RADM G. Pat March - Traits

RADM G. Pat March presenting the RADM March Award for Foreign Language Excellence to Lt Mike Zanski, Officer In Charge, Naval Security Group Detachment Barbers Point, Hawaii in 1985. (Front row: RADM James S. McFarland, RADM March, Mike Zanski, CAPT Charles F. Authement, CDR T. K. Quigley. Back row: Jim Riley, Dean Horvath, Danny Browning, Taylor Smith, Ron Grenier, and Curt Gomer)

“Traits to make me a successful officer”

Belief in the importance of the mission of the Navy and the Cryptologic Community and the ability to articulate and pass that belief on to subordinates (and seniors).

Readiness to undertake any mission and to accept the job assigned. I never campaigned for any certain position but rather tried to do the best I could at what the Navy decided I should be doing. This is why, when I was the Assignment Officer in BuPers, I sometimes wasn’t too sympathetic with young officers’ whining when they came into my office.

From the very beginning I understood the importance of the Chief Petty Officers (CPO). I have a facility for getting along with people, but, at the same time, I think I had an inherent sense of what was important and what was fair – both to the Navy and to the individual.

“Traits to make me a successful cryptologist”

I suppose a basic fascination with puzzles and the ability to write a coherent story from fragmentary data.