Why the COB, He makes no operational command decisions? Smells funny.
@ironhorsedriver I asked the same question on another thread,and no one answered.
MY best GUESS is that as COB,he is the one enlisted swine aboard the sub who is likely to have had full knowledge of the orders received and the CO's efforts to follow those orders.
Plus,he is already an E-9 with enough time in to retire,so chances are that people would listen to him because he has nothing to gain or to lose because he was just an observer,not a decision maker.
An observer whose testimony is VERY likely to be believed if it ever went to a court-martial and he testified in court. If you are ever court-martialed and an E-9 testifies,you damn sure want him to be testifying for the defense. If he is testifying for the prosecution,you are done.
Anybody out there who thinks that an E-9 in any branch of the military doesn't have any influence is someone who has never served. I have personally known of one case where a foolish Major (0-4) got in a SF E-9's face,and less than a week later he was going off to his new assignment to a conventional unit in Alaska where he wouldn't even be able to draw jump pay.
AFAIK,not even the other officers had any sympathy for that fool. He asked for it,and he got it.
E-9's have powers so far above their actual ranks and positions of authority that you have to see one get pissed and go into action to believe it.
