U.S. NAVIOCOM Menwith Hill Station

An open letter to the IW Community

A few years ago the Cryptologic community made a significant transition as we sought to identify ourselves with the emerging mission area of Information Warfare (IW).  As a part of that transition, which ended quietly a few years later, we shifted the title of our officer corps from “Cryptologic Officer” to “Information Warfare Officer,” or IWO.  At the same time, the title of our enlisted cadre remained Cryptologic Technicians (CT).  Almost all that remains of that transition today is the title IWO.  Meanwhile, the term IW now officially refers to “Irregular Warfare.”

Today, our community is on a clear and steady course.  The Cryptologic Community Foundational Principles was issued with the intent to, “unify the efforts of the Information Warfare (IW) and Cryptologic (CT) Community, as we continue to create value through deliberate development of specialized expertise across our core skills...”  A particularly germane sentence from that document includes direction that we will, “go forward to our roots” and “focus on professionalization within SIGINT, CNO, and EW skill sets.”  The idea that we will “go forward” to our roots, as well as the focus on those three core skills, is especially pertinent to this discussion.  While communications technology has evolved, the very core of our competence remains grounded in the roots established by the likes of Captain Joseph J. Rochefort, Station HYPO, OP-20-G, and the “On the Roof Gang.”  Though the specific means by which we do so continues to evolve, our mandate remains “to create time and effects” for, and as, operational commanders.  As we do just that, it is clear that no single term in the U.S. Military lexicon, to include IW, encapsulates the core skills to which we are clearly committed and have been since that document was signed by each of our community’s Flag Officers and Senior Civilians serving at the time.

The final step of our transition should be to reestablish “Cryptologic Officer” as the official title for our officer cadre.  Information Warfare is no longer valid and the term IWO serves as a distraction from the clear course you continue to set. More importantly, as we “go forward to our roots” this change will make clear that we are a singular Cryptologic Community with both officer and enlisted warfighters who are aligned in name, competence, and vision.  A return to the title Cryptologist is far more than symbolic.  It is a name that represents our rich history, communicates who we are, and will serve to help focus our future.  As with any public change, this one will take time and the messaging is critical.  Should this change occur, it will be our collective responsibility as a community to amplify the message, and help all to understand the intent behind this change.

Sincerely,
C. H. Hall
LCDR, U.S. Navy

And, better thinkers make better writers - Jim Stavridis

Efficiency

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. "

 Peter F. Drucker (1909 - 2005)

Share your great ideas

TED (owned by The Sapling Foundation) fosters the spread of great ideas. It aims to provide a platform for the world's smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future. Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea. Consider:

• An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination. 
• An idea weighs nothing.
• It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
• And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
• It can reshape that mind's view of the world.
• It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind's owner.
• It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.

OUR COLLABORATION ACROSS

THE INFORMATION DOMINANCE CORPS

IS CHANGING THE MANNER IN WHICH 

THE NAVY CONDUCTS  COMBAT AT SEA 

AND PREVENTS WAR. 

OPNAV N2/N6 is actively seeking your ideas.  SHARE THEM. Create a better future. It's where you'll spend the rest of your life.

My former boss, SECDEF Rumsfeld was fond of saying, "If you're not being criticized, you may not be doing much." If you are a man of action (MOA), you are bound to upset some folks. Providing constructive criticism is an art form in and of itself. How do you practice the art?

Losing an amazing connection with our past - more on the importance of writing

We’ve lost an amazing connection with our past. Unlike the buggy whip or the clay tablet, written letters are more than just words whose medium has passed. They’re pricelessly annotated: flourishes of the script, cramped little words clearly written in the dark, in haste, stained with tears, grease, or blood. Reducing them to electronic bits, trite acronyms and fractured English sucks the marrow from the bones of their message, leaving a harrowed skeleton without the beauty of a full bodied letter.

Those of us who write in journals, who consecrate our thoughts, ideas and feelings to the printed page are carrying on a sacred tradition, one that blogs, twitter feeds and Facebook “walls” can never replace. Nor should they, as the power of our words is diluted, somehow, when they’re cast to the ether’s wind instead of being nestled into an envelope, or blotted into place on a single side of a single page of a singular book.

Shlomi Harif's full post is HERE.

CTT1 Steve Daugherty - gone 8 years now

CTT1 Steve Daugherty, one of our students at NTTC Corry Station, Pensacola Florida while I was Director of Training, was killed in Iraq on my daughter's birthday. Steve and I shared birthdays - 16 May.  Recognized by NSA as a cryptologic hero - HERE.

