As I assume the leadership of our Information Warfare and Cryptologic community let me start by thanking Rear Admiral Ned Deets for his stewardship and vision over the last several years.  His tenure as community leader saw more change than perhaps any other period in the history of Naval cryptology.  He led us to a time when our skills have never been in greater demand, in the midst of continued growth of our billet base and leaves to us the task of writing the next chapter of our history.  Our future will unfold around the nexus of our operational base at Fleet Cyber Command and the resource sponsorship of N2N6.

The work ahead will be difficult and will necessarily bring continued change.  The excellence in RF and cyberspace exploitation that we bring to the joint force will expand to include a range of emerging defensive and offensive capabilities.  The nature of the interconnected and digital based world will insure that the pace of change will continue to be fast and sometimes appear daunting.  Yet we are a daunting team and we will be ready and continue to excel.

Our community’s signals work is foundational to Information Dominance and your Navy’s ability to deliver effects on every battlefield and to every commander.  We need your intellectual capacity to think through challenges and opportunities that this integrated battlefield brings and we need your technical capacity to create solutions that span intelligence production and effects generation.

The creation of the Information Dominance Corps is the opportunity for new partnerships and to tackle obstacles to our collective capability.  It also means finding a comfort zone that has come with the additional responsibilities that our warfare device brings and blending seamlessly with the excellence that our Navy peers who operate platforms bring.  The IDC isn’t just a group of people, it is the basis for using information as another capability to project power.  This change may be the hardest to face as it involves how we think about ourselves and what we do.  I believe this is worth that effort because there is one thing I am certain of, our Navy will be better with the that the IDC can bring to the fight.

Thank you for what you do every day and for the sacrifice that you and your families chose to make for our nation.  I am honored for the opportunity to lead this Navy community.  All the best to you and Godspeed.

Very respectfully,

Rear Admiral Bill Leigher

From: “Deets, Ned RADM NETWARCOM”
Date: August 6, 2011 7:10:18 AM CDT

Leaders: Request pass to all IWOs, CTs, and Community Civilians.

Shipmates, As I bring my 32 year career to a close, I want you all to know what an honor and privilege it has been to lead our great Information Warfare and Cryptology Community. As I go ashore, I will tell you again that there is no better time to be a member of this Community. Our growing ranks are filled with motivated, dedicated, innovative professionals delivering relevant war fighting capability.

At 1400 on 5 August 2011, I turned over leadership of this Community to RADM (select) Bill Leigher, our senior Community Flag Officer currently serving in a Navy position. I have known Bill for many years. He is a good friend; he is a very capable leader with great vision, and a gift for communicating.

We have been through great change throughout our 76 year history and the last several years have been no different. This must also be so in the future. Stasis is dangerous; it gives our adversaries the edge. Change and adaptation are vital; throughout our history, they have kept us relevant.

And we have never been stronger, more relevant, or in greater demand than we are today. In the past 5 years we have grown by 27%, an unprecedented rate which speaks to the need for your war fighting bona fides both in the Navy and in the Joint world. We have focused our skill sets on those 3 things that are truly foundational; they are unique to us; they are what we bring to the fight: Cryptology/Signals Intelligence, Computer Network Operations, and Electronic Warfare. We have honed our cyber capability to be the best in DoD. We have a warfare device which comes with this new warfare area. And we have an Information Dominance Corps to leverage the tremendous advantage that is our incredible Navy men and women.

We were relevant in the early days, in March 1935 when we first became a Community. We had 10,000 specialists in our business at the height of World War II; we have many more today–relevance. In 1945, we experienced tremendous change as we have since, and as a result we remained relevant through the Korean War, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Gulf War, OPERATION Iraqi Freedom, OPERATION Enduring Freedom. The message is clear: your Navy and this country appreciate what you bring to the fight.

Your patriotism and selfless service are sources of great pride and inspiration for all Americans. Write this important chapter. Go make history and thank you for the opportunity to help take you there. God speed and open water.

v/r, RADM E.H. Deets, III

“Every experienced naval officer should possess, as a necessary component of his technical knowledge, a thorough grounding in the principles and methods of naval strategy and tactics and of joint operations with other branches of the armed forces… Education for supplying such knowledge and for the development of doctrine and good military character is necessary throughout our naval service.” 

