Advice for the captain

The captain may be a better division officer, department head, or executive office than any person in his wardroom, but if he is doing these jobs, who is doing his job?  He would only be wasting that most precious resource, the skill and motivation of his officers.  There are times the captain should step in and exercise his talent, but he is in his command position primarily to supervise experts, not to constantly be one.  Captain, let your officers do their jobs.  Spend your major effort on building a wardroom  that works together, an officer team that the crew, the chiefs, and you can respect for its professionalism and leadership.

The Captain
Commander John L. Byron, U.S. Navy
USNI Proceedings
September 1982

Command Excellence - The Commanding Officer

The CO in a superior command:

• Targets Key Issues 

• Gets Crew to Support Command Philosophy 

• Develops XO 

• Staffs to Optimize Performance 

• Gets Out and About 

• Builds Esprit de Corps 

• Keeps His Cool 

• Develops Strong Wardroom 

• Values Chiefs Quarters 

• Ensures Training Is Effective 

• Builds Positive External Relationships 

• Influences Successfully

Superior commanding officers focus on the big picture. They set priorities, establish policy, and develop long-range plans. They target only a few key issues at a time. In explaining his priorities, one CO says: "I regularly have captain's call with all paygrades so I can reinforce any points that I want to emphasize. I always talk about combat readiness, safety, and cleanliness. And whenever I ask them what my priorities are, they always tell me, "Combat readiness, safety, and cleanliness." Once they identify the critical needs of the command and chart a direction, these COs accomplish the command's mission by inspiring others and working through them.

This means that superior COs recognize the importance of their relationships with other people, and they concentrate on developing those relationships within and outside the command.

In dealing with the executive officer, superior COs are concerned not only with immediate issues but with overall progress: they look upon the XO as an assistant, but they know that this assistant is a future CO. Together, they discuss plans and review courses of action, and the CO is especially careful to keep the XO informed of command decisions. Whenever possible, the CO delegates, leaving room for the XO to function independently.

In the same way, the best COs develop their department heads and division officers, delegating work and meeting frequently for planning and review. They monitor morale and try to create a climate of mutual support. They take an interest in the well-being of their officers and express a willingness to talk about significant personal problems. They pay special attention to first-year officers, making sure they start out on a strong career footing. With more experienced officers, they provide opportunities for professional development and encouragement to move up through the chain of command.

Superior commanding officers are also sensitive to the role of chiefs and the chiefs quarters: It is the chiefs, they say, who "run the ship," who have that combination of management know-how and hands-on experience needed to keep the command's systems running smoothly and crew members working efficiently. As one CO put it, "The chiefs are the eyes and ears of the squadron. They're here all the time and know what's going on. I'd be a fool not to listen to them." These COs expect their chiefs to be involved in all phases of running the command, and they make sure the chief's role is respected.

Top COs know how to balance overlapping demands. They show great interest in and concern for their subordinates, yet they refuse to micromanage, to be constantly looking over people's shoulders to see what they're up to. By frequently getting out and about, these COs can express their interest in their personnel and get a feel for how things are going in their command. One CO states: "I've got a personal goal of seeing three people a day and just walking around and asking people, 'How's it going?' "

Much of leadership and management is influence, and superior COs are masters of influence. They know how to get people to do what they want them to do and to like it. A common trait of these COs is that they keep their cool; they are not screamers. But they do have a repertoire of influence strategies that they choose according to the situation and personalities involved. At one time, they may use reason and facts; at another, a judicious display of emotion and a loud voice. These COs know how to push the right buttons to get their people to make sacrifices and work exceptionally hard.

These COs have high standards, too. They want to be the best and they want their personnel to take pride in themselves, in the command, and in the U.S. Navy. They realize that without high morale, teamwork, and pride,  they cannot achieve and maintain top-flight performance. They also know that achieving their high standards requires high quality training, so they insist on training that is both realistic and practical.

Top COs know how to develop a superior command and how to convey the image of that success to important outsiders. They develop networks that provide essential data and support; they get help from their squadron or wing staff when preparing for inspections; and they aggressively seek out the most qualified personnel, necessary resources, and good schedules. As a result, they are often more successful than average commands in getting these things.

Not all the COs in outstanding units write out their command philosophy, but it is clear that they all have such a philosophy, that they are successful at communicating it, and that they persuade the crew to buy into it. They tell people how they want the command to operate and they set an example themselves. This results in high morale, commitment, and trust.

