I suspect that if they
considered this a minor incident, they would've debriefed and then quietly
shuffled the men off to a different assignment, in much the same way priests
are sent to another parish by the Catholic church.

Incorrect. In the US Navy (and especially the Sub Service) if you
ground your ship, you lose your command. The language used by the
yellow journalists does not denote any change in policy. They could
have said 'relieved of his command' instead of 'immediatly fired'.
Doesn't make any difference. I know of an incident where a US Sub hit
an uncharted mountain. CO still lost his command even though there
was no way he could have known the mountain was there.



With this in mind, I'd say the locals have every right to be concerned. It's
one thing for a sub to tap a ship it's trying to tail in complete silence,
as part of a usual cat & mouse games which are a necessary part of their
function. It's a whole 'nother thing for a sub captain to crash into a
stationary chunk of earth which is NOT trying to evade the sub. That says
"incompetent", or maybe worse.

A charted object, sure. Uncharted objects are a bit tougher to
avoid. It can come down to luck/bad luck as to whether you hit
something or not.


BB