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USS Fitzgerald – May 8, 2018 Washington Navy Yard Special Court Marshall Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock
Why did the old man go to his quarters in heavy traffic shipping lanes leaving junior lieutenant in charge? What was really going on?
https://www.stripes.com/fitzgerald-officer-of-the-deck-pleads-guilty-at-court-martial-1.525888

Coppock testified that she had been instructed by the commanding officer to maintain 20 knots, even as the ship traversed heavily trafficked waters and its main navigation radar stopped working fully about an hour before the collision.
Meanwhile, she said the “low confidence” she had in some of her fellow watch standers played into her decision not to be in closer communication with sailors in the Combat Information Center. Below deck, they are supposed to gather and communicate radar and other information to the bridge.
Coppock described an unspoken culture on the ship not to follow the standing orders to contact the commanding officer when the ship is within 6,000 yards of another ship “especially in that specific area.”
“We would have called him every five minutes,” she said.
She acknowledged losing situational awareness and not sounding the alarm to alert the crew ahead of the collision. Coppock said she was focused on something else and the rest of her crew froze.
She is one of many who contributed to the deaths of these sailors and the tens of millions in damage, Hochmuth said.
“She took responsibility on herself,” he said. “That should not be lost on the court.”