Last post on the topic…

The roots of the Combat System Training Teams (CSTT) grew from the Engineering Casualty Control and Damage Control Training Teams (ECCTT/DCTT), where were put in place in the mid-late 70s in response to the poor maintenance condition of the ships in the later part and post- Vietnam War era. There, the standing up of the Propulsion Examination Boards (PEBs) in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, required a ship have an organic training capability. As best I can figure, this came from a philosphy that while an individual crew/watch team might perform well today, was there a reasonable expectation it would do so tomorrow, a month or a year from now. I can further speculate, but I never read anything that would connect this next set of dots, that the PEB and the inspections they performed, the Light Off Exam (LOE) and the Operational Propulsion Plant Exam (OPPE) had been “lifted” from the Nuclear Navy’s rigorous system of ensuring the safety of those operations.

The processes of the CSTT modeled the ECCTT/DCTT ones, which, as I discussed some time back, was a result of professional plagiarism, in a good way. One of the significant parts of the training scenarios is to plan for possible safety problems and then make sure the training team members are knowledgeable about the systems and able to step in and stop the drill if such a problem arises. Sometimes, separate safety observers were stationed to specifically watch for problems, while the main training team members are running the drills, or observing the crew’s operations.

During the pre-brief for the drills, the CSTT procedures required detailed discussions of the simulations and variations for real operations, and the safety concerns. Before the drills ran, the CSTT was to walk through the spaces and check to general safety status of the area, as well as to check particular equipment settings. The final reports to the CSTT team leader required “all safety checks completed” before the training scenario would commence.

This set of procedures may have rendered this thread of posting completely moot, had there been a CSTT established, qualified and trained aboard SARATOGA that night….

to be continued…