Broken Command structure?

[Marlin]

   I was just forwarded the article below by one of the members of my SubVets chapter. I am not surprised that it would happen in the surface fleet but but he implied that this probably applies to the Sub fleet as well bearing in mind the USS San Fransisco, Minneappolis St. Paul, and the Greenville among others with collisions and ethics issues. In the seventies we were going through a lot of "touchy feely" training to correct these issues. Back then COs would get reduced marks if their reenlistment numbers were low. I know there is always some hazing of the nubs but this article and my my fellow sub vet seems to think that it is beyond that even for the sub fleet.
   I would like some comment from currently serving or recently separated bubblerheads.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_horner_swoculture_031509/

[DLGN25]

One of the things that jumped out at me in that article was

A female O-4 select reported: “There’s definitely a SWO culture. Thrive off of getting as little sleep as humanly possible...

Sleep deprivation is a serious problem in any occupation.  I don't care who you are, if you do not get enough sleep, you will change, and it will be for the worse.  Are these SWO's doing this because it is macho or because of the lack of qualified weapons watch officers to man the station?  It is scary to me to think these red eyed officers are watching over weapons systems, but then again I have seen this in engineering and elsewhere.  At least when I was a NUKE, an incorrect order could be rejected, so there was some feedback mechanism.

Or perhaps is this happening during condition II steaming, port and starboard watches for extended time periods, can be problematic.

I know what going for a month with only 4 hours sleep each night did to me, and it was not pretty, nor did you want to be around me toward the end.  Looking back, my chief or division officer should have intervened, but they didn't. 

[HydroDave63]

One of the things that jumped out at me in that article was
Sleep deprivation is a serious problem in any occupation.  I don't care who you are, if you do not get enough sleep, you will change, and it will be for the worse.  Are these SWO's doing this because it is macho or because of the lack of qualified weapons watch officers to man the station?  It is scary to me to think these red eyed officers are watching over weapons systems, but then again I have seen this in engineering and elsewhere.  At least when I was a NUKE, an incorrect order could be rejected, so there was some feedback mechanism.

The Air Force shows junior officers the movie Dr. Strangelove as an example of what NOT to do (for several reasons)

The CGN surface fleet, at least the microcosm of my experience, should probably have shown The Bedford Incident (minus the ending) as a proud documentary.  1:36 shows ya the fatigued blueshirt!