While the US Navy has already taken administrative action regarding the collision of the USS Fitzgerald, one of the members of the ship's crew now faces possible criminal charges in Japan as the result of a Japanese Coast Guard investigation of the incident. Stars & Stripes reported today that Japanese Coast Guard officials have recommended negligent homicide charges against both the Fitzgerald's Officer of the Deck (OOD) and the second officer of the container ship the Fitzgerald struck—the ACX Crystal.From the Stars & Stripes article:
“Pursuant to the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Japan, the U.S. has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction for offenses arising out of any act or omission done in the performance of official duties.”That's how I believe it should be handled: Let the Navy clean up its own mess. The dead on the USS Fitzgerald died (allegedly) as a result of failures by the ship's watchstanders and its captain. One thing the surface Navy is pretty good at is holding people to account.
The rest, well, it sort of smells of being a prosecutorial publicity stunt.
Let us not forget that the lack of an ongoing Status of Forces agreement (Bushie Deux failed to get one) was what lead to the Obama withdrawal that chapped the R’s so much. We should be plenty happy we have such an agreement here, as I agree the Navy should have primacy, but I’m not calling it grandstanding by the Japanese as if they had failed to recommend for the OOD but did recommend for the Second Mate, there would be calls of a fix. The JCG knows they’ll never try the OOD, but had to name him, IMO.
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