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It should have been clear to the U.S. Navy that Holly Graf wasn't fit for command when her destroyer steamed out of a Sicilian port in 2003 on the eve of the Iraq war. Without warning, all 9,000 tons of the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill shuddered as it...
But amid all the chaos and shouting, the sound heard next was more startling. Sailors on the Churchill's stern, suspecting that their ship had run aground - meaning Graf's career would be instantly over - broke gleefully into song: "Ding dong, the witch is dead!" Newly arrived Navy chaplain Maurice...
When he left the ship, he reported what he had witnessed to Graf's superior. But his complaints, like those made by Benson and others, produced no apparent change in Graf's demeanor and did not slow her rise. Graf's command of the Churchill ended in early 2004 when...
Graf could be particularly withering toward females. One younger woman recalled going to Graf to seek her help. "Don't come to me with your problems," she said Graf responded. "You're a f___ing department head." The officer said Graf once told her, "I can't express how mad...
The answers are interrelated. Some officers seem to rise magically through the ranks, immune to criticism that would trip up others. Some who watched Graf climb the command ladder assumed she had an ally somewhere that mattered. But that doesn't appear to be the case. Though she came from...