“The system is based on the all around officer who can be shifted from post to post and is capable of doing each routine job well…” “The system is designed for the ‘operators’… the ‘idea’ men (technical experts) are left out in the cold, passed over and retired…”

Brown has been reassigned to administrative duties at Naval Beach Group 2.

On June 11th of 1942 (not 1943, as the memo’s opening typo states), the Commanding Officer of USS Skipjack, Lt. Commander James Wiggins Coe, sent the following sarcastic memo to the Navy’s supply department at Mare Island. At this point it had been almost a year since crew aboard the submarine had placed a simple request for 150 rolls of toilet paper with the depot, and only very recently had said requisition been returned, frustratingly bearing the words “cancelled — cannot identify.” This memo was Coe’s response.

Amusingly, when the submarine next returned to land, Coe and crew were faced with a dock piled high with toilet roll pyramids, countless toilet roll streamers flying from every available post, and a brass band wearing toilet paper neckties.

Transcript follows. Image courtesy of The Navy Department Library.

Transcript

U.S.S. SKIPJACK

84/18/S36-1
11 June, 1943

From: The Commanding Officer.
To: Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California.
Via: Commander Submarines, Southwest Pacific.

Subject: Toilet Paper.

Reference: (a) (6048) USS HOLLAND (5184) USS SKIPJACK Reqn. 70-42 of July 30, 1941; (b) SO NYMI cancelled invoice No. 272836.

Enclosure: (A) Copy of cancelled invoice; (B) Sample of material requested.

1. This vessel submitted a requisition for 150 rolls of toilet paper on July 30, 1941, to USS HOLLAND. The material was ordered by HOLLAND from Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, for delivery to USS SKIPJACK.

2. The Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, on November 26, 1941, cancelled Mare Island Invoice No. 272836 with the stamped notation “cancelled — cannot identify”. This cancelled invoice was received by SKIPJACK on June 19, 1942.

3. During the 11-1/2 months elapsing from the time of ordering the toilet paper and the present date the SKIPJACK personnel, despite their best efforts to await delivery of subject material have been unable to wait on numerous occasions, and the situation is now quite acute, especially during depth charge attacks by the “back-stabbers”.

4. Enclosure (B) is a sample of the desired material provided for the information of the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island. The Commanding Officer, USS SKIPJACK cannot help but wonder what is being used by Mare Island in place of this unidentifiable material, one well known to this command.

5. SKIPJACK personnel during this period has become accustomed to the use of “Ersatz” the vast amount of incoming non-essential paper work, and in so doing felt that the wish of the Bureau of Ships for “reduction of paper work” is being complied with thus effectually “killing two birds with one stone”.

6. It is believed by this Command that the stamped notation “cannot identify” was possibly an error, and this is simply a case of shortage of strategic war material, the SKIPJACK probably being low on the priority list.

7. In order to cooperate in war effort at small local sacrifice, the SKIPJACK desires no further action to be taken until the end of current war which has created a situation aptly described as “War is Hell”.

J.W. COE

Found at LETTERS OF NOTE here.

Men and women with drive, determination, courage and talent.

Men and women of honor.

Sailors who can withstand the toughest environments and who thrive in the arena with the toughest challenges.

Sailors who are devoted to the professional development and well-being of their Shipmates.

Sailors for whom it is the content of their character that matters, and not the color of their skin.

Admiral John Harvey
Commander, Fleet Forces Command

Let’s hope we can bring the rest of Navy leadership on board with Admiral Harvey’s thinking and concentrate on character and not color when we are recruiting men and women for Naval service.  It may be too much to hope for.

As Covey notes “In attempts to be efficient, we often overlook effectiveness and destroy our capability for getting the results necessary to succeed”.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – by Steven Covey has sold more than 15 million copies.

7 Habits of High Efficient People – has not even been written.

Efficiency without effectiveness is just foolishness.

Here’s a thoughtful post over at Connecting The Dots by Commander Sean Heritage that is worth your time.  Seeking Inefficiencies.  Something we should all be looking for.  Don’t let being efficient make you ineffective!

Bravo Zulu, gentlemen.