What happened to ordinary competence?
When I was in the Army, in the last years of the Cold War, we were all constantly admonished to be, at all times, technically and tactically proficient. That meant being able to use the tools we were assigned to use and to carry out the tasks we were assigned to carry out; to further the Army’s ultimate purpose of closing with and destroying the enemy by fire, maneuver, and shock effect. Much of this, of course, meant proficiency with our issue weapon, which for me at various times was either the M16A1 rifle or the 1911 or M9 pistols. Every time I drew my weapon from the armory for a field problem or a day at the range, the first thing I did — like everyone else — was to inspect it to make sure it was in working order.
This is something that U.S. Navy Commander Cameron Yast of the USS John S. McCain clearly failed to do during a recent…
