Complexity - sometimes it really is hard

“Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.”

--Laurence J. Peter

Proven to be true nearly 100% of the time in

Outstanding Navy leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their Sailors. When Sailors believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.

Sorry I missed this IMPORTANT event on 15 August aboard USS MISSOURI in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Rear Admiral Andy Singer provides remarks on Captain Hagy's remarkable career as a Cryptologic Technician, Cryptologist and Information Warfare officer.  He was the guest speaker at Captain Jim Hagy's retirement aboard USS MISSOURI on 15 August after 40 years of service to our great Navy.

Jim Hagy in the Kunia Tunnel while CO
of Navy Information Operations Command Hawaii

Captain Jim Hagy was born in Evansville, IN, and raised in rural Virginia. He enlisted in 1974 and attended Cryptologic technician Collection “A” School at Corry Station, Pensacola, FL, graduating in 1975. 

His assignments include duty at Naval Security Group Activities in Japan, Guam, Spain, Illinois and Virginia. He was promoted to Chief Petty Officer in 1986 while deployed aboard USS IOWA (BB 61).

Hagy was commissioned in 1987 and his first assignment was NSGA Galeta Island, Republic of Panama. He was assigned to USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 968) as Electronic Warfare Officer from 1990 to 1992, and participated in the Personnel Exchange Program with the Royal Australian Navy in New South Wales, Australia, from 1993 to 1995.

Hagy reported to Naval Technical Training Center Pensacola, FL in 1995 and served as Division Officer for the CTR A and C Schools Division until 1998. He was then assigned to Commander, Amphibious Task Force Cryptologic Resource Coordinator until 2000, and assumed duties as Officer-in- Charge U.S. Naval Detachment Combined Support Group Alice Springs, Australia until 2002. Hagy was assigned to the staff of Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command Norfolk, VA, as deputy director for Naval Security Group Atlantic until 2005. His last assignment was Navy Personnel Command as Information Warfare Officer Community Manager, Senior Placement Officer, and Detailer for Navy Information Warfare Officers. He served as Commanding Officer of NIOC Hawaii from July 2008 to July 2010 and followed that with assignments in Hawaii which carried him to his retirement this month.

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Jim.  Mahalo and Aloha !!

Liz Wiseman has done it again

Don't miss your opportunity to learn more about how the rookies in your organization can help you achieve success.

"In a rapidly changing world, experience can be a curse. Being new, naïve, and even clueless can be an asset. Rookies are unencumbered, with no baggage to weigh them down, no resources to burden them, and no track record to limit their thinking or aspirations. For today’s knowledge workers, constant learning is more valuable than mastery."

Our Shipmate, Captain Sean Heritage, has a vignette in the book.  The Navy is a learning organization.  Being a "perpetual rookie" may be an advantage for you.  You can pre-order the book now on AMAZON.  It ships on 14 October.  What a great Navy Birthday gift !!

Captain Eric Nave - Australia's Captain Joseph Rochefort

Captain Eric Nave, an Australian naval officer, was the first to unravel Japanese telegraphy and to break Imperial Japanese Navy codes.  Yet few have heard of the exploits and achievements of this exceptionally talented man who did so much for the safety and security of our country (Australia).

From

A MAN OF INTELLIGENCE

Ian Pfenningwerth

Leadership of men

Captain James Mills - Commanding Officer, Navy Information Operations Command Hawaii

Captain James Mills relieved Captain Justin F. Kershaw as CO, NAVIOCOM Hawaii in a ceremony aboard USS MISSOURI in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 21 August 2014.

As a Surface Warfare Officer and Information Professional Officer, he served in the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets supporting Operation Desert Storm, counter-narcotics operations, Noble Eagle, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.  He is a recognized expert in Navy command & control, communications, combat systems, Information Warfare and cyber operations, leading establishment of several network-centric capabilities and programs now used in the US Navy. 

He has held key positions in major Fleet and Joint head quarters to include duty on the Navy Staff during 9/11. Additionally, he participated in humanitarian relief operations in the Philippines, following Hurricane Katrina, and the Haiti earthquake.

He is a 1990 graduate of the University of Arizona (computer science and political science), holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, and other graduate certificates from the Joint Forces Staff College, Naval Postgraduate School, and Naval War College.

For words that matter

It's courteous, classy, caring and civilized to pick up a pen.

Margaret Shepherd
The Art of the Handwritten Note

The Navy pours cold water on the ALS "Ice Bucket" Challenge

An unnamed unofficial source with the Blue Angels commented, 
"We never got the memo."

CNO's new Navigation Plan

The CNO recently published the new navigation plan.  You can read it HERE.

Coming soon !

