His name is Joseph Aucoin and his rank is vice admiral in the United States Navy. He's now been removed from his position as commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in Japan.
This comes on the heels of several accidents involving navy vessels in the Pacific. The latest, and only the latest, involved the U.S.S. John S. McCain, which lost 10 sailors in a collision with a commercial ship.
The papers were quick to report that the Navy hasn't found a specific finding of fault against the admiral. And it's not likely he was on any of the ships when they had their accidents. Vice admirals don't usually steer their boats anyway. It is possible that the admiral was hundreds if not thousands of miles away when some of these accidents happened. It's also possible that these accidents would have happened on anybody else's watch. And it's even more possible that to have three ships involved in such wrecks in such a short period of time is nothing but bad timing.
But Joseph Aucoin, vice admiral, was removed from his post anyway. Only weeks away from retiring.
What does this say?
It says that the United States military still believes in something called accountability. If something goes south on your watch, no excuse, sir. It's a long tradition in the military, if only in the military these days.
Which is another reason why military service is so important, and we'd suggest it to any young person just starting in life. Lessons like these you just can't learn in civvies.
Editorial on 08/24/2017