USS Shiloh-It's a floating prison ship

Over the past two years, the crew of the USS Shiloh, CG-67, a Ticonderoga class missile cruiser, under the command of Capt. Adam M. Aycock has been filling out command climate surveys for the Navy. The Navy Times recently published some of the comments made by crew members.

“It’s only a matter of time before something horrible happens.”
“Our sailors do not trust the CO.”
It’s a “floating prison.”
“I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea because then our ineffectiveness will really show.”
“It feels like a race to see which will break down first, the ship or it’s [sic] crew.”

taskandpurpose.com...

The surveys run hundreds of pages, with sailors writing about a micromanaging captain, suicidal thoughts, concern that the ship was being pushed with repairs not complete, and a crew that said minor mistakes often led to brig time, where they were fed bread and water. Captain Aycock's superiors were aware of the problems on the ship after the first survey, two months into his command, and were counseling the Captain, but he completed a standard rotation and was rotated out after a routine change of command.

The surveys suggest the Navy has learned nothing from prior toxic commands, said Jan van Tol, a retired captain who commanded several warships during his Navy career, including two from the Japan-based Forward Deployed Naval Forces of 7th Fleet.

He compared Aycock’s leadership to the notorious cruiser Cowpens’ CO, Capt. Holly Graf, who was relieved of command in 2010 for cruelty and maltreatment of her crew.

“If the Survey results in fact are accurate…it must raise serious questions of why no one in the ship’s external chains of command, including the administrative chain of command leading back to (Naval Surface Force Pacific), was aware of it,” van Tol said in an email. “Or if they were, why no one senior chose to take any remedial action. Neither of those alternatives is explicable.”

Perkins said that after the first negative survey report in August 2015 — two months into Aycock’s command — Williams directed the skipper to conduct surveys every six months, instead of annually.

The results from the second survey are dated about nine months later, in May 2016, while the third is dated in November.

“This was an effort to continually monitor the command climate and promote improvements,” he added.

“While USS Shiloh was meeting all operational requirements, a positive command climate should also be enforced,” Perkins said in an email.

www.navytimes.com...

Could be a social experiment.

But they should at least rename it to the USS Pandorum.

Obama's navy after the purges. If one of their jobs was missile defense you can bet Obama policied it to irrelevancy.

The navy really needs to figure its crap out. If the sailors were willing to talk and in such large numbers its a failure of leadership IMHO. The Captain in question was NOT relived of duty however.

There needs to be a top to bottom shakeout of the USN. its starting to resemble a circus

Sounds like Commander Queeg and the USS Caine.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

This has been going on since long before Obama, and has nothing to do with him. You can find examples of this going on for almost as long as there are public records for the Navy. Toxic commands are as old as the military, and will be around for as long as the leadership refuses to step up and do anything.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Not surprising. The US spends more on the military than all other countries combined and it did absolutely NOTHING to protect us on 9/11. What's the point of it???????

a reply to: dfnj2015

It also didn't train to stop something like 9/11. There isn't a military in the world that could have. But I'm not going to turn this into a 9/11 thread.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Training drills that whole week, the morning of 9/11, with our air force already chasing radar blips in mock drills of planes crashing into skyscrapers.

But aside from that, yeah it was the IC's job to prevent the plane assault, so assuming a military has separation between military and IC then correct a military wouldnt have prevented the hijackings.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

None of which is relevant to the USS Shiloh and what's going on there. This isn't about 9/11, again.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I read this article earlier today. Damn chilling.

It is always painful to hear of people being taken advantage of by their superiors. In the private sector, you always have the choice to look for something else. Unfortunately these men and women are in a makeshift prison of sorts (at least the way they perceive it).

So have they not been cycled out at all? Doesn't the navy usually do something like six months on, six months off?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: dfnj2015

It also didn't train to stop something like 9/11. There isn't a military in the world that could have. But I'm not going to turn this into a 9/11 thread.

I agree. The money is NOT well spent.

Post to the topic, folks.

This ain't the 9-11 forum.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

It depends on the ship and crew. Shiloh is part of 7th Fleet, so they spend more time at sea. It just amazes me that after years of toxic command situations, and screwed up crew situations, the Navy has apparently learned absolutely nothing. There is absolutely no excuse for this having gone on for two years, with his command being aware of it. I mean, seriously, what the hell did they think doing the command surveys every six months as opposed to every year was going to do? Magically make things better?

originally posted by: seagull
Post to the topic, folks.

This ain't the 9-11 forum.

But... but..we're not supposed to forget..



Having been in the Air Force, you hear stories from other service branches and by FAR the Navy had the wildest of any I ever heard. From blatant to almost encouraged drug use while on duty, sexual escapades on ships amongst personnel, shore leave incidents that were swept under the rug, dereliction if duty..and on and on...it was jaw dropping.

Made my no tolerance base seem like baby GITMO.

The Navy needs an overhaul. If it's been this way for too long, obviously it's tolerated or covered up to prevent a smear campaign. How this made it into the Navy Times is surprising.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: TinfoilTP

This has been going on since long before Obama, and has nothing to do with him. You can find examples of this going on for almost as long as there are public records for the Navy. Toxic commands are as old as the military, and will be around for as long as the leadership refuses to step up and do anything.

Yup! Every command has a history, and every new commander thinks that they need to stick with that history. The best thing that could be done to this ship, is send it in for maintenance and replace the whole crew. Top down, every sailor and officer should be replaced. It may sound harsh, but in reality a new command structure needs to be implemented. In order to do that a complete removal of personal is needed. Sure there may be good people on board, but if anyone from the old structure remains, than the active history of the ship survives and the abuse will just find it's way back in.

originally posted by: EternalShadow

The Navy needs an overhaul. If it's been this way for too long, obviously it's tolerated or covered up to prevent a smear campaign. How this made it into the Navy Times is surprising.

Back in the early 90's the US Naval Academy had gotten so bad with it's ethics that the whole school had to be shut down for a command review of what was going on. It's now 2017, and where do you think those grads of the 90's are now? That's the issue with these command structures, poor leadership foundations in the beginning. Sure not everyone came from the Academy, but enough did.

I say this as a former active duty Marine, and a student of "Common Sense".

a reply to: Zaphod58

Two years of conditions that many agree and voice are poor can break anyone.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

Blaming politicians for broad spectrum problems is scapegoating.

I'm not defending Obama, and I dislike and disagree with most presidents.

But they don't control everything, no one has the time.

This sounds like an isolated incident

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
This sounds like an isolated incident

If your referring to this particular incident aboard the ship, its not. This year alone we have seen alot of standards being pushed aside, the Navy is on the brink of not being able to do basic MRO on the ships it has let alone the mythical 350+ ship navy, collisions at sea etc etc.

They need to change up how things are being done and if it means canning admirals down to captains up and down the chain of command then so be it.