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Leadership Embodied

A book worth reading and then rereading.

Joseph J. Thomas and Dr. Marolda have put together a wonderful book with 49 stories of true Navy leaders. They captured the essence of the leadership skills of those 49 Navy Sailors and Marines very well. This is a must read for any student of leadership. This book was originally funded by the class of 1978 at the U.S. Naval Academy as a gift to the fine men and women studying at the USNA to become Naval officers. You have an opportunity, through this book, to share in their learning. Don’t miss the opportunity to purchase this book. Contact me and I will send you a suitable chapter 50 about another great Navy leader – CWO4 Wallace Louis Exum. 
Back in 2005, the Leadership, Ethics, and Law Department (LEL) of the U.S. Naval Academy put together a compendium of short biographical essays focusing on naval (Navy and Marine Corps) personnel who have embodied certain leadership characteristics.
Joseph J. Thomas Ph.D. is the Chair and Distinguished Professor of Leadership at the United States Naval Academy Annapolis.

Command Guidance – USMC Style

From: Commanding Officer, Marine Attack Squadron 211

To: Squadron Attack Pilots

Subj: COMMANDER’S GUIDANCE FOR SQUADRON ATTACK PILOTS

1. Professional hunger.

My goal is to identify those Officers who want to be professional attack pilots and dedicate the resources required to build them into the flight leaders and instructors that are required for the long-term health of our community. This is not a socialist organization. We will not all be equal in terms of quals and flight hours. Some will advance faster than others, and because this is not a union, your rate of advancement will have nothing to do with seniority. Your rate of advancement will instead be determined by your hunger, professionalism, work ethic, and performance.

If flying jets and supporting Marines is your passion and your profession, you are in the right squadron.

If these things are viewed simply as your job, please understand that I must invest for the future in others. Your time in a gun squadron might be limited, so it is up to you to make the most of the opportunities that are presented.

2. Professional focus.

Our approach to aviation is based upon the absolute requirement to be “brilliant in the basics.”

Over the last few years Marine TACAIR has not punted the tactical nearly so often as the admin. Sound understanding of NATOPS, aircraft systems, and SOPs is therefore every bit as important as your understanding of the ANTTP and TOPGUN. With this in mind, ensure the admin portions of your plan are solid before you move onto objective area planning. Once you begin tactical planning, remember that keeping things “simple and easy to execute” will usually be your surest path to success. If the plan is not safe, it is not tactically sound.

3. Attitude.

I firmly believe in the phrase “hire for attitude, train for skill.”

Work ethic, willingness to accept constructive criticism, and a professional approach to planning, briefing, and debriefing will get you 90% of the way towards any qualification or certification you are pursuing. The other 10% is comprised of in-flight judgment and performance, and that will often come as a result of the first 90%. Seek to learn from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others. Just as a championship football team debriefs their game film, we are going to analyze our tapes and conduct thorough flight debriefs. It has often been said that the success of a sortie is directly proportional to the caliber of the plan and brief. The other side of this coin is that the amount of learning that takes place as a result of a sortie is directly proportional to the caliber of the debrief.

4. Moral courage.

Speak up if something seems wrong or unsafe.

We all know what the standards are supposed to be in Naval Aviation and in the Corps. Enforce them! When we fail to enforce the existing standards, we are actually setting and enforcing a new standard that is lower.

5. Dedication.

If you average one hour per workday studying, 6 months from now you will be brilliant. That is all it takes; one hour per day. As you start to notice the difference between yourself and those who are unable to find 60 minutes, I want you to know that I will have already taken note.

Then, I want you to ask yourself this question: “How good could I be if I really gave this my all?”

6. When all else fades away, attack pilots have one mission: provide offensive air support for Marines.

The Harrier community needs professional attack pilots who can meet this calling.

It does not require you to abandon your family. It does not require you to work 16 hours per day, six days per week. It requires only a few simple commitments to meet this calling: be efficient with your time at work so that you can study one hour per day; be fully prepared for your sorties and get the maximum learning possible out of every debrief; have thick skin and be willing to take constructive criticism; find one weekend per month to go on cross country. When you are given the opportunity to advance, for those few days go to the mat and give it your all, 100%, at the expense of every other thing in your life.

To quote Roger Staubach, “there are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”  ((But I hope to see you there from time to time)).

