Nate,
Such disasters pre-date the modern computerised era, of course!
In 1893 two British pre-Dreadnaught battleships (HMS Camperdown and HMS Victoria) collided while on exercises and sank. It's a somewhat complicated story but it boils down to how a reputedly brilliant admiral planned a showy maneuver, and no one questioned his calculations either through blind faith or a rigid adherence to orders:
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/Stupid...ndthenAdm.html
Not exactly a "stupid GI" trick!
Tony