Sometimes in life, the wrong people get promoted to positions of management or authority or, in the military, to command. It happens. We don't always put the right people in charge, and lots of times, people who demonstrate that they may have the makeup for leadership turn out not to once they're asked to actually lead. This explains how Michael Scott gets to be the boss on The Office.
This even happens in the United States Navy, where ship commanders can be fired "for many reasons, including fostering a poor command climate, breaking wartime rules of engagement, or failing to enforce safety measures". And sure enough, the Navy this week has had to remove two commanding officers from their posts. One was removed from his command of the USS Higgins, a destroyer that is headed for the Persian Gulf. The other was relieved of command of the USS Constitution, which is...the famed War of 1812 vessel that sits in dock in Boston Harbor as a tourist attraction.
One has to wonder just what this man did to warrant causing the Navy to lose confidence in his ability to command a ship that never sails. (Well, it rarely sails, and even then, not very far. It's not like he has to navigate the vessel from Boston to Roanoke and back.) Obviously it has to do with his administrative duties, and the Navy's decision is, I'm sure, warranted. It's just that there's some cognitive dissonance over the Navy losing confidence in the command abilities of the skipper of a ship that literally never goes anywhere.
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The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
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