Come on Whistlestop, I know where you're coming from, but I've seen too many examples of CO's going down because a subordinate did something wrong or even when a superior did something and he was held responsible.

A year or so ago a carrier (can't remember which) missed a deployment to the Gulf because of years of maintenance periods being hacked away because of monitary and mission needs. When she finally broke down they blamed it all on the skipper.

But you know I have seen one too many times where a subordinate was given a harsher punishment than the senior who was supposed to be leading declined to do so or just completely ignored the situation.

I just happen to believe that a good leader accepts responsibility for this in his charge and passes on credit to the troops when things go right. The leader might not be "responsible" for what happened, and the leader might be responsible for everything going right, but that's just my two cents.

Hari Kari? Waste of a good blade if you ask me. Remember Admiral Borda a few years back? I know there were other things going on but all the world knows is that he killed himself because he had not technically earned a couple of v's on his ribbons. Such a waste!