OBS - What happened to....

ldwechsler wrote:
It was far more likely that DW wanted to really get on with the plot. Remember that this was more or less the first book. It would be far easier to deal with the ceremonial aspects once he knew that Baen would keep publishing.

The first 4 books were written and sold as a bundle.

It's been my experience that the new ship or station CO comes aboard to serve a period of familiarization with the ship or station while the outgoing CO remains in command, so long as the outgoing CO isn't being shitcanned out of hand, i.e. for incompetence or "loss of confidence in his ability to command" (whatever that can mean) warranting his immediate relief before he can screw the ship or situation up worse.

This has it's good points and bad, more good than bad I think. It gives the incoming CO time to get to know the ship, his officers and many of the key enlisted personnel as well as be able to "pick the brain" of the outgoing guy for details not found in the reports and logs.

robert132 wrote:It's been my experience that the new ship or station CO comes aboard to serve a period of familiarization with the ship or station while the outgoing CO remains in command, so long as the outgoing CO isn't being shitcanned out of hand, i.e. for incompetence or "loss of confidence in his ability to command" (whatever that can mean) warranting his immediate relief before he can screw the ship or situation up worse.

This has it's good points and bad, more good than bad I think. It gives the incoming CO time to get to know the ship, his officers and many of the key enlisted personnel as well as be able to "pick the brain" of the outgoing guy for details not found in the reports and logs.

According to tradition, the outgoing captain is generally not present. Usually, a command turnover comes at the end of a cruise. One captain leaves, the new one comes in the next day or even a bit later since not all that much is going on.

There are exceptions, of course. If a captain is replaced because the old one is not up to the job, it would be embarrassing to have the old one present. If there was an injury, that would be a different story.

Note that in the series there are just about no official turnovers with both captains present. Note that Terekhov was already off the Hexapuma when Fitzgerald gets named as the new captain.

I agree, it does seem to be the tradition in the books. Seems like a silly tradition. The USN's process, as several of us have described previously, seems a bit more sensible. One, it provides continuity of CO's. Two, what happens if the ship needs to go somewhere while waiting for the new CO to arrive?

I'm sure the XO is competent enough to run the ship and get it on it's way at need (He wouldn't have the job otherwise) but it sort of obviates the need to have a new CO show up. For that matter, you might be better off to have the old XO simply step in to the CO's role permanently after the old CO leaves. Then you're not waiting on a new CO to show up, but a new XO.

The USN tradition is to synchronize the CO and XO change outs such that they happen a year or more apart. Staggering their departures so they're as far apart as possible helps with maintaining continuity. Of course this sort of continuity goes right out the window when a CO or XO gets bagged for something, which I have seen. I've also seen my own XO get pulled off to get take over as the XO on another ship when we pulled into the shipyards. It happens that way sometimes.

ldwechsler wrote:

robert132 wrote:It's been my experience that the new ship or station CO comes aboard to serve a period of familiarization with the ship or station while the outgoing CO remains in command, so long as the outgoing CO isn't being shitcanned out of hand, i.e. for incompetence or "loss of confidence in his ability to command" (whatever that can mean) warranting his immediate relief before he can screw the ship or situation up worse.

This has it's good points and bad, more good than bad I think. It gives the incoming CO time to get to know the ship, his officers and many of the key enlisted personnel as well as be able to "pick the brain" of the outgoing guy for details not found in the reports and logs.

According to tradition, the outgoing captain is generally not present. Usually, a command turnover comes at the end of a cruise. One captain leaves, the new one comes in the next day or even a bit later since not all that much is going on.

There are exceptions, of course. If a captain is replaced because the old one is not up to the job, it would be embarrassing to have the old one present. If there was an injury, that would be a different story.

Note that in the series there are just about no official turnovers with both captains present. Note that Terekhov was already off the Hexapuma when Fitzgerald gets named as the new captain.

In the USN a scheduled Change of Command can take place during a deployment or cruise. In my first ship we held a scheduled Change of Command after we dropped the hook in Istanbul Turkey. The incoming guy rode with us for about 10 days doing his "makee learnee" familiarization. We were his first introduction to a Spruance class DD, his entire underway career had been in steam powered frigates and 'gators with about half the tonnage and 2/3rds the crew.

He needed that time but fortunately he was a fast learner and enjoyed the performance a gas turbine plant could provide. He compared it to switching to a sports car after driving a stationwagon. He also turned out to be an excellent leader.