1983 (or was it 84) - I had never been assigned to survey the ships galley. I was told that no one ever really went up there anyway, but I was bored and thought it would be cool to see where the captain hung out. So I grabbed a frisker and some smears, found a blank survey form and a map to his place and headed out.
The captain's quarters on the big ships is very cool. He had a little lounge area, a nice little bedroom, and his own galley and cook. Anyone that know's navy ELT stuff knows that we have to survey all of the galleys because that's where food is prepared (duh) and there's this nuclear reactor on board and all.
Anyway, I had done the independent self-directed tour, met the cook, took some smears and was walking the dog with the pancake probe when someone walked up to me. First I saw his shiny shoes and khaki pants, then when I looked up, I recognized the captain of the ship (I had seen his picture). He was very curious to know what I was doing. I told him "I am performing the routine survey of your galley area, sir." He asked "how often is this survey performed?" I said "weekly sir" (actually, I forgot the frequency but it sounds good). Then he asked "how come I have never seen anyone performing this survey?" I responded "we always try to schedule it while no one is here sir." He said "carry-on." So I did.
Moral of the story:
Humans are no different now than they were then. When you take a complex convoluted system, insert imperfect humans, then expect perfect results you can be sure of one thing. The humans will fail, individually and collectively. That we fail is a given, not a possibility. Our response to failure is actually more important than failure itself. When we respond by pointing fingers and placing blame, then failure begets (a biblical term) failure. When we pick up our buddies and brush the dirt off of their back and tell them to get back in the game, then the blame cycle ends. And anyone that has been out there knows, there's a lot of dirt to deal with.
Of course, gross willful negligence is another story. Research culpability tree.