Report: Navy skipper abdicated command

UT San Diego – by Jeanette Steele

The ailing skipper of a San Diego-based Navy cruiser retreated to his cabin for several weeks in the middle of a recent deployment, leaving the crew to largely fend for itself.

A Navy investigation made public this week reveals that the Cowpens was in considerable disarray during a recent solo deployment that included a near-brush with a Chinese warship and providing disaster relief to the typhoon-rocked Philippines.  

The skipper, Capt. Gregory W. Gombert, was also having an improper and “unduly familiar” relationship with the cruiser’s acting executive officer — something that caused consternation among the 330-member crew.

The Navy removed Gombert and the ship’s command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Gabriel J. Keeton, from their positions on June 10. The reason given at the time was poor ship condition.

But the investigation shows that the problems on the Cowpens went deeper than equipment issues.

Navy officials said Gombert’s medical woes — which weren’t disclosed — shouldn’t have left him unable to lead his crew. They also shouldn’t have required him to retreat to his in-port cabin, a good distance from the ship’s bridge, from early January through March, investigators wrote.

The three-star admiral in charge of the Navy’s Pacific surface ships noted that an independent deployment like the Cowpens’ can be a career high point.

Instead, “the Cowpens triad, especially and inexcusably the commanding officer, violated this trust and in so doing placed their ship and crew at increased risk,” Vice Adm. Tom Copeman wrote.

He added: “The violations revealed by the investigation, especially the blatant abdication of command responsibility on the part of the (commanding officer), are among the most egregious I have encountered in my 32-year career.”

The Cowpens has had bad luck with skippers, even prompting old salts to call it a cursed ship. Three commanding officers have been ousted in the past four years. The cruiser was slated to be decommissioned until it was pulled back from the brink and deployed in September.

At a July 25 administrative hearing, Gombert was found guilty of several counts of disobeying an order and conduct unbecoming an officer. So was the former acting executive officer, who is identified in a Navy photo from March as Lt. Cmdr. Destiny Savage.

Keeton was found guilty of two counts of disobeying an order, apparently because he failed to notify anyone outside the ship of the troubles on board — despite telling crew members that he would.

The former skipper’s career is probably over, while those of Savage and Keeton may be hampered.

Gombert couldn’t be reached Wednesday through a Navy spokesman. An email to Savage did not draw a response.

The trouble aboard the Cowpens seems to have started in August 2013, when Gombert became disenchanted with his then-executive officer and sought a replacement by December.

The chosen person was to join the ship in January, leaving a short gap when the No. 2 job on the Cowpens would be filled by the chief engineer — Savage.

But the replacement was delayed. Gombert finally told him to join the ship in April when it returned to San Diego, leaving a big leadership hole on the Cowpens.

The Navy investigation found that the skipper’s unacceptable absence from the bridge predated his illness.

Of the 48 “special evolutions” that the ship performed — tricky maneuvers such as getting close to a refueling ship — Gombert was on the bridge for the entirety of 27.

His health-related seclusion began in mid January, when he was hit with an illness that required bed rest for 10 to 20 days, according to the investigation.

Gombert told his superiors that he questioned his ability to lead on two of those days and later said he considered asking for convalescent time, but decided not to “pull that trigger.”

The skipper went to the emergency room of a Singapore hospital Jan. 15 and then to an ER in Brunei on Jan. 27.

The Navy decided his condition was serious enough to delay the ship’s departure from port for two days, to give Gombert time to recover. But a senior medical officer opined that it wasn’t worth sending a doctor to the ship, as the skipper was expected to recover quickly.

It appears that Gombert was struck by a follow-on illness in late January.

It’s unclear what it was, but the investigation states that a Navy neurologist was consulted along the way. Whatever the second medical issue was, it was considered minor by Navy higher-ups.

It wasn’t until the Cowpens returned home that Gombert told his boss in a memo that the illness significantly limited his ability to participate in day-to-day operations for two and half months, including two resupply maneuvers in heavy seas.

The other factor that rocked the ship was Gombert’s relationship with Savage. Starting in December, the crew noticed the two officers spent evenings alone in Gombert’s cabin, with the door closed.

Savage was frequently seen making dinner for Gombert in his cabin and keeping her toiletries in his private bathroom there.

The two officers were observed holding hands, with fingers enlaced, when Gombert was at the Brunei hospital. Also, the investigation said, the two went away for days together during port visits.

Several crew members complained to Savage and Keeton about the situation.

Savage denied that anything wrong was happening when confronted by another officer, the Navy report says.

Copeman, the three-star admiral, credits the Cowpens crew for saving the deployment. “It is a tribute to the crew’s resilience and fortitude that the ship was able to accomplish its mission and return to homeport safely,” he wrote.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/aug/06/cowpens-gombert-savage-navy-jagman/