Establishing a Navy Information Dominance Type Command 

By: Captain Joe Gradisher, OPNAV N2/N6 PAO

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert has directed Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (CUSFFC) to establish an Information Dominance Type Command (TYCOM).

In his March 4, 2014 memorandum to CUSFFC, Greenert wrote, "I approve the establishment of Navy Information Dominance Forces as an echelon III command under your administrative control. As the immediate superior in command, oversee the command's implementation...with an initial operating capability of 1 October 2014."

The TYCOM will report directly to CUSFFC and have supporting relationships with the rest of the Navy, focusing primarily on the Navy's information environment. Commander, Navy Cyber Forces, Rear Adm. Diane Webber will have her command re-designated as Commander, Navy Information Dominance Forces (NAVIDFOR) and will provide the initial infrastructure, resources and assets for the TYCOM.

Webber noted that the new TYCOM's mission will be to "support Combatant Commanders and Navy Commanders ashore and afloat by providing forward deployable, sustainable, combat-ready Information Dominance forces."

Full operational capability for NAVIDFOR is expected by the end of the calendar year. A Navy Type Command or TYCOM, coordinates the Man, Train and Equip (MT&E) functions for specific communities within the Navy. For example, Commander, Naval Air Forces exercises administrative control over aviation forces and Commander, Navy Surface Forces does the same for the surface warfare community.The IDC was formed in 2009 and built on the deep expertise and strengths of the officers/enlisted, active/reserve, and civilian workforce from the oceanography/meteorology, information professional, information warfare, naval intelligence and space cadre.

The IDC is an inter-disciplinary corps that possesses a deep understanding of potential adversaries and the battlespace, is able to accurately identify targets and brings an array of non-kinetic, offensive and defensive capabilities to the fight in the Information Age.

According to Vice Adm. Ted N. "Twig" Branch, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance (N2/N6) and the lead for the Navy's IDC, "The continuing evolution of Information Dominance as a Navy warfighting discipline demands a single, integrated TYCOM to provide relevant and effective capabilities, including a highly trained and motivated workforce. I'm confident the new NAVIDFOR will provide the Fleet and the entire Navy the ID capabilities needed to deter, fight and win within this information domain."

Previously, those MT&E functions for the various communities within the IDC were executed by OPNAV N2/N6, Fleet Cyber Command/Commander Tenth Fleet, Navy Cyber Forces, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command.

Commander, Navy Information Dominance Forces will be based in Suffolk, Va.

Bravo Zulu Rear Admiral Steve Parode !!

Vice Admiral Jan E. Tighe, Commander Fleet Cyber Command/TENTH Fleet promotes Captain Steve Parode to Rear Admiral (Lower Half).  BZ Steve! CONGRATULATIONS.

From 365 letters

I like THIS.

How I feel

 I feel an immense sense of responsibility. Not just to do well, but to do good.

Stay with the bast*rd til he's on the bottom

From: Entrepreneur Magazine

Advice for the Commanding Officer

Here is some advice that will help you avoid a few other mistakes that new Commanding Officers are often prone to make due to inexperience.

• Do not pretend to know everything. If you think you know all the answers—you simply haven’t heard (or asked) all the questions yet.

• Do not make new policy statements arbitrarily to assert your authority. Do not do anything arbitrarily; think about how your people will perceive the new policy.

• Do not alienate everyone with such statements as “I’m going to make this a first-class command.” It might already be.

• Do not make snap decisions. Ask your staff for their advice and involve them in the decision-making process whenever possible. This is an especially useful technique for dealing with disciplinary problems; have the supervisor recommend what to do about a troublesome Sailor or civilian. In any case, if you really involve your people and listen to them, it’s almost guaranteed that you will learn more from them than they will learn from you.

• Use all available talent to help you. Recognize expertise where you find it. The “expert” at fixing some specific problem may be the lowest ranking Sailor in the command. Remember, you cannot possibly accomplish the mission alone!

On the horizon for later this month

NIOC HAWAII

 Mission Statement

                    1. Provide qualified personnel to work the NSA Hawaii national mission.

                    2. Provide quality Information Warfare support to the fleet.

                    3. Develop and train all personnel to be the best Sailors in the Fleet.

Captain James Mills, an Information Professional (IP) Officer, is the prospective commanding officer of NIOC Hawaii (CTF 1070). He will be relieving Captain Justin F. Kershaw, an Information Warfare (IW) officer. Captain Mills’ IP background, however, is ideally suited to the command’s operations relative to the development of DoD’s Cyber Mission Force, the Navy’s pivot to the Pacific theater, and the rapid advances in information technology that are changing the dynamics of Naval warfare. His unique operational and technical experience includes several tours in the Pacific Fleet and extensive education in electrical engineering and computer science. He was one of CNO’s first Cyber Fellows, with significant experience in cyber defense and operations dating back to 1997’s Eligible Receiver – DoD’s first large scale evaluation of the impacts of cyber warfare on DoD and national infrastructure. Given the Information Dominance Corps' cross-detailing approach, NIOC Hawaii stands to benefit heavily from his professional experience and knowledge.