If you can be efficient during the workweek, give an Olympian effort for check rides and certifications, and are a team player, the sky will literally be the limit for you in this squadron.

C. K. RAIBLE

MORE about Lt Colonel Raible in a future post.  Is he a MOH candidate?  Perhaps he should be.

Command/Skipper in the spotlight: Navy Information Operations Command Pensacola, Florida

Mission
 Execute Computer Network Defense and Digital Network Intelligence objectives supporting naval and national cyber supremacy.

Vision
Total Force Team of the highest character, collaboratively delivering Computer Network Defense focused Digital Network Intelligence expertise today, with an eye towards deliberately expanding the depth and breadth of Computer Network Operations proficiency necessary to both shape and satisfy the requirements of tomorrow.

Commander Pat Count assumed command of NAVIOCOM Pensacola, Florida in July 2012.  
CDR Pat Count, a native of N. Augusta, SC, enlisted in the Navy in 1986 as a Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive). He attended Arabic language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) winning the Maxwell D. Taylor Award. In 1988 he was assigned to Naval Security Group Activity (NSGA) Athens, Greece deploying to U.S. Sixth Fleet combatants and to Operation DESERT SHIELD. In 1990 he reported to NSGA Fort Meade, MD where he deployed to Commander Middle East Force and Operation DESERT STORM. 
Awarded a Naval ROTC scholarship, CDR Count attended the University of South Carolina graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa earning a Bachelor’s Degree and a commission in 1995.
After returning to DLI to study the Russian language, in July 1996 CDR Count reported to NSGA Misawa, Japan and served as a Division Officer and Special Evaluator on board EP-3E aircraft of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1) earning designation as Naval Aviation Observer and accumulating over 1,700 flight hours. During this tour he deployed throughout Asia, the Middle East and to Operation SOUTHERN WATCH. 
In June 1999 CDR Count attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA earning a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) and was awarded the IEEE Monterey Chapter Outstanding Student Thesis Award. In 2001, he was assigned to the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet where he served as Signals Intelligence Collection Manager during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. 
In February 2003, CDR Count reported to NSGA Fort Gordon, Georgia where he served as Operations Officer and as the first Fleet Information Operations Center (FIOC) Department Head (N3). In November 2004, CDR Count was assigned as Executive Officer and oversaw the Command’s transition to Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Georgia and its growth to nearly 1,000 Sailors and Major Command status. 
In November 2006, CDR Count reported to the staff of the Commander, Carrier Strike Group EIGHT where he simultaneously served as Cryptologic Resource Coordinator (CRC) and Deputy Information Warfare Commander (DIWC). He deployed twice onboard USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN-69) and USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73) to the U.S. Central, European, Southern and Pacific Command areas of responsibility supporting Operations ENDURING and IRAQI FREEDOM and Partnership of the Americas 2008. 
In December 2008, CDR Count reported to the U.S. European Command staff in Stuttgart, Germany where he served as Chief, Information and Cyberspace Operations Plans Branch (J39) responsible for integrating IO and Cyberspace operational concepts into theater-wide strategy, plans and operations. In August 2012, Commander Count assumed his present duties as Commanding Officer, NIOC Pensacola, FL. CDR Count is proficient in multiple languages and graduated the Naval War College Command and Staff Program with highest distinction. 
Awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (2), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal (3), Joint Service Achievement Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and numerous campaign and service medals.

Loyalty – up and down the chain of command

While the fabric that has held society together has worn ever thinner in our modern age, it is still loyalty that lends the cloth its strength. It is loyalty that keeps the world functioning. We could not conduct business transactions or personal relationship without it. Loyalty is the idea that we are who we say we are and we will do what we say we will do. It is the hope that the integrity with which we initially encountered someone will endure indefinitely.
It’s also what keeps us unified. We live out our lives as part of agreed upon norms that allow us to operate from day to day. We need to know who we can count on. We all understand that ideally, friends will have your back, lovers will remain true, and businesses will not cheat you out of your money. When someone is disloyal, they break from these expectations and weaken the trust that holds us together.
From The Philosophy of Loyalty by Josiah Royce

Harvard Lecture Series 1908

Stray voltage on the net

At a recent Freedom Through Vigilance Association (FTVA) meeting at headquarters Air Force Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance, one of the Air Force briefers announced the closing of the Misawa Security Operations Center in Japan in 2014. Sad news for me from a nostalgic point of view. I began my cryptologic career at U.S. Naval Security Group Activity Misawa, Japan. I also met my wife there. Truly the end of a grand era if they follow through with these closure plans. I have not seen an announcement of any kind from the Navy but I hope some of that mission finds its way to U.S. Navy Information Operations Command Yokosuka, Japan.

