Word: graf
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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Navy Commander Maurice "Mo" Kaprow was stunned to watch then Commander Holly Graf in action. He saw her for the first time after arriving aboard her ship, the destroyer U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill, in Italy just before the Iraq war began in 2003. A Jewish rabbi and a Navy chaplain, he'd been sent to the Churchill on temporary assignment as the vessel readied for war. Usually pulling out of port is a methodical and precise process. But as Kaprow recalled on Friday, "I never in my life saw such chaos as there was on that bridge - Holly Graf began...
...even on the eve of war with Saddam Hussein, when the Churchill launched Tomahawk missiles from the eastern Mediterranean toward Iraq. "I think the lady is mentally unbalanced," Kaprow said. "I don't believe she ever should have had command." (See more about the rise and fall of Holly Graf...
...Navy removed Graf from command of the guided-missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens in January for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her crew. But Kaprow's account makes clear that such conduct also occurred on the first ship Graf commanded. His tale is noteworthy because, unlike most others who witnessed Graf in command, Kaprow was an independent Navy outsider not subject to Graf's orders. Questions continue to swirl about how Graf not only retained her command but kept getting promoted despite reports from eyewitnesses like Kaprow. Graf has declined interview requests, and there has been scant support offered...
...known as the "combat rabbi" aboard the Churchill found the environment aboard the ship to be "weird, absolutely weird." Graf would talk to some of her officers but not to others. She would show up at the daily morning intelligence briefing in apparel that Kaprow had never seen on a Navy warship before. "She'd be wearing black slippers," he said, "with one fuzzy ball on each one." Then there were the tirades. "She would argue with the briefers, belittling them," Kaprow said. "Just absolute vile stuff that I had never heard from a C.O. before." (See pictures of crime...
...both physicians, the biggest mystery may be the power of cocaine addiction itself. Some of Graf's patients waited months before seeking help, as patches of painful, blackened skin continued to grow - and some continued to use cocaine despite learning that it caused their immune problems and that they could require plastic surgery to avoid permanent disfigurement. Zhu has treated several patients with life-threatening infections, some needing breathing tubes and intensive care. "It's quite sad - every time they use [cocaine], it happens. They wind up in the hospital for several weeks and almost die. But as soon...