NORFOLK, Va. — The sea can be a very unforgiving place and danger can lurk around just about every corner.
The Navy's top admiral says now is a good time for sailors to re-focus on safety.
Just last month, a Navy F-35c Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter crashed into the South China Sea, injuring seven sailors. The month before that, a Navy SEAL commander died following a mishap during a fast rope training exercise.
The two events were completely unrelated.
Still, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday told reporters he wants for sailors to constantly be focused on being safe.
"How do we self-assess and self-correct on a daily basis? How do we debrief after every evolution that we have, to learn, what went right, what went wrong?" he asked while visiting the USS Mason on Friday at Naval Station Norfolk.
Gilday is installing a two-star admiral -- who will report directly to the CNO -- to be in charge of the Navy Safety Command. Creating this new position is one of the recommendations from the Major Fires Review report following the USS Bonhomme Richard fire investigation.
"We will do safety assessments at a deeper level across the Navy... so down at the ship level, the squadron level, and the submarine level," he said.
Gilday also weighed in on what impact there could be upon readiness, once the Navy starts discharging more sailors for failing to comply with the President's COVID-19 vaccination mandate order.
He said he doesn't anticipate it will be much.
"We have not seen any kind of readiness impact to speak of that would give me cause for concern," he said.
The admiral also spoke about the ongoing budget stalemate in Washington.
Gilday said a "year-long" Continuing Resolution would be bad for the Navy because all funding would be frozen at the prior year's levels.
The current CR expires on February 18.