Category: Uncategorized

"Anchor Up!" – Happy Birthday Navy Chiefs

“My fellow Chief Petty Officers,
 
On April 1st, our entire mess will pause to celebrate 119 years of the United States Chief Petty Officer, our honored mess traditions and heritage, and look to our future.
But we’re not just celebrating another year of Chiefs serving the Navy; we’re celebrating everything it means to be the Chief.
Our anchors are the symbol of a culture and a way of life. Since 1893, Chiefs have been charged with the responsibility of ensuring our Sailors are the best in the world, ready to carry out our Navy’s mission when our nation calls.
We welcome that responsibility and lead by example with pride, character, and loyalty, a strong commitment to leadership, our core values, and the Navy ethos.
Our Navy is the best it has ever been and we must continue to build upon the strong legacy that our mess was founded on as we look toward our future.
2012 is a significant year for us all as the United States Navy Memorial hosts the ‘Year of the Chief.’
The ‘Year of the Chief’ is a worldwide spotlight on the history and contributions of the Navy CPO mess.
The ‘Year of the Chief’ will officially be launched on our birthday with a kick-off event held April 2 at the Navy Memorial. For more information on the ‘Year of the Chief’, visit Navy Memorial’s web page.
Happy birthday shipmates! I truly appreciate your leadership and the hard work you do every day.
Anchor up and HOOYAH Navy Chiefs!”
And for some shameless self-promotion – My article from PROCEEDINGS – “Anchor Up, Chiefs! – Reset Your Mess”

It’s Your Ship — Tips from Captain D. Michael Abrashoff

“The key to being a successful skipper is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew. Only then can you find out what’s really wrong and, in so doing, help the Sailors empower themselves to fix it.”

“Give the troops all the responsibility they can handle and then stand back.”

“Whether you like it or not, your people follow your example.  They look to you for signals, and you have enormous influence over them.”

“Give me performance over seniority any day of the week.”
“Leaders need to understand how profoundly they affect people, how their optimism and pessimism are equally infectious, how directly they set the tone and spirit of everyone around them.”

“Never once did I do anything to promote myself, just the organization. That way, no one could ever question my motives.”

“Your people…are more perceptive than you give them credit for, and they always know the score – even when you don’t want them to.”

“In addition to ensuring our safety and security, we should be providing life-forming experiences that shape the characters of young men and women to make them outstanding citizens and contributors to this great country.”

Ethical Decisions

Your job is to make decisions. But your duty is to make the right decisions…the ethical decisions. In my first letter to all Flag and General Officers of the Navy and Marine Corps, sent the day I was confirmed as Secretary of the Navy, I stated this duty very frankly: “If we cannot do something ethically, if it is not in keeping with our values–then we just won’t do it.”

I want to restate that to each and everyone in the Naval Service…to make sure that every Sailor, Marine and civil servant knows that that is the standard. If we can’t do something ethically, I don’t want it done. We need to develop and maintain–within each of us individually, and collectively within the entire Naval Service–the character to make ethical decisions. 
Former Secretary of the Navy, John Dalton

Etiquette

  1. the forms, manners, and ceremonies established by convention as acceptable or required in social relations, in a profession, or in official life.
  2. the rules for such forms, manners, and ceremonies.

Some of you should brush up on your etiquette lessons; some could use a simple refresher; still others need to start from scratch.  And then, there are some Commanding Officers who simply don’t have a clue.  You know who you are.  It will come back to bite you in the end. (And, by in ‘the end’ I mean butt also!)

MCPON West on Hazing

Our men and women are tremendously dedicated to our Nation and our Navy: They make many sacrifices. No matter where they are in the world, or what they do for our great Navy, their contributions to the country’s Maritime Strategy are impressive. Today’s Sailors are the best ever, performing their missions with distinction and integrity. I am very proud to be their shipmate. We owe them a positive environment that fosters equitable opportunity for success based on proven merit, professionalism, and mutual respect.
 
It is the responsibility of every Sailor, and leadership in particular, to ensure that we are creating a climate of inclusion, where every member of the team believes his or her views, skills and dedication are valued. Consequently, every man and woman serving in our Navy, from the most junior seaman to the most senior admiral, has an obligation to abide by regulations and to make the appropriate authorities aware of any conduct that runs counter to organizational excellence and the fair treatment of all: This unequivocally includes hazing. No commander, no Chief Petty Officer, no Sailor may condone or ignore hazing in his or her unit.
From MCPON West’s congressional testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on 22 March 2012.  His entire prepared statement is HERE.

Navy Vision for Information Dominance

The promise of future strategic and operational capabilities arising out of information dominance and decision superiority is profound. The U.S. Navy stands on the cusp of a transformational revolution no less important to our warfighting preeminence than the transition from sail to steam, from battleships to carrier aviations, from fossil fuels to the introduction of nuclear power. The implications for our force structure and the operational employment of information-centric warfighting capabilities are equally profound, spanning all current mission areas. The Chief of Naval Operations has set a clear course for realigning Navy organizations to operationalize cyberspace and information operations by establishing FLTCYBERCOM/TENTHFLT and reorganizing the OPNAV Staff to achieve integration and to foster innovation. Information-centric functional integration, innovation and an end-to-end approach to development of unmanned and autonomous systems will deliver warfighting dominance across all domains. Our follow on strategy and roadmap will guide requirements, architecture and the procurement plan to attain Information Age operational capabilities.

Our job is simple:  deliver on the promise.

Neither intelligent nor energetic nor moral

“I have known people in leadership positions who were neither intelligence nor energetic nor moral. They create as much havoc among our own forces as an enemy. In most cases they were quickly found out and summarily removed, but their mere existence represented a failure of leadership on the part of their seniors, the ones responsible for or who tolerated their appointment.”

Admiral James L. Holloway III, USN (Ret)
Chief of Naval Operations (1974-1978)