The Fall Guy

This wasn't a positive event in my life, but it has had a major effect on who I am and how I came to be the person that I am today. While I have condensed this story for brevity, it is completely factual. Here goes.

     I grew up in a small town, with two married parents who attended church and taught me to always treat people the way I wanted to be treated. They taught me to be truthful, to be honest and to do the right thing. Consequently I was naïve about the way some people behave. When I was a young man in the US Navy, life taught me a lesson about becoming a victim of unscrupulous people.

After finishing my schooling as a nuclear reactor plant operator, I had been assigned to a new aircraft carrier under construction. Part of our assignment there was to help the shipyard to test the various ship’s systems. One day I was called to start a turbine generator for the shipyard engineers to test. While starting the turbine, I received unusual signals from the temperature monitoring system. This occurred at the end of my shift, and I was told to shut down the turbine and turn it over to the oncoming shift. Our shift and the oncoming shift discussed the unusual reading on the temperature monitoring system but no one knew what would cause this.

The following day, we learned that a bearing in the turbine had been damaged. The reaction to this news from the Reactor department management was to immediately place all the blame on me. They also held my immediate supervisor responsible, despite the fact that we had followed all the proper procedures. Navy JAG officers were called in to take legal statements from all of us involved in the incident. Other measures to put pressure on us and insinuate that we were at fault were taken. I cannot overstate the pressure we were under or the great difficulty I personally had with this situation.

Eventually a meeting was called to “come to a finding” as to the fault of the incident. In attendance were engineers and representatives from the shipyard, the Reactor department management, a technical representative from Westinghouse, the turbine manufacturer, and, crucially, Navy JAG officers. As the meeting progressed, it became apparent that the Westinghouse representative was irritated about the situation. Eventually, the Westinghouse representative explained that the damage done to the bearing could not have been done during the incident that had been described to him. He stated that the damage done to the bearing was so great that it had to have been done while the turbine was operating at full speed and with a load on the generator. Neither of these conditions had existed the day that I had operated the turbine. At this point the JAG lawyers, who had previously remained silent and apparently known what was going on all along, prompted an end to the meeting. I was exonerated, but no conclusion had been openly declared.

Later I learned that the bearing failure was partly due to the shipyard not properly protecting the turbine’s lubricating system from dust inside the ship while it was under construction. Moreover, I learned that the damage to the bearing had been done earlier, probably when a more senior sailor had been operating it (in fact, I believe it was a man that I had considered a friend), and that the logs from this day had disappeared. One should understand that altering, in any fashion, official Navy logs is considered an egregious crime to the Navy. However, since the ship was not yet commissioned and in fact still belonged to the shipyard, those logs were not official Navy logs. Furthermore, the loss was a loss to the shipyard and not to the Navy. If the shipyard chose to be less than forthright with Westinghouse, it was no official concern of the Navy. All these factors had been known to the JAG lawyers ahead of time. I wish that they had been known to me.

 In hindsight, I have come to the conclusion that the Reactor department management had chosen to make me a fall guy to protect a more senior sailor who had actually been on watch when the damage was done to the bearing. They had hidden, if not destroyed, the logs of the actual incident and had done their best to place the blame for the damage on me. Since this time I have learned to not underestimate the lengths to which people in power will go to protect their own interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Review of this is not necessary, however, comments are of course welcome. It's just a piece of my personal history.

Reviews

[Christina]

I can see where history again has repeated itself. Not only in reality but the game.

Sadly, it never gets easier as the slap still stings the same each and every time. :'(

[Samuel Dickens]

An interesting, very believable story. Now that I've been retired from the Navy for a number of years, I look back and realize that many things were not always handled fairly. For the first few years I was in, I naively thought that everyone abided by the rules, that right was right and wrong was wrong, cut and dried. How wrong I was. Politics, partisanship, prejudice--all these things were present on a daily basis. Those who kissed a little bit of the right butts could get away with murder, and you know the rest. I knew of a case where a Navy achievement award was given to the guy who laid, passed out, on the couch while the dark-skinned person who actually saved the day went unrecognised.
Well, it's all behind us now, huh, Dwayne?

[John C. Osborn]

Crazy story dude. Fortunately you survived without worse consequence. Thanks for sharing.

[LuisArmando]

Dear Dwayne,
Sad experience, but itwill make you stronger and wiser, I can assure you.
Regards!

[deeps]

I must say this is quite the hitory you have here. I salute you.
I had a couple people in my family in navy some of their
stories really intrigued me. I like this alot.