No further information on the relief was provided by Group 9 officials.When we last heard of Capt. McIlvaine (my old XO on the Connecticut) he had taken temporary command of USS Columbus (SSN 762). As of now, there's no indication that Capt. Bawden's firing had anything to do with the hazing problems on the Columbus, but that would be a good guess as to the initiating event -- whenever you have something like that happen, you end up with a whole bunch of investigating types from higher authority crawling around with microscopes, and something bad in normally bound to turn up.
Capt. Brian McIlvaine, the deputy squadron commander, will assume temporary command.
Bawden commanded a squadron comprised of ballistic missile submarines Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Nebraska, Louisiana and Henry M. Jackson and the attack boats Columbus and San Francisco.
He took command of the squadron on June 17, 2005.
If anything gets announced, the Military Life blog at the Kitsap Sun will probably have it first.
Staying at PD...
Update 0002 07 Nov: Elaine Helm at the Military Life blog writes that CSG9 is saying the relief wasn't because of the Columbus hazing incident. We'll see...
