Thursday, July 8, 2010

"It's not my problem" ethos

From the Admiral Balisle commission:

“From the most senior officers to the most junior petty officer, the culture reveals itself in personal attitudes ranging from resignation to frustration to toleration. The downward spiral of the culture is seen throughout the ship, in the longstanding acceptance of poor housekeeping, preservation and corrosion control. Over time, the ignored standard now becomes the norm. Sailors watching their commanding officer, department head, division officer and chief petty officer step over running rust, peeling non-skid or severe structure damage long enough associate this activity as the standard.”

Sadly, this report from Fleet Forces Command:

Capt. Cate Mueller, a spokeswoman for Fleet Forces Command, said
"Balisle's report didn't tell the Navy anything it didn't already know."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I might not have said anything new on the deckplate level, but it's the Admirals who have been overlooking the problems and allowing the ships (and their Captains) to get away with it.

Anonymous said...

This started the downward spiral... http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=14644 .

Add SHIPTRAIN to budget and right-sizing and you end up with poor material condition, poor standards, and low morale.

Senior Chief R. said...

The basis of leadership: "Leadership by EXAMPLE!" It's not happening! Maybe we need a NKO course on the subject? NOT!!!

Sacto43 said...

"The basis of leadership: "Leadership by EXAMPLE!" It's not happening! Maybe we need a NKO course on the subject? NOT!!!"

HA! Unfortunelty that is EXACTLY what will become of this. Yet another mandatory online training course.

Q1. Naval leaders should...

a. Lead by example
b. Follow by example
c. Follow the example
d. Watch the Army-Navy football game.

You scored 100%! Congraduolations! You have now been trained in Naval Leadership!

And another naval issue has been solved via on-line training.

xformed said...

"Balisle's report didn't tell the Navy anything it didn't already know."

Great! So, if they knew it, why did this report have to say it? Basically an O-6 admitting they had failed, then trying to make it sound like the commission didn't do anything useful.

Yes, it did: It put light onto a darkened subject.

Oh, I worked for VADM Balisle, and at least one of the other retired officers who was on his team for this. They knew their stuff and their assessment was based on several years of direct and extensive increasing readiness efforts in the early 90s...that worked.

Anonymous said...

The Navy has been in a downward spiral since the late 1990's. Most senior leaders want to make their mark by saving X amount of dollars from the budget and build a corporate mentality.
The Navy is NOT a corporation! It is a force designed to protect the nations way of life. We have no stock holders we pay dividens too. The military is a money losing enterprise. Thats not say we can not make improvements in our budget or supply process but it's never going to turn a profit.
The Senior pentagon leadership is so out of touch with reality it's sad. Somewhere along the line they have decided to ignore the situation and make the rest of us suffer for their policies.
Want to know why our JO's get out because the stupidity and ineffeciencies is overwhelming and no one wants to seem to fix it.
We have been asked to do more and more with less people, money, time.