Lt.(Ret) Perry Rides Again

Originally posted 0040 06 Apr:

Well, Lt. Raymond Perry USN (Ret), who recently wrote a couple of ridiculous pieces on the San Francisco grounding that I fisked here and here, opened up his pie-hole again about the submarine force. While he doesn't specifically bring up his baseless charges that a senior officer was riding the San Fran, he shows that he's clearly being fitted for a tin-foil asshat with lines like this in his latest article (emphasis mine):

"...More recently, the Navy processed those deemed guilty of grounding the USS San Francisco via Article 15. In this case, the hearing for the former Commanding officer, Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, was held at a time that appears to have been chosen to minimize news coverage.
"Mooney’s Admiral’s Mast (an Article 15 hearing convened by a Navy flag officer) was held on a Saturday morning in Yokosuka, Japan. Given the time zone difference this hearing was effectively held late on a Friday evening in the United States. I believe this was chosen precisely so that the entire weekend would intervene in the modern 24-hour news cycle so that by Monday morning it would be old news.
"Additionally - unlike the admiral’s mast following the Greeneville-Ehime Maru collision - this hearing was held well before the completion of the formal investigation, leading me to wonder if there was a reason that senior Navy leadership wanted this hearing to be well in the past when the investigation was completed and approved."

Normally, I might agree with someone who says that the Navy senior leadership handled the punishments associated with the San Francisco grounding badly, but in the case of Lt. Raymond Perry, USN (Ret.), I just can't do it. Good ol' Ray seems to be saying that CDR Mooney should have been taken to a court martial; this may have given Captain Mooney more of a chance to defend himself, but I don't think that's what Perry was wanting. Also, he never comes out and says it, but I can't help wondering if his belief that the Navy was trying to "cover up" the NJP (which explains the official press release they put out, I guess) was because of his continuing belief in the fictitious "senior rider". I'd write him again, but since he didn't answer last time, I probably won't waste the bandwidth.

Staying at PD...

Update 0059 06 Apr: Darn! I thought I might have invented the term "tin-foil asshat" in the post above, but it turns out it's been used before...

posted by Bubblehead @ 8:34 AM