More Asshattedness?

Lt. Raymond Perry, USN (Ret) has seen fit to take fingers to keyboard again with his opinions on the San Francisco issue. Unfortunately, I don't have time to really go through it right now (I'm working nights) but it looks like he's decided that, among other causes, a requirement to have officers do "joint duty" is to blame:

"In the late 1980s and early 1990s Congress passed legislation requiring officers to be trained for “Joint Duty” assignments. Such training requires specific education and time spent in joint duty billets – that is, years spent away from an officer’s chosen specialty. My own naval experience has confirmed that this significantly reduces an officer’s available time for professional development in his critical specialty during the period from the 7th to 15th years of an officer’s overall service.

"After the joint duty policies went into effect, it was the initial position of the Submarine Force that such training would seriously reduce the performance of Nuclear Trained Submarine Officers. Submarine Force commanders sought an exemption from the new requirement on grounds that the professions of both submarining and nuclear engineering were so demanding that they would not be able to do them justice with the added burden of joint duty. In a previous article (“Why Are Navy COs getting the Ax?” DefenseWatch, March 2, 2004), I discussed the demands of joint training and its impact on the professional development of Commanding Officers in the Navy.

"Senior Submarine Force leaders frequently remarked at that time that if they could not obtain such an exemption then submariners would withdraw from joint duty altogether. The long-term implications were clear: Ultimately, there would be few submarine qualified admirals since the law required flag officers to have been trained for and to have served in qualifying joint billets.
"But Congress rebuffed the submariners’ objections and directed “no exemption”. After a recent spate of submarine mishaps in recent years, the question arises that the Submarine Force leaders might have erred in not standing their ground."

I haven't had a chance to do all the research yet, but off the top of my head, I seem to remember submarine officers being specifically exempted from this until a few years ago at the earliest, and I don't know if CDR Mooney ever did Joint duty. I'll finish my analysis of this article later.

Staying at PD...