Advice For A Young Ship's Officer. – gCaptain

I agree with you that he couldn't fight a ship. But I think you'd have to agree that SWO ship-handling has fallen pretty steeply since they cancelled the SWO ship-handling school in, what? 2006, I think? Naval officers need to be well-rounded, yes, but not to the point where it affects their ability to move the ship in relation to others. The easy solution is to have dedicated ship-driving officers, who's career is mostly doing that. I personally think every would-be SWO should be required to sit for the 3rd mate's test. SWO's are generalists, right now. Ship-handling requires specialists.

They should bring back the ship-handling school and increase wardroom time in the simulator. That is the only way to build the skill set and confidence without using the actual ship and putting people in danger. I loved the simulator time and was able to dock/un-dock a destroyer without tugs. Now the LSD was a different story, that was a pig boat thus the reason I grounded her twice. But, I have to disagree with you on the SWO path, we have been following this path for years and are the best Navy by far in the world. Yes, increase ship handler training, get back to basics, cut back on superfluous inspections, PC crap and collateral duties like voting officer but JOs have to rotate through Engineering, the bridge and CIC, come back as Department heads (ENG, CSO) then XO flight up to CO on the same ship. In between all three stages SWOS with training to include simulator time and dedicated instructors that specialize in ship handling just like we have done on the Tactics side. Also, we need to make sure the Chiefs are running the ship, JOs push paper and spend there time growing their tool box, Chiefs run the ship.

LCDR (Join to see) - I can't argue with any of that. A perfectly valid solution that worked just fine for the most part for decades before they cancelled the training.

SN Greg Wright - I am not a big fan of a huge buildup of our military because we spend so much now and it is second to none, in fact larger than most put together when you look past troop levels and take into account superior equipment. But, if you do not reduce significantly the requirements then you need more ships and sailors. If you need three deployed CSGs and ARGs then you are going to have to plus up buy two additional carriers and close to 100 other ships in addition to maintaining what you have. If you need 1 sailor deployed you should have four by adding additional shore rotations in training slots like simulators, leadership, shore side maintenance etc... Right now we are putting too much on the back of sailors. Another option is to stop being the worlds police force.