Using Our Eyes

[John Stone]

Very interesting article in the Navy Times this morning about the recent US Navy collisions at sea. There were two things that resonated with me. The first is not specifically important to us as recreational sailors but the second is important I think.

First, in 2003 the Navy eliminated the Basic Surface Warfare School where all newly commissioned Navy Surface Warfare Officers (SWO) spent six months learning basic mariner skills before reporting to their first ship. Since 2003 they report directly to their ship as a newly commissioned ensigns and learn OJT and later attend smaller increments of SWO school throughout heir career. Lots of damning that methodology in the article and complaints of how poor ship-handling skills were inevitable and how the early graduates are now department heads and moving into senior shipboard leadership positions. In other words there is a dearth of experience among junior and mid grade officers on the bridge of Navy ships. Fortunately, for my service--Marines--we still all attend The Basic School at Quantico, VA upon commissioning for six month, regardless our specialty where the focus is on basic leadership and infantry skills. All officers attend. Doesn't matter if they are going to be in the infantry, intel, pilots, artillerymen, supply officers, etc. it's a hugely important instructional touchstone. No other services has anything like it. And for the Navy to eliminate a similar version of SWO is eye opening. So the lack of a standardized introduction to officership and ship-driving seems unwise to me.

But the second point made in the article relates directly to us and which we have discussed on the forum many times.

Still, too much reliance on technology is an easy crutch, and not a substitute for good-old ship driving skills, he said. “They didn’t run aground, they hit another moving object,” he said, referring to the two major collisions this summer. “If I am staring at my radar, nav chart, phone or other watch standers, then I am not looking out the window,” Hoffman said. There’s no substitute for using your own eyes, he added.

I am not arguing that all technology is bad of course. But I do think that technology (especially display screens) that you rely on to the point of not using your eyes (and sometimes your brain) can quickly becomes a liability--at sea, in the air, and on the road.

BTW, for those that are interested in military or defense related news The Early Bird is a great round-up of a wide range of daily news articles. In the old days, it was circulated as xerox copies of the actually articles stapled together. It's how we kept abreast daily of events that affected us and which we knew our senior leaders would be dealing with. Now it is published electronically. Google Early Bird and you can subscribe via email.

[Neil Gordon]

I can't speak for training of Naval officers now or then, but I will tell you this... around 1971 or so I was a Signalman 3rd on a heavy cruiser. I called the bridge one night to report a surface contact displaying masthead and range lights and port and starboard running lights. The Officer of the Deck told me that was quite impossible, as both running lights couldn't possibly both be visible at the same time.

As for relying on electronics vs eyeballs, the Navy has sufficient crew for both... they just need to integrate the information they gather and resolve any discrepancies. It was handy when I served to have the large maneuvering board mounted on the bridge, updated manually in not quite real time to show all surface contacts and their relative changes in position.

[csoule13]

My last hobby was aviation, and this is a topic that came up frequently. The running joke was that the Mark I Eyeball was, at least for VFR flight, still the most valuable tool available to the pilot.

[Jerry Hammernik]

John,
I second your thoughts on the need for SWO school. When my son was at Cortramid after his freshman year of college he was on a Navy frigate out in the Pacific. As you know, but some board members may not be aware, the midshipmen all spend some time with various Navy and Marine units. One morning my son the future Marine was talking to two Navy midshipmen. They were both trying to get their smart phone compasses to read the ship's heading to determine if they were heading back to San Diego. He said, "seriously?, there's the sun, the sun rises in the east, we are heading towards it, so we are heading back to San Diego." So nowhere in their first year of NROTC (or their prior life) did they have any basic navigation training or thinking.

[Neil Gordon]

>>there's the sun, the sun rises in the east, we are heading towards it, so we are heading back to San Diego.<<

Don't forget to explain to them that in the afternoon, the sun's on the other side. Complicated stuff, navigation by looking.

[Joe Myerson]

I think it was my celestial navigation teacher, the late Frances W. Wright, who used to say repeatedly that the "first law of navigation is constant vigilance." I know she didn't coin the expression, but it's as true today as in the days of sextants and spy glasses.

This is especially true as our modern Navy vessels are designed with as few right angles as possible, making them difficult to detect on enemy radar. Unfortunately, many contemporary commercial vessels are undermanned and rely overly on electronics, making the Law of Constant Vigilance more necessary than ever, even in peacetime.

I wonder who made the decision to eliminate SWO school. I don't mean to assign blame, but I remember when the Air Force suffered a series of embarrassing and dangerous incidents attributed to sloppy command practices. The service underwent a top-to-bottom review and a number of heads rolled.

Sad news indeed, for the lost sailors and for the pride of the U.S. Navy.

--Joe

[Sea Hunt Video]

The US Naval Academy dropped celestial navigation from its core curriculum several years ago (circa 2005). It recently reinstated it (circa 2016) for obvious reasons. Among other reasons, GPS is NOT infallible.