Applying the Perfect Standard... Inconsistently

That didn't take long.

The commanding officer of the cruiser Port Royal was sacked Monday, only hours after salvage ships pulled his cruiser off the shoal where it had been stuck since Thursday night.

Capt. John Carroll was “temporarily relieved of command pending the results of the ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the ship’s grounding,” according to a Navy announcement.

Capt. John Lauer III, with Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, will temporarily take over as the Port Royal’s skipper.

If only we had a zero tolerance policy when it came to the money the Navy spends on shipbuilding boondoggles, but incredibly no one ever gets relieved of command for that.

Put a dent worth a few million into one of the ships in the current fleet, and you will be fired. Blow billions in taxpayer money in poor requirements planning and enormous cost overruns for the future fleet, and you'll make Flag.

I'm not saying I necessarily have a problem with the decision in this case, just saying there appears to be inconsistency regarding the standards set by leadership in managing failures in Command across the entire Navy.