Navy Surface Warfare Officers drag-race their vessels - not surprising to most male sailors

March 5, 2010 WASHINGTON — AP Probe Shows Drag-race
Navy Capt. Holly Graf was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows.

One Navy official with years of sea duty said races on the open seas are not uncommon and are done to bolster morale or as a kind of maneuver drill.

Among unsubstantiated allegations in the inspector general report of Capt. Graf' was that she endangered the ship while allowing a drag-race between the USS Cowpens and the destroyer USS John S. McCain in February 2009.

Four witnesses described the 2009 race off of Okinawa, but differed in how close the two vessels came before the race was halted. One sailor said that during the race, aimed at boosting morale, the McCain got ahead of the Cowpens and began drifting to the left into the path of the Cowpens. Though the report did not question that the race took place, it said the allegation of "hazarding a vessel" was unsubstantiated.

"In order to show that (she) improperly hazarded the USS Cowpens, the evidence must show that an actual event occurred in which the ship was lost or damaged, or that there was a situation in which the ship was placed in imminent danger of loss or serious damage" and that she did it willfully, the inspector general said.

Either two of the four witnesses were female, or male SWO sailors are weenies. M.E. seriously doubts the latter!