U.S. Navy Relieves CO of Collision-Damaged Carrier
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The U.S. Navy has relieved the commanding officer of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman <\/em>after the collision that damaged the ship’s hull earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n On February 12, Truman<\/em> was in collision with the bulker Besiktas-M <\/em>off Port Said, Egypt. The hull damage – all above the waterline – includes the exterior bulkheads of two storage rooms and a maintenance space. Externally, the impact damaged a line handling space, a part of the fantail, and the platform above a storage space. A nearby aircraft elevator was undamaged, and the ship remains fully operational; it has successfully conducted flight operations since the collision.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a precautionary measure, Truman <\/em>has pulled into port at Souda Bay for a structural assessment and in-field repairs. A forward-deployed maintenance unit is working on the ship, joined by specialists flown out from the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday, the Navy said that it had relieved CO Capt. Dave Snowden of command. Snowden had been at Truman’s<\/em> helm since December 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The U.S. Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standard and takes action to hold them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Navy said in a statement.<\/p>\n He will be replaced by Capt. Chris “Chowdah” Hill, the well-known commanding officer of the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.<\/em> Hill, who began his Navy career as a student at Tufts and holds a masters degree from Georgetown’s foreign service program, made his career as an aviator and commanding officer during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to his air combat and leadership experience, he is a respected writer: he edited the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center Journal and the Guardian Antiterrorism Journal, and won a MacArthur Foundation Award\u00a0in 2014. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Capt. Hill amassed a substantial social media following while he was CO of Eisenhower<\/em> in the Red Sea last year; his daily posts featuring members of the carrier’s crew helped humanize a difficult mission defending shipping from Yemen’s Houthi rebels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \t
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