Once again, not to be cynical, but as a 60B OIC on a cruiser in the age of Romeos, this already had me leaning in the direction of the phrase from the report below:

Moreover, the “totality of the circumstances, including the deficient condition of the [Gettysburg’s] (IFF, CDEC and Link 16 PPLI issue), deficient unit and force watchstander proficiency, and possessing the ability to have understood and mitigated both, conclude that the [Gettysburgcommanding officer’s] decision to engage was neither responsible nor prudent, and could have been prevented by action at multiple levels.”

I’m sorry, but the cruiser CO, as AWC, clearly either did not understand or was not competent enough to mitigate a fairly common/known issue in the strike group.  This has shades of Vincennes.  While not discussed directly, it does mention that Gettysburg was perhaps a bit out of the fight and perhaps the CO was trigger happy to get some horns on his wall, just like CAPT Roger on Vincennes.  Luckily nobody was killed.


On Sat, Dec 6, 2025 at 8:02 PM <rotorhead@helobubbas.com> wrote:

It was a bit shocking to read the IFF aspect of their systems were down…..mgb

 

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From: Kevin Black <kblack1967@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2025 4:29 PM
To: Mike Bratland <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>
Cc: HeloBubbas <helobubbas@helobubbas.com>
Subject: [Helobubbas] Re: How USS Gettysburg Ended Up Shooting Down A Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet

 

Proof that even old SM2s still shoot down airplanes pretty well.  I just have to wonder if the crew was aware they were getting lit up or were just ignoring or had those emitters inhibited.  

 

On Sat, Dec 6, 2025, 1:27 PM <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> wrote:

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