The information below is from his FaceBook site -maintained by his family. 

CTT1 (Cryptologic Technician Technical First Class) Steven P. Daugherty, born in Apple Valley, California, was killed in action July 6, 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq, by an improvised explosive device (IED). He was once student of the month at Barstow High School and made the honor roll at Barstow Community College. After graduating with an associate's degree in liberal studies, Steven enlisted in the Navy, where he worked with elite Navy SEAL teams, providing critical intelligence support to troops on the ground.

On that fateful day in July, Steven and his team were returning from a highly sensitive Joint Task Force operation in direct support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, when their vehicle struck an IED, killing him and the two other members of his unit. According to the National Security Agency, it turned out that the work he and his team performed earlier that day played a decisive role in thwarting a dangerous group of insurgents who were trying to kill U.S. and Coalition forces. Today, across from our nation's Capitol, Steven rests in peace in the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery.

Steven was respected by his peers as a professional and dedicated cryptologic technician, and his work was vital to the success of important combat missions. He was a decorated Sailor, having been awarded a Bronze Star (with combat "V"), Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon and other medals and commendations. His name is inscribed on National Security Agency's Memorial Wall, "They Served in Silence." Steven is only the second recipient of the National Intelligence Medal for Valor.

Steven was a loving 28-year-old father to an adoring 5-year-old son. A loyal brother to three fellow warfighters - two Airmen and one Soldier, Richard, Robert, and Kristine. And a faithful son to his parents, Thomas and Lydia.

Most of all, Steven P. Daugherty was a patriot who gave the full measure of devotion defending America's freedom.

In naming this important building to honor the sacrifice of Steven P. Daugherty, the Navy dedicates to him the latest addition to the nation's premiere Joint Warfare Assessment Laboratory at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division. The Daugherty Memorial Assessment Center will stand as an ever-present reminder of Steven -- and to every Sailor, Marine, Soldier, and Airman who has given their life in defense of this country. This dedication also commemorates the groundbreaking work NSWC Corona is doing to support the Joint IED Defeat Organization in its mission to combat the threat of IEDs against our Armed Forces. 

In addition to supporting needed counter-IED efforts, the Daugherty Memorial Assessment Center greatly enhances NSWC Corona’s ability to support key national missions. With it, NSWC Corona can provide Strike Group interoperability assessment needed to certify ships for deployment; provide critical flight analysis for all Navy surface missile systems; provide performance assessment of Aegis and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships throughout their entire lifecycle; and finally, NSWC Corona can centralize, process, and distribute the Navy's combat and weapon system data on one of the largest classified networks in the Department of Defense.

The Daugherty Memorial Assessment Center is a state-of-the-art analysis and assessment asset that gives the nation extensive capability to protect our Armed Forces, our country, and our freedom.

Writing - free time

Some friends will write to you in their free time and true friends will free some time to write to you.

Words on educating the workforce about planning from NGA Director Cardillo

As we attend to professional development, we should be educating the entire workforce on the value of planning, careful execution, performance metrics—all of the things that relate to maintaining standards and promoting sustainability for or- ganizations of tremendous scale and a large scope of responsibilities. That said, I can’t predict the future. Perhaps those who take our places will find some substitute for strategy, or maybe the Internet-of-Things will allow everything to become automatically self-correcting like a self-driving car. I don’t see that coming, or coming very soon, though. Remember, we exist because we support people in harm’s way and because the people capable of doing that harm—active, creative, and rarely perfectly predictable—are very cunning and inventive. It takes people to understand people. 

CNO's Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC)

You can listen to a recent interview by LCDR Chuck Hall with LT Jason Knudson and CTR1(IDW) Lucian Gauthier talking about innovation on Information Dominance Corps Self Synchronization LIVE (Recorded yesterday).

The recording is HERE.

Setting Organizational Strategy

For much of the 20th century, “leadership” in the Navy has meant “control.” Senior Navy leaders established formal structures and processes. They handed Sailors detailed instructions and specifications that directed them to perform specific tasks in a precise manner. Ships, squadrons and commands operated in well-defined stovepipes and their processes/systems were very hierarchical.

These organizations no longer operate in the same way they did during the last century. Today’s Sailors have different expectations than did Sailors of their parents' and grandparents' generation when they served. The world is more complex. and so is the Navy. Sustained performance improvement in the Navy can be achieved only by seeing and managing interrelationships across the entire enterprise, rather than by asserting and hoping for linear cause and effect.