Cyber slowness

In a moment of absolute candor, Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh III said he has to admit his own lack of knowledge about cyber and he said that he isn’t really sure what an IP address is.

Welsh went on to say that more than 85 percent of the Airmen who are classified under cyber typically work on infrastructure, not operations, which is not the true definition of a “cyberwarrior”.

“The Air Force doesn’t know what is expected from the joint partners in the cyber realm, and the rest of the Air Force doesn’t know what is happening inside its own service. I am just not sure we know exactly what we’re doing in it yet. And until we do, I’m concerned it’s a black hole”.

What is your reputation worth?

Viewed a thoughtful TED presentation by Rachel Botsman recently and she was discussing the value of an individual’s reputation.  She presented a 20 minute summary of several years of her research into reputation capital and the value of trust – which is the ‘coin of the realm’ in the naval officer community.  Rachel Botsman’s ideas have been included in “10 Ideas That Will Change The World”.  That’s a pretty heavy endorsement – even for a recognized thought leader on the power of collaboration and the power of sharing.
She defined Reputation Capital as the worth of your reputation – intentions, capabilities and values across communities and marketplaces.
She examined the question of who trusts you and why they trust you in specific communities and marketplaces.  She talked about contextual reputation and why that is important. Her research has taken her far enough to allow her to develop a reputation dashboard.  Imagine how your performance might change (IMPROVE) if you knew and understood that your subordinates, peers and seniors had input to and could view your reputation dashboard.
I can see some real value in her work as it might relate to what the Navy is trying to accomplish with 360 degree feedback.  I like the idea of contextual reputation and our ability to put an officer’s/Sailor’s reputation into context (i.e., He’s a great ship handler but he’s a womanizer.  She’s an awesome linguist but a lousy supervisor.  He does great with the Sailors but he cheats on his wife.  He’s the best cyber network operator but he’s an alcoholic.)  I’m more of a whole Sailor/person advocate but there are plenty of folks in our business who are completely satisfied with looking at things from a compartmented, single dimension (e.g., ‘gets the job done’) perspective.  I just can’t get there from here. 

Some really decent thinking HERE from The Navy’s Grade 36 Bureaucrat.

Navy fires number 18 – then Admirals exonerate him of charges

CAPTAIN COBELL WAS EXONERATED.  At the end of an all-day hearing, the board decided that CoBell should stay in the service. Further, the admirals unanimously agreed that he hadn’t committed any of the misconduct for which he had already been punished.

Captain James CoBell III was officially fired by Admiral Cindy L. Jaynes, on 27 September from his assignment as commanding officer of Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach.  Admiral Jaynes is Commander Fleet Readiness Centers & NAVAIR Assistant Commander for Logistics and Industrial Operations. He had been relieved of his command on 10 September pending the results of an official Navy investigation into his “leadership practices.”

Captain CoBell III was fired due to Admiral Jayne’s “loss of confidence in his ability to command.” 
Captain CoBell’s offenses included failure to account for personal leave, use of abusive language toward personnel and use of subordinates for personal favors.
Pending administrative action, Captain James CoBell III has been assigned to the staff of Naval Air Force Atlantic.

ADDENDUM:  According to the Navy Times, Captain CoBell said that the charges were found to be unsubstantiated by the investigating officer and that Captain CoBell has not been told why he was reassigned.  STAY TUNED.


Challenge question

I was speaking with a Navy colleague this past week and naturally the discussion turns to how much of our lives were devoted to the Navy and our experiences aboard various ships, submarines and aircraft.  Between us had 67 years of experience in the Navy.  We were feeling pretty good about that and one of the active duty Lieutenant Commanders (a wise ass through and through) says –

“Do you guys really have 67 years of combined experience or just one year of experience repeated 67 times.”  

And I got to thinking about how much of my Navy career was devoted to new experiences and how much was repeating old experiences over and over again.  Well, I’m still thinking….damn that Lieutenant Commander.