Jakey did what jakey did but it certainly exposed certain issues..
I thought Leon's post had the best answer but hands up all those that researched this subject and hand's up all those that believe the commanding officer of that ship should have been court martialed for his actions immediately PRIOR to this incident? I am in the corner that says 'YES!' He might not have been out of control but he was certainly not behaving in a manner that was a credit to his service.
My thoughts are that Jakey may well have been after a certain response and by crikey he got it.......
Hook, line and sinker.
In life I have a theory that sometimes people keep getting promoted until they reach the limits of their capability... If ever there was a case to justify this theory then research the actions of this captain!! He was promoted one level too far and a lot of people paid for that error!
A much smaller, much less capable US frigate which was on station with that vessel and a ship which had far less electronic wizardry had already recognised that aircraft for what it was, they had already established it was a civilian airliner that was on a published and authorised route, at the scheduled time and also one which the US Navy were fully aware of!!
All this information and more was taken into account after the event and whilst I accept all the medals awarded to that crew were awarded for their 'professionalism' during that cruise or commission, but surely can we not accept it was in bad taste to give those medals?
Of course it was bad form to drag this up but are we perhaps also guilty of fetching up events that are best left buried and if so why such abuse to this troll?
Having a cavalier attitude and not being punished will usually end in tears, is it not best to remove the cavalier BEFORE they kill someone? It might not be nice, it might not be pleasant but how many senior officers are aware of the cavalier attitudes of officers that go on to either kill themselves or sadly innocent members of the public?
Is it in bad taste to offer examples?
Think display flying of a B52
Think about the severing of ski lift cables
Think about a modern nuclear powered submarine surfacing directly underneath a research vessel
Puma crash Catterick
I listened to a tape of an Apache aircraft crew struggling to identify two armoured vehicles and just before this aircraft launched its deadly weapons the operator can quite clearly be heard saying, "God I hope they are not friendlies!" This person was NEVER convinced the target was hostile.. Never ever convinced and yet they still fired their weapons!
And yes the armoured vehicles were 'friendlies' and there were sadly many casualties!
Is this the standards of training\command that we want, or can we try harder? Should we monitor the performance of those we place in a position of trust and..... take affirmative action if or when the very rare character sneaks through the much respected promotion procedures?
We tend to highlight American incidents and is it because of their psyche or.... Is it down to the numbers involved? If a mistake in selection is made once every thousand, then may I suggest it is probable that the US will possibly have more flawed characters than any nation with a smaller military service?
Of course, a thousand times of course there will always be that awful fog of war, and yes there will always be what is known as 'blue on blue' but let's not kid a kidder.. This event we are discussing did not do the US Navy any favours, and embarrassment or not that officer should have been held accountable for his actions and not just put out to graze.
I do not agree with how jakey went about this, but likewise I do not agree with trying to defend the indefensible.
I was not there but the sad reality is that the Vincennes should also not have been there!!
Was the career of the commanding officer of the frigate also effected?