Tag: CNO

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Inspriational Leadership Award Winners for 2008

The 2008 winners of the VADM James Bond Stockdale Leadership Awards, Commanders Robert E. Smith and Paul J. Lyons, gave credit to their families and their subordinates. Admiral Gary Roughead presented the awards in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes on Tuesday, 4 November 2008.

Cmdr. Robert Smith is the Atlantic Fleet winner and Commander Paul Lyons won for the Pacific Fleet.

Smith commanded SEAL Team 2 and is the first SEAL to receive the Stockdale Award.

Smith led his SEALs in CENTCOM, South America and Africa. Lyons was the Commanding Officer of the forward-deployed destroyer USS STETHEM in Japan. Both men are known as “GO TO” men.

To read about the history of the VADM James Bond Stockdale Award and prior winners click on

A League of Extraordinary Officers and Gentlemen – Article rejected by PROCEEDINGS magazine.

Effective communication

Effective communication is the result of a deliberate strategy, and training and education in the profession is a key to achieving success to its fullest extent. The risks can be high, but the rewards are also high. There is no satisfaction quite like that of seeing the positive results of your efforts in print or on the air, or watching your Sailors act on new Navy policy because they understand it.

But communication success is certainly not easy, and cannot be expected with one attempt.

Some communications researchers claim that it takes “seven touches” for a concept to be successfully communicated. People must hear it, see it, feel it, pick it up, turn it upside down, shake it and hear it again before they’ll remember anything substantial about it. We need more than a deliberate strategy; we need persistent presence on the communication front.

Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations in the 2008 Navy Playbook

To my Sailors…

“If you care to do so, you can do something for me. That is take care of each other. Be honorable. Do what is right. Forgive when it makes sense, punish when you must, but always work to make the latter unnecessary by working to help people be all they really can and should be. My idea of one-on-one leadership really will work if you let it and honestly apply it. We have great leaders, and I know you’ll succeed.”

“Finally, for those who want to tear our Navy down, I guess I’ve given them plenty to write about for a while. But I will soon be forgotten. You, our great Navy people, will live on. I am proud of you. I am proud to have led you if only for a short time. I wish I had done it better.”

Admiral Mike Boorda, former Chief of Naval Operations

Admiral Boorda shot himself in the chest on 16 May 1996, my 40th birthday, while I was home on leave from COMSEVENTHFLT embarked in USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. When I got the news shortly after 2pm that day, I was overcome by grief. I will never forget him or the day it happened. More than a year before his suicide, he had visited the Blue Ridge and got the Chiefs and Sailors all fired up over the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) program. After his visit, the ship put on a full court press to get all the Sailors qualified ASAP. 1/2 of my First Class Petty Officers were assigned Extra Military Instruction (EMI) for being delinquent in their qualifications. In 1994-1995 I met Admiral Boorda many times while I was the Flag Aide to the Commander, Naval Security Group Command. Small in stature, the man was a GIANT among Sailors. I loved hearing him speak. I always thought he was talking to me personally. The Sailors loved him – every one of them. And with good reason, he was someone who loved them back. His suicide was a TRAGEDY for our Navy.

Good training and leadership


“… all the wonderful platforms aren’t worth the metal or the composite material that they are made from if we don’t have motivated and dedicated Sailors to bring them to life. Motivated and dedicated Sailors are produced by two main things – good training and good leadership.”

Admiral Jay Johnson, Chief of Naval Operations