Sunday, August 7, 2011

Ancient Navy thinking? Or still true today?

“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.” 
Bureau of Personnel Manual, 1948
“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...”
Captain Hyman G. Rickover, USN, 1953

From:
COMMANDING MEN AND MACHINES: ADMIRALSHIP, TECHNOLOGY, AND IDEOLOGY IN THE 20th CENTURY U.S. NAVY

Captain Mark R. Hagerott, Ph.D., 2008

2 comments:

Steve said...

The 1948 description seems to read most relevantly to me --although our late colleague Rickover never fails to put a hit near the bullseye...
but, where do the warriors fit into his HRM paradigm? It would seem that Gene Roddenberry and his dream crew of another ENTERPRISE are the new descriptors for a Peaceable Kingdom of lions and lambs.
better a few more Bull Halseys and Ernie Kings in our naval midst, IMHO.

now, if we can figure out how to pay those sea warriors....

Steve Myers

Anonymous said...

Mr. Steve Myers,

I have defended Adm. Hyman Rickover, on this blog and on many other occasions, because of his ability to do what he set out to do and for his persistence in doing just that. The Admiral was so locked on to what he considered his life’s work that he failed to recognize the things that were the objectives of our country. His dominance over the nuclear propulsion program on submarines did not take into consideration the purpose of the FBM Submarine, it was a weapons system, and the Admiral thought of it just as his teakettle. If the Submarine had after steering, Admiral Rickover would have cut the forward end of the Boat off and deep sixed those nuclear weapons. Then his nucs could have sailed under the ice and circumnavigated the world at their leisure doing one nuc drill after the other, and happy scrams they would have had. Unfortunately the crew would have perished because the Admiral would not allow any food stores to be kept in any engineering space.

Very Respectfully,
Navyman834