‘This requires urgent action’
The Navy declined to provide an opposing view. Excerpts from a statement issued by Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations:
I was devastated and heartbroken to hear about the collision of the USS John McCain off of Singapore.
As you know, this is the second collision in three months and the last in a series of incidents in the Pacific theater. This trend demands more forceful action.
As such, I’ve directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world. I want our fleet commanders to get together with their leaders and their commands to ensure that we’re taking all appropriate, immediate actions to ensure safe and effective operations around the world.
In addition to that operational pause, I’ve directed a more comprehensive review to ensure that we get at the contributing factors, the root causes of these incidents. This review is in addition to the investigations that are looking into the details of the collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and now the USS John S. McCain.
I’ve asked Adm. Phil Davidson, the commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, to take charge of that investigation. It will examine the process by which we train and certify our forces that are forward deployed in Japan to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make them ready for operations and war-fighting.
This will include, but not be limited to, looking at operational tempo, trends in personnel, materiel, maintenance and equipment. It will also include a review of how we train and certify our surface warfare community, including tactical and navigational proficiency.
I want this to be a broad and diverse team, including officer and enlisted from across the Navy, and also people outside the Navy, the other services and the private sector. I want this team to be as diverse as they can be, so that we don’t miss anything in our review.
This review will be on a very tight timeline. I want to get frequent updates. This requires urgent action. We need to get to it and take corrective action. Finally, I will be getting updates throughout, and I will keep our leadership informed.
In closing, our thoughts and prayers go out to the sailors and families of USS John McCain and USS Fitzgerald. And we need to get to the bottom of this. So let’s get to it.