NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) -- The Navy has begun randomly testing junior surface fleet officers on their officer-of-the-deck skills, according to Navy Times.
It's all about what happens on the bridge, the nerve center of any ship. It is where crucial life and death decisions are made, 24/7.
Even when the captain is not there. That's when the officers of the Deck are in charge--when the skipper or senior qualified line officer is not present.
The publication said it's all an effort to assess where the surface community's strengths and weaknesses lie, in the wake of last year's fatal USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain crashes in the Pacific that killed 17 sailors.
"Both the McCain and Fitzgerald incidents showed a lack of ship-handling skill and weak watch-standing procedures, weak management of the watch team," said retired Navy captain Joe Bouchard of Virginia Beach, who once commanded the destroyer, USS Ohlendorf.
"Lives are at stake, very expensive ships are at stake that are vital for our national defense. And the Nav owes it to the men and women in uniform to hold its leaders to high standards of professional performance," said Bouchard.
Navy Times says the plan in the coming months is to assess about 200 officers or a tenth of the fleet's Officer of the Deck inventory.