2010 VADM James Bond Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award Winners

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SUBJ/2010 VADM JAMES STOCKDALE LEADERSHIP AWARD WINNERS//

RMKS/1. I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE CDR MICHAEL A. MCCARTNEY (left), FROM THE PACIFIC FLEET, AND CDR JEFFREY M. GRIMES (right), FROM FLEET FORCES COMMAND, ARE THE 2010 RECIPIENTS OF THE VADM JAMES BOND STOCKDALE AWARD FOR INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP. CDR MCCARTNEY WAS SELECTED FOR HIS PERFORMANCE AS COMMANDING OFFICER, USS CHUNG-HOON (DDG 93) AND CDR GRIMES FOR HIS PERFORMANCE AS COMMANDING OFFICER, USS MARYLAND (SSBN 738) (GOLD).

2. THIS FLEET AWARD WAS ESTABLISHED IN HONOR OF VADM JAMES BOND STOCKDALE WHOSE DISTINGUISHED NAVAL CAREER SYMBOLIZED THE HIGHEST STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE IN BOTH PERSONAL EXAMPLE AND LEADERSHIP. THE AWARD IS PRESENTED ANNUALLY TO TWO COMMISSIONED OFFICERS ON ACTIVE DUTY BELOW THE GRADE OF CAPTAIN WHO ARE IN COMMAND OF A SINGLE SHIP, SUBMARINE, OR AVIATION SQUADRON, SEAL TEAM (OR NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE SQUADRON) OR SEAL DELIVERY VEHICLE TEAM, SPECIAL BOAT TEAM, EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL MOBILE UNIT, MOBILE DIVING AND SALVAGE UNIT, OR NAVY SPECIAL CLEARANCE TEAM DURING THE NOMINATION CYCLE. CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED BY PEERS WHO THEMSELVES MUST BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE AWARD.

3. THE 2010 WINNERS WERE CHOSEN FROM AMONG NINE OUTSTANDING FINALISTS IN A REVIEW PROCESS THAT INCLUDED SCREENING AT THE FLEET COMMANDER LEVEL AND FINAL SELECTION BY A BOARD OF SENIOR OFFICERS.

4. THE FOLLOWING FINALISTS DESERVE WELL-EARNED CONGRATULATIONS:

A. PACIFIC FLEET FINALISTS:

- CDR DAVID J. BRYSON, FORMER COMMANDING OFFICER, ELECTRONIC ATTACK SQUADRON ONE FOUR ONE (VAQ-141)
- CDR GERARD A. SOMLAI, COMMANDING OFFICER, USS NEBRASKA (SSBN 739) (BLUE)
- CDR MARVIN E. THOMPSON, FORMER COMMANDING OFFICER, USS HARPERS FERRY (LSD 49)

B. FLEET FORCES COMMAND FINALISTS:

- CDR TIMOTHY F. MURPHY, FORMER COMMANDING OFFICER, ELECTRONIC ATTACK SQUADRON ONE FOUR ZERO (VAQ 140)
- CDR ERIC H. VER HAGE, COMMANDING OFFICER, USS CARR (FFG 52)
- CDR ROBERT E. POLING III, FORMER COMMANDING OFFICER, MARITIME EXPEDITIONARY SECURITY SQUADRON TWO (MSRON TWO)
- CDR JOHN RUDELLA, COMMANDING OFFICER, NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE TACTICAL DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION SQUADRON THREE (NSWTACDEVRON THREE)

5. CDR MCCARTNEY AND CDR GRIMES, AS WELL AS ALL NOMINEES, SHOULD BE JUSTIFIABLY PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.

6. AWARDS WILL BE PRESENTED IN NOVEMBER 2010.
7. RELEASED BY ADMIRAL G. ROUGHEAD, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.//

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My story about the Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award Winners is HERE. I was very pleased to be able to add the names of these two fine leaders to my list of winners.

Master of my Fate; Captain of my Soul

"Everything I know about Epictetus I've developed myself over the years. It's been a one-on-one relationship. He's been in combat with me, leg irons with me, spent month-long stretches in blindfolds with me, has been in the ropes with me, has taught me that my true business is maintaining control over my moral purpose, in fact that my moral purpose is who I am. He taught me that I am totally responsible for everything I do and say; and that it is I who decides on and controls my own destruction and own deliverance. Not even God will intercede if He sees me throwing my life away. He wants me to be autonomous. He put me in charge of me. "It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. "

"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale

Story about the VADM J.B. Stockdale Award winners here.

No better example of leadership...

It would be difficult to imagine a better example of leadership, courage, and moral excellence than the example set by Vice Admiral James Stockdale. In contemporary jargon, Admiral Stockdale, not only talked the talk, but, more importantly, he walked the walk of a leader during his entire professional and personal life. The more one studies his life, and the more one reads his writings, the more one comes away with the conviction that Admiral Stockdale was the sort of man that comes along very seldom in life. He not only had a profound impact on his contemporaries, but he left behind a legacy that will influence generations to come.

Secretary of the Navy, Donald Winter

Defense Against Buzzword-Nomograph-Acronym Mentality

Ethics is taught in many forms in service academies and postgraduate institutions. But Stockdale wants to create a model specifically designed to help the military "regain our bearings." Says he: "Today's ranks are filled with officers who have been weaned on slogans and fads of the sort preached in the better business schools—that rational managerial concepts will cure all evils. This course is my defense against the buzzword-nomograph-acronym mentality."

VADM James Bond Stockdale, PhD, Heroism

In his class, "Foundations of Moral Obligation" at the Naval War College. Taken from TIME MAGAZINE, February 1979

VADM Stockdale Award Winners Reinforce Proven Command Excellence Principles

The superior Commanding Officer:

(Commanding Officers such as Commanders Paul E. Lyons and Robert E. Smith, the 2008 VADM James Bond Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award winners)

• Targets Key Issues
• Gets Crew to Support Command Philosophy
• Develops the Executive Officer
• Staffs to Optimize Performance
• Gets Out and About
• Builds Esprit de Corps
• Keeps His Cool
• Develops Strong Wardroom
• Values the Chief Petty Officers Quarters
• Ensures Training if Effective
• Builds Positive External Relationships
• Influences Successfully

The Complete Text below:

Navigating a New Course to Command Excellence

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Inspriational Leadership Award Winners for 2008

The 2008 winners of the VADM James Bond Stockdale Leadership Awards, Commanders Robert E. Smith and Paul J. Lyons, gave credit to their families and their subordinates. Admiral Gary Roughead presented the awards in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes on Tuesday, 4 November 2008.

Cmdr. Robert Smith is the Atlantic Fleet winner and Commander Paul Lyons won for the Pacific Fleet.

Smith commanded SEAL Team 2 and is the first SEAL to receive the Stockdale Award.

Smith led his SEALs in CENTCOM, South America and Africa. Lyons was the Commanding Officer of the forward-deployed destroyer USS STETHEM in Japan. Both men are known as "GO TO" men.

To read about the history of the VADM James Bond Stockdale Award and prior winners click on

A League of Extraordinary Officers and Gentlemen - Article rejected by PROCEEDINGS magazine.