Thursday, January 30, 2014

How is your Mess doing? MCPON Guidance for CPO365

MCPON's Guidance is HERE.

A Final Note

I expect every Chief Petty Officer to read this guidance in its entirety, and for all CPO Messes to discuss it as groups. While the guidance is not all-inclusive, it does provide a proven foundation for effectively developing a new generation of CPOs. Solid leadership, sound judgment, common sense and situational awareness need to prevail in all situations not expressly covered in this document.

I expect you and every member of your Mess to exercise the leadership and professionalism that we are entrusted with each and every day; hence CPO 365. We each know the difference between right and wrong and will be held accountable. I have the utmost confidence in our ability as a Mess to continue to build upon the legacy of success forged by all that have worn anchors.

6 comments:

CPO - the initiated kind said...

I can't find the MCPON in my chain of command chart.

Anonymous said...

Me trust you chiefs so much I spell it all out for you and God help you screwups if you deviate one jot or tittle from the explicit detailed guidance spelled out in this mighty directive I give you.

Anonymous said...

Can someone educate a JO on where the term "mess" came from when addressing the CPOs as a collective? Have heard several comments of late about how the CPOs are a mess, but can't correct them simply because I don't know the correct answer.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 7:40 AM:

From wikipedia

There are normally three messes (dining facilities): the Officers' Mess (called the Wardroom in Naval establishments), for commissioned officers and officer cadets; the Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess (Navy: Chiefs' and Petty Officers' Mess), for senior non-commissioned officers and warrant officers; and the Junior Ranks Mess, for junior non-commissioned officers, privates, and seamen.

Anonymous said...

USN warships have Chief Petty Officers (senior enlisted sailors E7-E9). The ship is designed from the outset to furnish them with an area onboard where they live and dine together. This area is called the Chief's Mess. Sometime in the last 30 years people took to referring to the collective chiefs of a command as the Chief's mess. The collective form of address for a group of Chiefs used to be, Chiefs but now they say mess.

Warships also have other accommodations for messing as follows:
Flag ships have a flag mess for the Admiral and senior staff officers.
Large ships the CO has his own mess which is him and anybody he invites.
Regular ships have a Wardroom Mess which is where the officers dine. The collective for all officers on the ship is, 'wardroom'.
The Chiefs have the Chiefs mess where they live and eat. Large ships may still have Senior Chief's Mess where the top tier eat and dine. I only saw that on amphibious ships that have taken over senior NCO troop berthing and converted it for the more senior chiefs.
E6 and below get their food from the galley and eat on the mess decks. They may have separate dining area for the First Class Petty Officers.

Shore commands now pretend they are ships and claim the same terms for their different branches of sailors except officers who don't and regular sailors who don't. Most shore commands are on naval bases which provide galleys for all to eat. Naval Bases also used to have separate clubs for officers (Open Mess), Chiefs (Chief's Club) and Enlisted clubs. Since the navy doesn't allow anybody to drink or carry on with the opposite sex within a thousand miles of a navy installation, the clubs have fallen on hard times and most officers clubs vanished 20 years ago. They simply no longer exist.

I hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

I can say, as many before me have said, NIOC Hawaii has a chief's MESS. They are thick as thieves, and will not hesitate to choose reputation over personal integrity. This is unfortunate, because the ultimate result is... Many qualified, ambitious, exceptional sailors are leaving the force and pursuing other avenues which allow them to serve their country. The navy will continue to lose more and more qualified personnel until the senior officers address this issue.