Captain Mills points out, “Cross-detailing allows us to tackle the complex problems faced by IDC commands from a multi-discipline approach. Through cross-detailing, the IDC will create a cadre of leaders able to build strategies and plans with the benefit of the ‘whole of the IDC’ as opposed to just relying on a single specialty.”

 

Commander Rob Damsky (an Information Warfare officer) is the command's Executive Officer. 

Got a nice notecard from the new CO of NIOC Pensacola

I appreciate that CDR Sears only has so much time. Commanding Officers are busy people. I appreciate that he took the time to send me a personal note.  I really like that kind of courtesy and commitment to Navy tradition and custom.

It brings to mind this quote from Denis Waitley (Thanks LCDR Andy Reeves for bringing him to my attention.) "Simply put, time usage is about personal choices, daily choices of how to expend 86,400 seconds, 1,440 minutes or 24 hours. The choices, I believe, come from our attitudes about time and our willingness to set goals that take us to our desired destinations. I believe ultimately, daily time usage rests firmly on one’s personal mission statement; the written principle about what matters in the world."

So, CDR Sears, Thank you again for your time.

From DEEP in the Archives

Awarded to AFJROTC Cadet LtCol Mike Lambert at 

General H.H. Arnold High School 

in Wiesbaden, Germany. GR71st AFJROTC Unit.

Signed by LtCol (USAF Retired) Charles Kelly

NAVY TIMES reporting on this unusual story from June 2014

This is how the Navy reported this in JUNE:

USS Cowpens Commanding Officer, Command Master Chief Relieved 

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The commanding officer of USS Cowpens (CG 63), Capt. Gregory W. Gombert, and the ship's command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Gabriel J. Keeton, were relieved by Rear Adm. Michael Smith, Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 3, on June 10, due to loss of confidence in Gombert's and Keeton's ability to effectively lead and carry out their assigned duties. 

The loss of confidence stems from the results of a series of inspections following the ship's return from deployment. An investigation is underway. Gombert and Keeton have been temporarily re-assigned to CSG 3 and Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet staffs, respectively. 

Capt. Robert B. Chadwick II will assume temporary duties as CO, and Master Chief Petty Officer Richard J. Putnam will temporarily assume duties as CMC. Cowpens is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser homeported in San Diego, and recently returned from a Western Pacific deployment. NAVY TIMES expands on the story considerably HERE.

So many mistakes were made by the TRIAD.  Yet, the COWPENS' Sailors (officers, white hats and CPOs) brought her home safely despite all of the challenges.

Overheard in the OPNAV p-way last week

One Commander to another in the p-way on the C-Ring.

"John, I think you'll find that the toughest part of working on this staff is learning good leadership traits without ever having the benefit of seeing any."  hmmm

Let's hope he was just messing with you. 

Captain James E. Brokaw retires after 41 years of Service

Captain V, RDML Filipowski and Captain James E. Brokaw

From NAVY NEWS...

FORT GORDON, Ga. (NNS) -- Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Georgia's commanding officer retired after 41 years of naval service, Aug. 1.

Capt. James E. Brokaw leaves the Sailors, civilians, and family members of NIOC Georgia with a lasting impression.

"He enabled Sailors to focus on unity of command and gave them the freedom to focus on operations," recalled Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Ryan Roe, leading chief petty officer of one of 32 divisions Brokaw led.

"He [was] my fourth commanding officer," said Nikol Berns, executive assistant to Brokaw, "but he was the first CO to ask 'How can we do what we do and make it fun?' and actually accomplish it."

Shared Success

Strive to be the best Sailor in your section.  Once you accomplish that, strive to be the best in your division.  Success?  Become the best in your department.  Then strive to be the best Sailor in your command. Strive to be the best and you may succeed. However, strive to help someone else succeed and you'll really be accomplishing something.  Success breeds success. Help your Shipmates achieve their goals.  Shared success brings the greatest satisfaction.

Our Shipmate LT Ryan Haag has a book

Check it out HERE.

Protect the maverick

“General Mathew B. Ridgway once asked five senior officers from the various services: ‘What do you think is the most important job of the chief of staff?’

They did not know.

Ridgway answered: ‘“To protect the maverick, because only the maverick makes progress.’” 

I really like Mark Miller at Chic fil A

His blog post about The Art of Note Taking is HERE.