I spent nine months as the conning officer on an aircraft carrier and qualified as OOD. On numerous occasions we narrowly averted disaster because the helmsman

I spent nine months as the conning officer on an aircraft carrier and qualified as OOD. On numerous occasions we narrowly averted disaster because the helmsman misunderstood the command, or repeated back the correct command but did the opposite. In many cases those helmsmen were undertrained or tired, as a direct result of cuts in manning/funding and additional requirements. The "old" people in the navy, including many of the admirals at the time (ten years ago) had many of the same opinions as those expressed in the article (they need to stop looking at radar!!!) What those people didn't seem to realize is that we were doing the same things they were doing 20 years prior with about half the crew they had.