Arie de Geus, former coordinator of strategic planning at Royal Dutch Shell, published an article in the Harvard Business Review in 1988 called Planning as Learning, in which he proposed that the ability to continually rethink one’s purpose and methods was not just a valuable technique, but the single factor most responsible for competitive advantage. As long as the Navy possesses the ability to innovate and to develop its Sailors, it would always remain one jump ahead of their competitors. This is the essence of strategic management.

Paraphrased from "The Strategy Bridge Approach to Strategic Management" written by the President and CEO of Strategy Bridge International, Mark A. Wilson. His privately owned firm is eleven years old.  He is a retired Navy Reserve Captain. For more information contact:

Strategy Bridge International, Inc.
9 North Loudoun Street, Suite 208
Winchester, VA 22601- 4798

www.strategybridge.com

Where is she now - Captain Sara Joyner

Following her tour as CAG Carrier Airwing THREE, Captain Sara Joyner is still on afterburner... at the CNO's SSG.

CNO Fellow CNO Strategic Studies Group

US Navy

September 2014 – Present (9 months) Newport Rhode Island

The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Strategic Studies Group (SSG) is hand selected to serve on a 10-month assignment which explores innovations in naval warfighting, generates operational concepts, underpins them with technologies, and recommends immediately actionable steps directly to the Chief of Naval Operations. This assignment culminates in concept generation that informs and influences the CNO and his senior staff as they determine Navy policy and program investment for the future.

Don't let this be the theme of your command tour

Ask me for your free copy of 

"Charting a New Course to Command Excellence."

It can make a real difference.

Over 1.7 million views of my blog

And more than 5,129,126 views on Google+

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate it.

The Gap Between Strategy and Results

FCC/C10F published their Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 yesterday.  Now the hard work begins...executing the strategy to bridge the gap between strategy and results.  As noted on page 22, "Many organizations struggle with executing their strategic plans." FCC/C10F doesn't intend to be one of those organizations.  FCC/C10F is developing a detailed execution plan which will translate goals into measurable, focused results. The execution plan will specify the individual on the leadership team who owns the goal and when it will be accomplished. There will be regular progress reviews and FCC/C10F will foster productive relationships, open channels of communication and encourage strong engagement.

The Plan

You can read the entire plan HERE.  The Executive Leadership Group Inc. and Captain Roy Petty's N5 team delivered the goods.

Let's INNOVATE like its 1999 !!

You can read it HERE.  You can keep Sailors motivated and focused if you don't keep jerking them around.  A really good leader told me - "Steady strain on all lines."

Commanding Officer VFA ONE FIVE ONE fired for maltreatment of a Sailor

Commander Kurt Bohlken was relieved on 2 May by Rear Admiral Ron Boxall, commander, Carrier Strike Group THREE, following an Admiral's Mast proceeding where Bohlken was found guilty of violating Uniform Code Military Justice articles 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) and 93 (maltreatment) of a Sailor.

Bohlken had been in command for just over a year. VFA ONE FIVE ONE is currently embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).

True ?

Happy that more and more of our IDC officers are doing this

Keep at it.

This ??NIOC CO?? is on top of it

Mike,

We took the SECNAV's memo on INNOVATION to heart and jumped in with both feet on 21 April.  To that end, we:

• Established our command Innovation Advisory Council - co-chaired by the XO and the President of our First Class Petty Officers' Association,
• Defined the processes and responsibilities for accelerating innovation across the command,
• My command Innovation Tiger Team identified and connected with critical "beyond the command lifelines" stakeholders,
• Allocated command funds for innovative ideas iaw through OPNAVINST 1650.8D (CASH AWARDS FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL FOR SUGGESTIONS, INVENTIONS, SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS AND DISCLOSURES), and
• Are working to develop an efficient innovation process to support DON-wide innovation objectives for the future.  We want to lead in all areas possible.

We think these actions will give us a head start on building our command's culture of innovation. We've done well with our culture of fitness, our culture of inclusiveness, our culture of cultural and ethnic awareness and our culture of work/life balance.

Vr/The Skipper

Rear Admiral Sean R. Filipowski promoted to 2 star today and moved to OSD

Today, 1 May 2015, Rear Admiral Filipowski becomes the senior military advisor for cyber to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Christine Wormuth.

Fifteen years ago, he relieved me as Commanding Officer of U.S. Naval Security Group Activity Yokosuka, Japan.