On the eve of the Iraq war in 2003, the Churchill was steaming out of a Sicilian port when, without warning, all
9,000 tons of the vessel shuddered as it cleared the harbor’s breakwater. It wasn’t long before the 511-foot-long
ship was adrift. Commander Graf grabbed the cowering navigator and pulled him aside screaming, “Did you run
my x_____x ship aground?” But amid all the chaos and shouting, the Navy chaplain aboard said that “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!” He
couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Even today, the chaplain can’t fathom which was worse, that U.S. sailors
were openly berating a captain or that the captain seemed to deserve it. But that incident didn’t end her career.
Graf’s next command as captain of the guided missile-cruiser USS Cowpens would be her last, however.
She was relieved of duty in January 2010, after nearly two years, for “cruelty and maltreatment” of her crew.
The Navy Inspector General’s report stated, “Persons in authority are forbidden to injure their subordinates by
tyrannical or capricious conduct, or by abusive language.” But Graf did so “by demeaning, humiliating, publicly
belittling and verbally assaulting . . . subordinates while in command of Cowpens with harsh language and
profanity. . . rarely followed by any instruction.”