XPost: sci.military.naval, soc.retirement, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: bksperman@outlook.com   
      
   The Barack Obama gay Navy.   
      
   WASHINGTON — A chief charged with training and use of a   
   navigational system on the USS John S. McCain at the time it   
   collided with a commercial tanker in the Straits of Singapore,   
   pleaded guilty Thursday to dereliction of duty and acknowledged   
   his role in the deaths of 10 sailors last year.   
      
   Chief Petty Officer Jeffery D. Butler appeared somber and   
   tearful during a summary court-martial at the Washington Navy   
   Yard for the criminal charge under the Uniform Code of Military   
   Justice. The 20-plus year servicemember was sentenced to a loss   
   of rank, forcing Butler, 40, to lose his anchors because he will   
   be demoted to petty officer first class.   
      
    “I could have done more,” he said ahead of sentencing. “I’ve   
   learned my lesson the hard way.”   
      
   Butler had pleaded during Thursday’s hearing to keep his rank,   
   since it would hurt his family and cost them $200,000 in lost   
   pay over time.   
      
   Cmdr. William Weiland, the Navy judge presiding over Thursday’s   
   court-martial, ordered the reduction in rank, but passed on   
   other punishment that would have triggered a forfeiture of a   
   portion of one month’s pay and limitation of duties for up to 60   
   days.   
      
   Thursday’s hearing, which was attended by several relatives of   
   the sailors who died Aug. 21, is one of a series of courts-   
   martial resulting from the McCain collision.   
      
   “I’m truly sorry for your loss,” a tearful Butler said while   
   facing the families of the McCain fallen. Those lost on the   
   McCain were more than shipmates, “they were family members,” he   
   said.   
      
   Butler is among several Navy members facing punishment in the   
   wake of separate collisions involving two Japan-based Navy   
   destroyers in 2017.   
      
   Two months before the McCain collision, the USS Fitzgerald   
   collided with a merchant container ship off the coast of Japan,   
   killing seven sailors. Hearings earlier this month were tied to   
   the June 17 fatal crash.   
      
   Butler was charged for “negligently trained and certified helm   
   watch standers on the controls of the Integrated Bridge and   
   Navigation System onboard the USS John S. McCain ... as was his   
   duty to do to obtain required qualifications, gain a proper   
   understanding of the system, provide adequate training and   
   properly qualify junior sailors” between August 2016 and August   
   2017.   
      
   Butler said Thursday that he was not properly trained on the   
   Integrated Bridge and Navigation System and could have done more   
   to seek training.   
      
   Weiland described Butler as facing a tough choice: It’s “hard to   
   give training (on the system) when you don’t know how to work   
   it.”   
      
   https://www.stripes.com/uss-john-s-mccain-chief-pleads-guilty-in-   
   court-martial-loses-rank-1.528952   
      
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