Having been an OOD on a 378 foot high endurance CG cutter, I just have to throw in my two cents worth. Coast Guard investigations are usually very thorough and very fair. Given that, I will wait for the final conclusions of the investigation and probably accept them as well as their recommendations for the CO.

Also Dave, I was on the Cutter MELLON in Honolulu which was 378 feet long. We had a Captain as a CO, and a senior one at that. It was crazy when we entered Pearl Harbor watching all of the Navy ships rendering honors to us as they passed. Nuclear subs, Spruance class destroyers, cruisers. So it's not all that unusual for a Captain to be the CO of what you Navy guys would consider a somewhat small ship.

Hope it all works out well, but so far it seems unimpressive to me.

Rich (the WO)