When Commanding Officers are relieved of duty, one of the oft-cited reasons is loss of confidence in their ability to command. Many times, loss of confidence is cited when there is some underlying issue that requires the officer’s removal (i.e. personal or moral problems). However, it is currently being cited as the only reason for the recent relief of CDR Tony Hill from command of USS West Virginia.
The skipper of a ballistic-missile submarine was fired Monday shortly after returning home from his first deployment, according to a spokeswoman.
Cmdr. Charles “Tony” Hill, 45, was relieved “due to a loss of confidence” in his ability to command the Gold Crew of the boomer West Virginia. The Ohio-class submarine carries 24 Trident II nuclear missiles and is based at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga.
The boat returned to Kings Bay in November.
“There were no specific incidents, just a number of indications related to command climate,” said Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for Submarine Group 10.
As always, there’s good discussion going on over at Bubblehead’s Place.
