Cmdr. Mooney update ~

Damaged Sub Returns to Guam

2.27.05
Dear Dom,

Your words of encouragement have helped me to feel better about Kevin’s situation. I also received a letter from Kevin, copies of which he sent to our family and the friends who have been supporting him with telephone calls and e-mails. This is the last paragraph:

"Please know how much we have appreciated your efforts to comfort and pray for us during this challenging time. While many tough days no doubt lie ahead, I feel as though I am in the twilight of my grief and the dawn of my recovery. Let’s hope so."

Thank you for putting our Ethiopian postal address on the blogsite.
God bless you and thank you again for your kindness.

Love,
Sr Mary James

What follows, are excerpts from an article in Stars and Stripes, Pacific Edition, by Jon R. Anderson, Sunday, February 27, 2005:

"Mooney appeared before 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert at fleet headquarters in Yokosuka on Saturday morning, 2.27.05, in what the Navy dubs "admiral’s mast," a form of nonjudicial punishment that stops short of the criminal proceedings of a court-martial. He was reprimanded for hazarding a naval vessel," Greenert’s spokesman Cmdr. Ike Skelton told Stars and Stripes. Cmdr. Kevin Mooney was stripped of his command and issued a letter of reprimand for failing to implement “several critical navigational and voyage planning procedures,” according to a Navy announcement after the hearing. “By not ensuring these standard procedures were followed, Mooney hazarded his vessel,” reads the announcement.

Skelton was unable to point to any specific evidence or exactly what standard procedures were not being followed that led Greenert to his conclusions. At issue from the beginning has been whether Mooney had access to charts that would have indicated dangerous waters in his area.

Much of the Pacific Ocean’s vast and varied undersea landscape remains poorly charted and Pentagon officials have said that the primary maps given to Mooney indicated no dangerous obstacles where the crash took place on January 8, about 350 miles south of the submarine’s homeport in Guam.

Sources close to the case say Mooney would have preferred the right of being judged by a jury of his peers . . . but unlike most nonjudicial hearings throughout most of the military, sailors in sea going commands are unable to appeal orders "to mast" by demanding a court-martial trial even if they feel the charges and adjudication are unjust.

Rear Admiral P. F. Sullivan, the commander of Pacific submarine forces, made an impassioned plea for Mooney. He praised him for having turned the San Francisco, which had previously been plagued with leadership and maintenance problems, into one of the best vessels in the fleet. It was Mooney with only a few of his crew who saved the ship after the collision, and returned it to Guam. The very heavy casualties sustained, had left most of the crew unable to function.

Comments: Cmdr. Mooney, as of now, is bearing sole responsibility for a Naval tragedy whose parameters of accountability remain still to be accurately determined and assessed. Please click on the word "comments" just below this paragraph, and convey to him how you think and feel about this colossal misfortune. Make sure you read the comments already registered.