Advertisement
Advertisement

Should Navy captain advance?

Navy helicopters fly past the USS Midway Museum during the memorial service for downed pilots Lt Cmdr. Landon Jones and Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Gibson.
(Jeanette Steele / U-T)
Share

The Navy ship captain partially blamed for the September 2013 accident that killed two Coronado-based helicopter pilots is in line for another, even bigger, at-sea command.

Cmdr. Jana Vavasseur passed a board review this month, making her eligible to command a Navy cruiser, amphibious assault ship or a group of warships.

She was commanding officer of the San Diego destroyer William P. Lawrence when, on a choppy day on the Red Sea, her ship handling and other factors led to a helicopter being broken apart by high waves. The two pilots, who had just landed, were lost when the helicopter was swept off the deck.

Advertisement

The families of those aviators are outraged that Vavasseur’s naval career would be allowed to progress.

“To put her in a position of command of even more people just doesn’t make any sense,” said Debbi Jones, whose 35-year-old son, Lt. Cmdr. Landon Jones, died in the helicopter incident.

“If she wants to make a career out of the Navy, she should be riding a desk. She should not have any effect over other people’s lives,” Jones said from her home in Lompoc. “I don’t think she should have the right to make those judgment calls ever again.”

Also killed was Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jonathan Gibson, 32. Both pilots belonged to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 6 in Coronado.

Gibson’s widow, Chrissy, said Vavasseur has not reached out to her family to offer condolences or express grief.

“I am truly heartbroken to hear that her poor judgment can kill two innocent people ... and she gets a promotion to run a bigger ship with more responsibilities,” Gibson wrote in an email to U-T San Diego.

“She has shown poor character, lack of emotion, and is free to better her life … while Theresa (Jones) and I each have two innocent children broken-hearted and struggling every day on where their Daddy is.”

Vavasseur, who currently works on the Naval Surface Force staff in Coronado, declined to comment for this story.

In April, the head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet had laid partial blame at her feet in a Navy investigation.

He concluded that by turning her ship crossways to waves and rushing toward the next assignment — while the helicopter’s blades were still spinning — the captain contributed to the loss of the pilots and their MH-60 aircraft.

“The commanding officer did not exercise the highest degree of judgment, seamanship or prudence,” the Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. Harry Harris, wrote. “We require more.”

At the same time, the investigation found that Vavasseur was operating within procedures, although it acknowledged a longtime hole in Navy guidelines for destroyers with low sides, called “low freeboard.”

Separately, a Naval Safety Center report obtained last week by U-T San Diego said there were indicators of a “recognizable hazardous situation” on the destroyer’s flight deck that day.

The report quotes William P. Lawrence sailors saying they had never observed flight operations being conducted at flank speed, which is more than 30 knots. One crew member is quoted as asking another, “Why are we going so fast?”

Several flight crew members told safety investigators they had never seen the ship’s “rooster tail” — the water that sprays up behind a ship at speed — so high.

The Navy took administrative action against Vavasseur, a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, in the form of a counseling letter.

Now, some in naval circles are astonished that the former destroyer captain has been approved for what’s known in the Navy as “major command.”

That’s because it’s counter to one of the oldest Navy traditions: that a ship’s commanding officer accepts praise when things go well and blame when errors are made.

Behind the scenes, some retired ship officers said Harris’ opinion has been criticized in this case because the former P-3 Orion flight officer never commanded a Navy vessel. In laying blame on Vavasseur, Harris bucked the conclusions of seasoned ship operators under him who said she had done nothing wrong.

As a practical matter, the review board did not consider the counseling letter that Vavasseur received. Because the letter was categorized as non-punitive, it wasn’t included in her personnel file.

The unanswered question is whether the helicopter incident was mentioned in Vavasseur’s fitness report, which is written by her superior officer. That report would be considered by a review board.

“Major command selection boards are tasked to pick the best candidates to serve in leadership roles at the next level of responsibility for our Navy,” said Cmdr. Chris Servello, spokesman for the chief of Navy personnel.

“The officers on those boards look at all facets of an officer’s career — basing their decision-making only on information contained in their official personnel file. Stories, incidents or counseling not documented in that file cannot be considered.”

People familiar with the assignment of high-level jobs said Vavasseur now faces a critical moment.

The Coronado-based Naval Surface Force commander — the so-called surface warfare officer, or SWO, boss — has wide discretion in how his top ship officers are assigned.

Vavasseur could be put in charge of a cruiser, a big-deck amphibious ship, a destroyer squadron or a littoral combat ship squadron.

All of those options are considered as having command “at sea,” though the head of a squadron of ships doesn’t have hands-on control of the vessel.

Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, the SWO boss, reviews ship assignments as they are finalized.

Two retired Navy officers said it’s not unprecedented for the SWO boss to move people into entirely different slots.

“The interesting question in all of this is what will Vice Adm. Rowden decide,” said one retired Navy captain who held major command during his career.

By being approved for major command at sea, Vavasseur’s chance of becoming an admiral someday has shot up dramatically, according to the retired officer.

Servello of the personnel command said it’s hard to project when the decision on Vavasseur’s future posting will be made.

Meanwhile, the families of Jones and Gibson said they are trying to move on.

Jones left behind a wife and two young sons. Gibson, 32, and his wife have a young son and daughter.

Theresa Jones gave birth to her second son just months before her husband was killed. She first learned about the crash on a Navy Facebook posting, about four hours before uniformed officers arrived at her front door. Then, she discovered via a news report that the search for the pilots had ended.

Today, she’s in a protracted battle over Servicemembers Group Life Insurance. Her husband had elected not to carry the life insurance, but she said she never received the required notice that Landon Jones had turned down the policy.

The Joneses are still hoping the Navy will help convince the insurance carrier to grant benefits due to the technicality.

Advertisement