Since 2017, junior sailors assigned to aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) were subject to some of the toughest living conditions in the military, according to a new Navy investigation released on Thursday.
Sailors assigned to the carrier over its almost six-year-long maintenance period at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding experienced poor living conditions, up to three-hour commutes and isolation from their families and peers as part of life in the shipyard.
Complaints about the life as a George Washington sailor, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, fell on deaf ears within Navy leadership, according to the quality of life investigation released on Thursday and reviewed by USNI News.
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Update #1: Investigation into USS George Washington suicides finds US Navy failed to provide a basic quality of life for sailors (CNN)
Update #2: Navy releases reports, action plan on suicides on board USS George Washington, Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (WAVY.com)
WNU Editor: It does not take a genius to know that this is probably one of the main reasons why the Pentagon is having a recruiting problem.
5 comments:
The worst division is the S-2M division. these guys are on loan from their parent division. Every enlisted spends time there. If you are the low performer or a problem child you might get more duty there than otherwise. More people in S-2M have a bad attitude. The berthing is on a main thoroughfare, two of them in fact (port and starboard).
the worst berthing are large and have passageways running through them. Good berthing spaces are like cubby holes or cul-de-sacs.
S-2M are responsible for cleaning the mess decks and the scullery.
S is for Supply. 2 is for the cooks/Mess.
A high operational tempo and standing watch in the middle of the night breaking up your sleep cycles would make things tough. Sleeping during the day because you have a night watch and being woke up is a problem.
If you lived on ship and had night watch while they were grinding, welding etc would wake you up.
Something is fucked up. Maybe they have them. The single enlisted sailors without base housing could stay on a berthing barge. They have those. They are better than open bay berthing. Usually 4 to a room. that would take care of a number of the lowest seniority, youngest sailors.
Getting around the bay is not easy. If you put in an 8 hour or 10 hour day and then have a 3 hour commute one way. That is a 14 to 16 hour day.
A solution would be a ferry with a few smaller sea taxis for stragglers. The word "road" in Hampton Roads means something. It would be a "straighter" shot to use the water than bridges and tunnels.
They procure ferry services or taxi services in some foreign ports.
The reddit linked below is not my experience with a berthing barge.
https://www.reddit.com/r/navy/comments/zwlvta/tell_me_about_berthing_barges/
I would assume the Captain, XO, Suppo or someone is not doing their damn job and informing very respectfully that something needs to be done.
https://historycentral.com/navy/Transport/AdmiralWLCapps.html
One APL and the Gaffey would not be enough. You would need some onshore "hotel" like base housing. Does Newport News have that immediately adjacent to the shipyard. If you have BEQ, you would need a large enough MWR rec area.
The people with housing in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, would still be SOL in traffic without a ferry. A bus would also help. There would be no strain on driving and you could do some reading of paperwork.
If people change from one unit or activity to a ship in Newport News they will want to try to keep things as normal as possible and not move across the bay. hence some sort of taxi service iseeded for quality of life.
Great comment thanks for writing it
agreed.
This is insight most people absolutely do not have.
Many Thanks
I hated writing part of it. Someone might make a bee line straight to a bar figure out, who is in S-2M instead of dumpster diving.
Not everyone has a bad attitude, Some people have fun in S-2M. 2 or 3 people duct taped their buddy into his bunk. they sealed off all the "air gap (2' or 3' by 6')."
Waste of tax payer money to be sure. but the morale effect was priceless. Would not put them on report.
Sorry about the grammatical errors in the 8:33 PM post.
Let's put it this way. you can lose 0 to 3 people on a 6 months cruise. It has been so long and I do not have averages.
I had at one time seen crime data of crimes committed against personnel on one coast. They kept track of it 3 decades ago for obvious reasons.
But back to a cruise let's assume 0 to 1 is normal or average for arguments sake. That would make 2 or 3 people lost on a cruise horrible. The Lincoln lost 3 people to a freak ( wave superposition) wave. the sailors were on an elevator n the lowered position, when a wave washed over it and 6 people were swept overboard. They got 3 back. Bad frelling day. My own ship had one person swept overboard due to jet blast. He was wearing his gear and it worked.. He was retrieved. the brass was ecstatic. His division and department officers and enlisted, were too.
9 people lost in port is like 3 to 5 bad cruises in a row. It is freaking terrible!
On top of that you no doubt have DUIs and alcohol deaths.
At least if you have an MWR at Newport News, if they got drunk on the premises, there is a chance (an 100% chance with a buddy) of being able to walk back to the ship or APL and live to the next day.
Otherwise, there is death due to drunk driving. Jail time due to drunk driving. Falling through a sliding glass door and dying due to alcohol and sharp shards (that happened). that is on top of the suicides.
I do not see housing at the shipyard. There are some apartment at the far side got the largest dry dock, but I think those are private.
If you can plan where a ship will be a year or two in advance, you can plan how much berthing will be needed year to year. You can always have a mix of APL and tower apartments to keep the a tower apartments from being unoccupied for long periods of time.
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