Thursday, April 11, 2013

Origin of the Captain Joseph Rochefort Distinguished Leadership Award 2011

This is proof that a Sailor with an idea, and the ability to express it, can make things happen on a grand scale (i.e., on the community level).  Put some action into your ideas.  Make them happen.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I recall LT Chuck Hall, Sean Heritage, LT (retired) Jerrold Becklehimer and some others were involved in making this happen.

Anonymous said...

The irony of this award is priceless. Captain Rochefort battled the Washington bureaucrats throughout his career and was nearly undone by the Op-20 crowd in DC. He was relived of his post as OIC of Station Hypo through the manipulations of jealous officers in OP-20. Admirable was the dignity and integrity that he maintained when the Navy sent him to be the Commanding Officer of a floating dry dock as payback for one-upping the DC crowd. OP-20 eventually realized they needed him, in spite of his willingness to speak truth to power, and he was brought back into the community and actually worked at the Nebraska Avenue site towards the end of the war. Much is to be learned through the study of Joe Rochefort. Far more than his well documented brillance at Station Hypo.

Anonymous said...

As I recall, there were two brothers - one an admiral and the other a captain who tried to discredit Joe and take all the credit for themselves. Today such a thing would never happen.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 933
Yes, the Redman brothers. I think your comment that it could never happen today was tongue in cheek.
It could very well happen today. Rochefort was caught in the friction between the Director of Naval Communications, and the Director of Naval Intelligence.The DNC "owned" morse code radioman and the radios, DNI owned language and analysis. Redman sent a letter to the VCNO saying they needed stronger leadership at HYPO from the DNC side, since the officer there (Rochefort) was a language officer and did really understand communications. Yes.... it could happen today.

My Kids' Mom said...

Amazing to read that this sort of thing happens in the U.S. Navy. I thought these intrigues only existed in companies in small towns, like my home town of Mora in Sweden.

Anonymous said...

Language and morse code should never mix.