The commanding officer of the dock landing ship Fort McHenry was fired Thursday for fraternizing with a sailor on his ship, according to a Navy statement.This is interesting. I can see this if the XO actively lies to investigators, but it's looking like the Navy is now expecting XOs to report on the CO up the chain of command. This is especially interesting because it appears that the amphib had been deployed since the CO took command, and just got back from deployment on Tuesday. Did they expect him to drop the dime on the CO in the middle of the deployment?
The executive officer also was fired for knowing about the relationship and not taking action, the statement said.
I'm not really sure what I think about this. Obviously, the XO's responsibility is more to the ship and the Navy than it is to the CO personally, but what other faults do they expect the XO to start reporting on? What if the CO is a screamer? Or just a general jerk? I think Big Navy needs to tread carefully into this water.
What do you think? And how far down the chain of command do you think this should go?
