Port Royal CO fired after grounding

[unhappycamper]

The Navy said Monday that Capt. John Carroll was temporarily relieved as commanding officer of the cruiser Port Royal pending an investigation into its Feb. 5 grounding off Hawaii.


Port Royal CO fired after grounding
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 10, 2009 5:08:17 EST

The commanding officer of the cruiser Port Royal was sacked Monday, only hours after salvage ships pulled his cruiser off the shoal where it had been stuck since Thursday night.

Capt. John Carroll was “temporarily relieved of command pending the results of the ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the ship’s grounding,” according to a Navy announcement.

Capt. John Lauer III, with Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, will temporarily take over as the Port Royal’s skipper.

Carroll took command of the Port Royal in October 2008 and oversaw the ship’s recent shipyard maintenance period in Pearl Harbor. The Port Royal was on sea trials last week, having finishing its upgrades, when the ship ran aground in very shallow water off Honolulu Airport.

After three days of rolling in the Pacific surf as a collection of salvage ships attempted to pull it free, the Port Royal was finally floated loose early Monday. Engineers emptied the ship’s saltwater tanks, jettisoned its anchors and anchor chains, and took off more than 100 sailors, lightening it by about 600 tons, according to Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Scott Gureck.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/02/navy_cruiser_relief_020909w/%2e