Admiral Byng had it coming

this is not my area of expertise, but the "after-reports" on two major and one minor ship collisions shows a problem of leadership in the US Navy, and two articles discussing the problems behind these incidents bring up Admiral Byng when they discuss how the lousy leadership was to blame.

From the USNavalInstitute blog. They shoot admirals don't they?

Actually, the last admiral shot (in a democratic nation) was the unfortunate Admiral John Byng of the British Royal Navy, executed by a firing squad on 14 March 1757. Admiral Byng’s crime was “failure to do his utmost” in the battle between the British and French for the Mediterranean island of Minorca (now Spanish)....

.Fast forward to today. The tragic collisions of the past years of Japan-based ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet prompted the four-star commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet to relieve the Commander of Seventh Fleet, a vice admiral, from numbered fleet command. Additionally, the commander of Task Force 70, a rear admiral, was relieved, as well as the captain-rank destroyer squadron commander, and the commanding officers and executive officers—along with some more junior watchstanders—of the warships involved. Subsequently both Commander, Pacific Fleet, and Commander, Naval Surface Forces, announced their requests for retirement...

a long discussion of leadership and accountability follows. Read the whole thing, which has wider implications about lack of accountability not only by the military leader, but the growing public distrust of politicians.

and they suggest a law to stop "retired" officers from becoming lobbyists.

StrategyPage has a similar article about leadership problems.

Less easy to deal with was the problems with leadership and training that the three accidents made rather obvious. In 2017 it was no secret that these problems existed throughout the navy but were most acute in the 7th Fleet which has been the busiest for over decade because it has to deal with growing Chinese naval power and more frequent crises with North Korea.

One could say the problem was navy-wide but most intense in the 7th Fleet and not enough of the admirals were willing to speak up and admit to the politicians and voters what was going on and why it was not being addressed. One reason was that the politicians wanted admirals who would keep quiet and those admirals who spoke out got forced into retirement and replaced by younger officers willing to play by the new rules...

that has changed, with an ex Marine being put in charge. 

It’s an old naval tradition to punish (it used to be by hanging) an admiral if you wanted to get the attention, or just motivate, the others. This refers back to British Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for not trying hard enough to dislodge the French from the island of Minorca. This execution was later described as done to "encourage the others (admirals)."

In fact, Byng died because of bad publicity surrounding the earlier execution of a junior officer for the same "offense," while senior officers got less lethal punishment. Byng was the victim of a leadership problem that keeps reoccurring.

Nevertheless, navies have always been rather harsher about inadequate leadership. It is an ancient naval tradition that someone must take responsibility and be punished when things go wrong. This attitude developed over the centuries because the seas are an unforgiving environment. Those put in charge of ships have absolute power and absolute responsibility. So, to this day, in most navies, the senior officers can quickly (or, in this case eventually) lose their jobs if things go wrong.