• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

USN relieves harsh female CO of warship for being like "Captain Bligh"

CougarKing

Army.ca Fixture
Inactive
Reaction score
0
Points
360
The warship in question was the USS Cowpens, a Ticonderoga class AEGIS cruiser.


...being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy Inspector General's report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy has to a female Capt. Bligh."

(...)


Time link
 
 
Even though Graf comes from a Navy family — her sister and brother-in-law are both admirals, and her father was a captain — there appears to have been no "godfather" shielding her and greasing the skids for her promotion, Navy officers say.

::) I call shenanigans! For some reason I have a feeling the last half of that sentence is somewhat less than accurate.

But many officers who served with Graf over the years were not surprised by the IG's findings. Paul Coco, a 2002 Naval Academy graduate, served as a gunnery officer under Graf aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill from 2002 to 2004. "She would throw coffee cups at officers — ceramic, not foam," he recalls, "spit in one officer's face, throw binders and paperwork at people, slam doors." The hostile work environment led to a gallows humor among the crew. "We all would joke that after Bush liberated Iraq, he would next liberate Churchill," he says. That day finally came in January 2004, when Commander Todd Leavitt arrived to replace Graf. "As soon as Commander Leavitt said 'I relieve you' to Commander Graf, the whole ship, at attention, roared in cheers," he says.

Wow. Just wow.
 
I remember the Marsaw case.

He was done in by suboridnates who didn't like him and a shoddy investigation IMO.

 
I never met the man, myself.  However, after you hear the same stories over and over again by many different people, you do have to wonder...
 
I had a CO who threw a ceramic coffee cup at myself (was a PO1 then) and a young SLt hitting the subby in the forehead. Same guy entered the MCR at sea once and spun the EOOW around in his chair almost knocking him to the deck to give him a blast for querying the OOW on something- in front of the entire watch and the HQ1 watchkeeper. That same individual is still in at a higher rank (don't want to spill too much). Every organization has them-Just talked to a buddy on his retirement posting in Trenton and....
As for Mr. Marsaw, be careful. I don't know if we want to (re)open up that one. Met him once-seemed okay-might have even shared a cigar with him.....!
 
If she is a real Captain Bligh, put her in a lifeboat with some loyal crew and see if she can sail home.
 
The saddest part of the story is this officer was known for her abusive behaviour for years but never called on it, nor did her chain of command show leadership and do something years ago.

I suspect that a certain amount of groupthink was at work here very much like the way the Army leadership looked the other way while Nidal Malik Hasan displayed his very disturbing radicalism. Capt Graf *may* have had her indiscretions overlooked because of her sex; senior officers may not have wanted to be accused of sexism if they gave her a negative assessment, and perhaps it was possible to simply pass her on so she became someone else's problem.
 
Colin P said:
If she is a real Captain Bligh, put her in a lifeboat with some loyal crew and see if she can sail home.

MASSIVE DERAIL WARNING.....


You bring up an interesting point, Colin. Much has been written about the Bounty episode that paints Lt Bligh in a particularly bad light, yet there is little literature from his point of view. I think it is instructive to know that he ended his career as a Vice-Admiral which implies considerable leadership ability. Many scholars paint him as an enlightened leader who had the misfortune to be saddled with a junior crew that succumbed to the temptations of Tahiti and the rigours of a long sea voyage.

The Wiki article, with the usual disclaimers about Wiki, makes an interesting read.
 
"spit in one officer's face"

Crikey, imagine if you were it's husband/partner and burnt it's toast in the morning?

I reckon you'd cop a flogging for that!

Good bloody gawd!

OWDU

EDITs to add: ...and speaking of Bligh, this Bligh is ours, and she is related to the original CAPT, ha! http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/anna-bligh-and-labor-facing-electoral-annihilation/story-e6freoof-1225830044744
 
ModlrMike said:
MASSIVE DERAIL WARNING.....


You bring up an interesting point, Colin. Much has been written about the Bounty episode that paints Lt Bligh in a particularly bad light, yet there is little literature from his point of view. I think it is instructive to know that he ended his career as a Vice-Admiral which implies considerable leadership ability. Many scholars paint him as an enlightened leader who had the misfortune to be saddled with a junior crew that succumbed to the temptations of Tahiti and the rigours of a long sea voyage.

The Wiki article, with the usual disclaimers about Wiki, makes an interesting read.

Derailing a tad further, the chronometer used by Capt Vancouver ended up with the Bligh family who donated it to the Vancouver Maritime museum, I was allowed to hold this item, I felt small when I considered the extraordinary seamanship of the men that used this chronometer.
 
More on this U.S. Naval Officer besides the one item that was in the news.

http://www.militarycorruption.com/hollygraf7.htm
 
Wow, on further reading the incrimination made by the claimants are so far out there I had to search hard thinking this was a Hoax, seeing as her name is Holly Graff...

Unbelievable what she is accused of! And I thought the "Mad Hatter" of the Preserver was crazy!
 
Topic: USN relieves harsh female CO of warship for being like "Captain Bligh":
http://forums.milnet.ca/forums/threads/92432/post-914714.html#msg914714
 
I recall a CO I once served with who would 'scream like a girl' (as described by his long suffering Adjt, who I was misfortunate enough to stand in for once) at the slightest transgression of punctuation in a memo. I recall watching him in a toe to toe screaming match in front of his Bde Comd over something small, in front of my company. I covered my radio ops' ears and led him away. He once deployed the whole Bn on a 'punishment exercise', over two weekends and the week in between, at one days' notice, because 3 or 4 troops got into a fight in a pub downtown. A wonderful display of group p;unishment. I'm pretty sure that he'd have got a bullet in hsi nether regions somewhere close to the LD if we had been deployed on something serious.

The same chap wound up being Knighted and made a Lt Gen. I'd have to say that the system supported him to the hilt, unfortunately.
 
N. McKay said:
Who was that?

Sorry mate I think the person in question is still in the military as we speak so the "Mad Hatter" is about all I will let slip at this moment...
 
In the Coast Guard we have had a Commissar (not the security guard kind) flashing people in the park, a Regional director that would be drunk by 12 noon, ship captains that would grope the female officer while on watch on the bridge to name a few
 
Back
Top