CO USS ENTERPRISE under investigation

The Navy announced on 31 December 2010 that it had opened an investigation into "inappropriate videos"  produced by the CO of USS ENTERPRISE while he was the Executive Officer.  The Navy doesn't have much of a sense of humor nor any tolerance in the current political climate for this type of thing.  Captain Owen Honors could be the first CO in 2011 to experience his senior's "loss of confidence" in his ability to command.  He is a 1983 graduate of the United States Naval Academy.  He assumed command of USS ENTERPRISE on 6 May 2010.

Command Excellence - The Wardroom

The wardroom in a superior command:

•    Is Cohesive
•    Matches CO-XO Leadership
•    Raises Concerns with CO and XO
•    Takes Initiative
•    Does Detailed Planning 
•    Takes Responsibility for Work-Group Performance

The wardroom is the interface between the senior officers of the command, who make the policy, and the senior enlisted, who carry out the tasks of the command. The wardroom is responsible for developing and imple- menting plans that achieve the goals set by the CO and XO. In top commands, the department heads and division officers make sure these plans are specific, deciding who is to do what, when, and how. They gather information from chiefs and other relevant sources, and are careful to coordinate their department's or division's activities with other work going on.

This means that the wardroom must work as a team with the CO and XO. In superior commands there is more congruence between the wardroom and the CO-XO on command    philosophy    and leadership style than in average commands. Everyone is headed in the same direction. They identify with the goals set by the CO and XO and with how the CO and XO wish to accomplish them.

Officers of superior commands take initiative in several ways. They try to find new and better ways to do their jobs, and when they see that something needs to be done, they do it without waiting to be told. They are often willing to do more than they are required to do in order to achieve the command's mission. And they readily ask for guidance or information from the CO or XO if they believe these are necessary to accomplish their jobs or to develop themselves professionally. They also raise command issues with senior officers before those issues turn into serious problems.

One of the greatest strengths of wardrooms of superior commands is their sense of responsibility for the performance of their subordinates. This leads them to try to anticipate problems before they occur, to take responsi- bility when a problem does occur that they should have prevented, and to hold their personnel accountable for meeting the command's standards. There is a strong sense of ownership and pride.

Finally, superior wardrooms support division officers, who, although they outrank enlisted personnel, are among the youngest people in a command and are relatively inexperienced when it comes to hands-on technical knowledge and management know how. Thus, department heads must do their own jobs and also attend to the needs of their junior officers.

FOR MORE ON COMMAND EXCELLENCE, GO HERE.

Training Sailors

A different slant on a very popular Chinese proverb:

"The best time to train a Sailor was yesterday.  The second best time is today.  Train your Sailors. You won't regret it."

Information Warfare Officer, Commander John Hunter decodes Civil War message

A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.

The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.

The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.

The message is from a Confederate commander on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Pemberton.

"He's saying, 'I can't help you. I have no troops, I have no supplies, I have no way to get over there,"' Museum of the Confederacy collections manager Catherine M. Wright said of the author of the dispiriting message. "It was just another punctuation mark to just how desperate and dire everything was."

A Navy cryptologist independently confirmed Gaddy's interpretation. Commander John B. Hunter, an information warfare officer, said he deciphered the code over two weeks while on deployment aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. A computer could have unscrambled the words in a fraction of the time.

"To me, it was not that difficult," he said. "I had fun with this and it took me longer than I should have."

From FOX news.  The whole story is HERE.

Re DADT - Please continue to exhibit honor, integrity and moral courage.

As always, the men and women of our Armed Forces are the Nation’s most important strategic resource. Only a force of dedicated, highly educated and well-trained men and women capable of leveraging new ideas will succeed in the complex and fast-paced environment of future military operations. Moreover, this force must exhibit honor, integrity, competence, physical and moral courage, dedication to ideals, respect for human dignity, the highest standards of personal and institutional conduct, teamwork, and selfless service.

Best of her time - A woman cryptologist worthy of our considerable attention

One of the best cryptanalysts of her time, Agnes Meyer Driscoll, worked for the Navy as a civilian and as a Yeoman Chief Petty Officer. Known to some as "Miss Aggie" and "Madame X", she was a math teacher before joining the Navy in 1918. The Navy introduced her to her life's work in cryptology.

