LantFleet Releases MSP Accident Report

Atlantic Fleet HQ (now called "Fleet Forces Command") has released several hundred megabytes of reports on the tragic loss of two submariners from USS Minneapolis-St. Paul last year. The Navy Times has a new article on what happened during the sub's egress from Plymouth, and MilitaryTimes.com has a video of the MSP that day that shows what seas were like.

Reading over the Command Investigation, you can see standard Sub Force hand-wringing and demands for perfection in hindsight alongside what appear to be honest attempts to do the right thing.

I'm just wondering what the investigation would look like if a sub in homeport, say moored at the end of Mike Pier in San Diego, got T-boned some day by a rogue merchant with a jammed rudder. I'm sure they'd say that the CO would have had more than enough information to predict that a merchant that might suffer a rudder jam would be going past the Sub Base, and the CO should have moved his ship to a safer berth. And then they'd fire him, and not do anything to the senior rider.

Update 2143 15 Apr: A sharp-eyed reader noticed that while the initial investigation recommended no action be taken against the senior rider on the MSP, the CSG-8 endorsement disagreed with that recommendation. Good on RADM Fowler.