What lies beneath? Sub skipper’s firing raises question of charts’ accuracy, CO’s responsibility

Since 02-28-05

By William H. McMichael
NavyTimes staff writer
28 February 2005


There’s a fairly consistent theme to the simmering scuttlebutt on the punishment of the sub skipper who drove his boat into an uncharted undersea mountain Jan. 8.

Cmdr. Kevin Mooney got shafted. And the rationale is similarly consistent:

The mountain was uncharted and the submarine was operating in the official undersea equivalent of a German autobahn. How could he get blamed for that?

While the details of the mishap remain officially unreleased, 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert decided at a Feb. 12 nonjudicial “admiral’s mast” hearing in Yokosuka, Japan, that Mooney deserved a large portion of the blame.

The collision, which took place about 350 miles south of Guam, crushed the bow of the fast-attack sub San Francisco and left one sailor dead and 23 injured. Mooney was formally relieved of his command and given a career-damaging letter of reprimand.

At first, the father of the dead sailor, Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Joseph Allen Ashley, gave Mooney his unqualified support. Mooney had gone out of his way since the mishap to explain what happened and to comfort the family.

But after learning some of the command investigation’s still-unreleased details following the hearing from Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan, commander of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force, Dan Ashley has changed his mind about Mooney’s role — even as he continues to support the beleaguered officer.

“I stood very tall before on feeling how unfair it was,” Ashley said during a Feb. 17 interview, referring to the nonjudicial punishment Greenert meted out. “I’ve changed my perspective on it. But I feel awfully bad for Commander Mooney.”

Greenert concluded, according to spokesman Cmdr. Ike Skelton, that “several critical navigational and voyage planning procedures were not being implemented aboard San Francisco. By not ensuring these standard procedures were followed, Mooney hazarded his vessel.

”Dan Ashley, a Navy electronics technician in the 1970s, now agrees, albeit reluctantly. “There were things that should have been done that didn’t get done,” he said. “I have to go along with the decision.” Yet, he said, “I never left [Mooney’s] corner. What I have done is take a little different view of it.”

Sullivan called Ashley shortly after the mast hearing. Mooney, who Ashley said has been in constant touch since the death of “Joey,” has told Ashley he accepts full responsibility for the mishap.

Ashley said whatever anger he harbors is directed toward the Navy’s failure to update its undersea charts. Crew members and outside mapping experts say the mountain the sub struck was not on any maps or charts.“

The part about the charts ... that’s going to be an issue,” Ashley said. “For the sake of my son, that should be something that [needs] to be done in the future to make this system of upgrading charts something that can be depended on.

”Ex-submariners who spoke to Navy Times agreed.“The accusation is that [Mooney] didn’t navigate properly and endangered the ship,” said Ron “Warshot” Smith, a World War II submariner who said he knows Mooney and has exchanged e-mails with him since the mishap.

“The truth is, he was using the official Navy charts.

“It’s the old Navy routine,” Smith said. “Somebody screwed up, somebody’s got to take the rap for it.”

A 1980s-era submariner agreed. “The charts that we had, we had to rely on,” said Mike Barlow, now a veteran police detective in Georgetown, Del. “We were assured that these were hyper-accurate maps, the best you could get. Now it becomes clear that that was not the case. It seems to me that the Navy is deflecting attention away from the real problem here, which is that the maps are not updated.”

Barlow, who served on the original USS Los Angeles and the sub tender Proteus, also took exception to Greenert’s conclusion that critical navigational and planning procedures were not being followed.

“I want somebody to go on the record and tell me what critical procedures were not being followed,” Barlow said. On submarines, he said, “We do everything by checklists. Those checklists are generated by the chain of command all the way up past squadron level. I want to know what critical procedures weren’t done. That blanket statement [from Greenert] just kind of rubs me the wrong way.

”But even without knowing all the details, said a former submarine commanding officer, Mooney was ultimately responsible for the sub’s safe operation, and like it or not, Greenert’s ruling is the final word on the subject.

“We worked with Cmdr. Mooney when he was here [in the Pentagon’s Submarine Warfare Division, or N77],” said retired Capt. Mickey Garverick, former CO of the Andrew Jackson and now executive director of the Naval Submarine League. “I think everybody thinks he’s a good guy. But he got caught in one of those things that just happen,” Garverick said.

“But there’s got to be accountability when you hazard a vessel.”

Ashley said he hopes others will see that Greenert did the right thing, even though Mooney is by all accounts an officer who commands the respect of his crew — and even more important, got the crippled sub surfaced and back to Guam safely.

“There’s a lot of things he did that were right,” Ashley said. “But there were enough facts there that they had to do something. None of us like what happened. It has all the appearance of being unfair.

”But, he added, “When they’re made aware of all the facts, they’ll have to agree that the right thing was done. It’s a real shame.”

At the same time, Ashley said he appreciates what he calls Mooney’s honesty, and feels a kinship borne of the losses both have suffered.

“Both of us have a very rough road to walk down, and I want us to walk along together,” Ashley said. “He’s a wonderful person. ... We’ve made some future plans to get together and we’ll be in touch.”

William H. McMichael is the Hampton Roads bureau chief for Navy Times. Reach him at (757) 223-0096 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@navytimes.com.  
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)