Following World War I, except for a few years in the 1920s when she worked for another cryptographic pioneer, Edward Hebern, Agnes continued in cryptology with the Navy and other organizations (including NSA) for the rest of her career. She is credited with making breaks into most of the Japanese naval codes OP-20-G worked on.

In the Navy, she was without peer as a cryptanalyst. Some of her pupils, like Ham Wright, were more able mathematicians but she had taught cryptanalysis to all of them, and none ever questioned her talent and determination in breaking and ciphers.

Among her uniformed naval colleagues, she was held in the highest esteem throughout her long career, which continued from the office of naval communication to the Armed Forces Security Agency, and then to the National Security Agency.

Women accepted into the cryptologic field were sworn to secrecy. The penalty for discussing the work outside of approved channels could be death, as it was considered an act of treason during a time of war.

She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1971.

Excellence as the standard

"Admiral Rickover was the genius that gave a generation of naval officers the idea that excellence was the standard."

Aye, Aye Sir !

“Successful implementation will depend upon strong leadership, a clear message and proactive education throughout the force.  With a continued and sustained commitment to core values of leadership, professionalism and respect for all, I am convinced that the U.S. military can successfully accommodate and implement this change (repeal of DADT), as it has others in history.”

Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates

176 Hawaii Sailors earn information dominance warfare pin

The U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) director for intelligence, Rear Admiral Elizabeth Train, presented the first group of 176 Sailors from Navy Region Hawaii with the new information dominance warfare insignia aboard the USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor on December 15, 2010.

Admiral Train presented the insignia to 176 Sailors, both officer and enlisted, who completed a rigorous personal qualification program in information intensive fields.

"The ceremony today is a milestone event. It's a significant restructuring of the Navy today. This is a tremendous time and opportunity for all of us, all of you, to develop the next generation of leaders." 

Admiral Liz Train

The warfare pin identifies professionals who possess extensive skills to develop and deliver dominant information capabilities in support of U.S. Navy, joint and nation warfighting requirements.

Some video from the first pinning at the Naval Observatory is HERE.

Have we moved this forward?

The Department of the Navy endorses the secure use of Web 2.0 tools to enhance communication, collaboration, and information exchange; streamline processes; and foster productivity improvements. Use ofthese tools supports Department of Defense (DoD) and DON goals of achieving an interoperable, net-centric environment by improving the warfighter's effectiveness through seamless access to critical information. Web 2.0 tools are useful in a global enterprise, such as the DON,' as they enable widely dispersed commands and personnel to more effectively collaborate and share information. The gains in productivity, efficiency, and innovation can be significant. Commands are encouraged to use Web 2.0 tools, consistent with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.

A worthy goal - we're still working to get there

Fundamental to the concept of net-centricity lies the precept that shared awareness, collaboration, and self-synchronization can be attained through the networking of knowledgeable, geographically and hierarchically dispersed entities.

We can't assemble the puzzle without your piece. Get your geographically and hierarchically dispersed idea over here.  We need it.

Information Dominance Corps Leadership Focus - Commander, Naval Network Warfare Command

Rear Admiral Edward H. Deets III

Rear Admiral Deets is a native of Charlottesville, Va. He graduated from Duke University in 1979 where he was commissioned an ensign via the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps. 

Deets began his information warfare officer career at the Naval Security Group Activity Kunia, Hawaii. There he served as a direct support officer aboard a variety of ships in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, North Arabian Sea, and the Mediterranean. 

His next tour was at the Naval Security Group Activity Pyongtaek, Republic of Korea, as the executive officer. From there, he was assigned to the staff of commander in chief, United States Atlantic Fleet.

In 1991, he reported to commander, Carrier Group 2 aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) as the staff cryptologist. He deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and also participated in several counternarcotics operations on various ships. In 1993, he became the cryptologic junior officer detailer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C. Next, he spent two years on the staff of the U.S. 6th Fleet in Gaeta, Italy, as the command and control warfare officer. He also attended the National War College at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., where he graduated with honors in 1998. He served a follow-on joint assignment as the executive assistant to the National Security Agency chief of staff.

Deets' personal awards include the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with gold star, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. He holds a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy with a concentration in Information Strategies.

Pick your best six ? - Compressed Zone Opportunity for IW Captain in FY12

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