Tuesday, June 29, 2010

While the CNO collects vanity Diversity awards ....

We warned you years ago. From the same report we blogg'd on last week - this is what is happening in the Fleet.
The advanced radar systems aboard U.S. cruisers and destroyers are in their worst shape ever, according to an independent probe into U.S. Navy readiness, raising questions about the surface fleet's ability to take on its high-profile new mission next year defending Europe from ballistic missiles.

Poor training, impenetrable bureaucracy and cultural resignation have caused a spike in the number of technical problems and a dip in the operational performance of the Aegis system, considered the crown jewel of the U.S. surface force, the investigation found.

And if that's the situation with Aegis - which includes warships' iconic, hexagonal SPY 1 radar arrays - the panel wondered what that could mean for other, lower-profile equipment.

"The SPY radar has historically been the best supported system in the surface Navy, and coincidentally supports one of the most critical Navy missions today: ballistic missile defense. Yet SPY manpower, parts, training and performance are in decline."

If that's the case, the report said, "it can be assumed that less important systems could well be in worse material condition."
...
Although sailors and other observers have said before that cuts in crew sizes hurt readiness, Balisle's report is the first to detail so many problems with Aegis, widely considered the world's finest seagoing radar and combat system. It is so powerful and adaptable, in fact, the Obama administration is counting on it becoming a permanent ballistic missile defense shield for Europe next year, taking the place of ground-based sensors and weapons as U.S. warships make standing patrols in the Mediterranean.

But Aegis, like the rest of the fleet, has become a victim of personnel cuts and the Navy's labyrinthine internal organization, the report said. Casualty reports are up 41 percent from fiscal year 2004, and those requiring technical assistance are up 45 percent.

Over the same period, SPY radar performance, as observed by the Board of Inspection and Survey, has steadily worsened for cruisers and destroyers.
Everyone buy Phil Ewing a beer - he is doing incredibly important work, and another beer for Admiral Harvey because he is encouraging hard questions and open discussion.
What's causing it? The panel found many reasons, including:

■ There aren't enough qualified people in the right jobs.

Sailors aren't fully trained on maintaining the radars.

■ It's too much work navigating the Navy bureaucracy to order replacement parts, and as such, crews have grown to accept "degradation," Balisle's panel found.

For example, ships are not ordering replacement voltage regulators, the report said, which SPY radars need to help manage their prodigious consumption of ship's power. Crews aren't ordering them because technicians can't get the money to buy spares, so commanders are knowingly taking a risk in operating their Aegis systems without replacements.

"The technicians can't get the money to buy spare parts," the report said. "They haven't been trained to the requirement. They can't go to their supervisor because, in the case of the DDGs, they likely are the supervisor. They can't repair the radar through no fault of their own, but over time, the non-responsiveness of the Navy system, the acceptance of the SPY degradation by the Navy system and their seniors, officers and chiefs alike, will breed (if not already) a culture that tolerates poor system performance. The fact that requests for technical assistance are up Navy-wide suggests there is a diminished self-sufficiency in the surface force. Sailors are losing their sense of ownership of their equipment and are more apt to want others to fix it."

Naval expert A.D. Baker III, a retired Office of Naval Intelligence analyst and longtime editor of "Combat Fleets of the World," called the Balisle findings "utterly damning."

"The Aegis readiness shortfall is just one of a vast number of problems related to pushing people too far and not giving them the training or funding resources to carry out their duties properly," Baker said.

He said the report's findings showed the Defense Department's priorities for European ballistic missile defense had been misplaced.

"This will significantly affect our putative BMD capability. The [Pentagon's] money is going to missile development and procurement, not to maintenance of the detection and tracking system - without which the best missiles in the world won't be of much use."
Priorities.

51 comments:

  1. doc7506:47

    Absolutely.  Positively.  Unacceptable.  Period.  

    Heads should roll for this.  Instead of seeking savings in the defense budget we should be finding the money for upkeep of our systems.  Instead of diversity councils and frivolous training, we should be spending time on maintaining the fleet.

    This is damning.  No way to sugar coat it.

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  2. Outlaw Mike07:07

    If you don't want to say it or can't say it I will. Roughead is an IDIOT. There.

    I can't believe anymore what a TERRIBLE mess the West is in. Last week I checket out NATO's website and the first topic is see is about a NATO conference on gender equality. If uou check their homepage now, it's one seminar after another meeting. Now it's the 'New Strategic Concept'. They'd better analyze what's gotten so damn wrong with NATO's tenure in AF over the past couple of years.

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  3. Anathema07:26

    Heads have rolled.  When a ship can't get it done for INSURV or some other inspection, or has an incident because Sailors aren't qualified or experienced, the Commanding Officer is relieved.

    As broken as the system is, we have yet to miss a commitment.  And that testament is sad in it's truth.  We have balanced the bad decisions of the past decade on our Sailors and officers at sea - and broken more than a few of them in the process.

    Meanwhile, those that made the initial decisions to reduce shipbord manning, or approved the overall fleet budget, or cancelled the school quota, or rewrote the regulations on unapproved part requisition cancellation, or downgraded the maintenance package for the yard period are either advancing along on shore duty, or collecting a retirement check - without a shred of accountability for what they did to the Fleet. 

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  4. WCOG07:30

    Damning doesn't begin to describe it. I was always sure that no matter how f@#ked-up the Navy's senior leadership was, there was enough professionalism in the fleet to maintain the exceptional standards of performance required. Now I find out that people are literally letting their weapon systems sit broken because they don't have the wherewithal, one way or another, to fix them? Is there a piece of equipment that's more critical than SPY-1 to the Navy?

    This is a failure on the same level as the Air Force's failed nuclear inspections, especially now that Aegis is a strategic system, and Navy leadership needs to be held to the same level of accountability that the Air Force was.

    What a wake-up.

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  5. LT B07:47

    The wrong heads have rolled.  It is not the ships' COs that have pushed this upon the Fleet.  The path to fix this is clear.  To use a football analogy, you get back to basics.  When a team is having problems, you go to fundamentals and get them back up then rebuild on that bedrock.  Seamanship, navigation, engineering and deckplate leadership are our foundations.  Fund, train and equip those core competencies then get back to the other stuff.  Furthermore, we also need to look at the procurement process.  THOSE heads should roll as well.  The shortfall on equipment and misallocation of funds is also a HUGE part of where we are.  We need to get out of this touchy, feely meme and mentality and get back to being a Navy again. 

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  6. Salty Gator07:47

    Oh stop crying........as long as our T-FOM is solid we're still a squared away ship, right?  Right?
    Not so much.  This is what we get for incorporating business principles into a military organization.  In business, you can accept six sigma.  In warfare, six sigma equates to losing a carrier battle group.
    Radar maintenance and upkeep is a significant problem in the Gator community as well.  SPS-48E/G radars are s******g the bed left, right and center.

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  7. MarkT07:48

    I only have 5 more months till big navy can no longer recall my fat balding butt to go fix surface combat systems - there isn't a mandatory tech assist fleet reserve they never told me about - is there?
    No surprise at all - and anyone who was writing, reading, or analyzing CASREPs (that means you, DESRON CDRs/Staffs) for the past 15 years, it has been bad for a long while.  Diversity will fix this mess somehow, after all it is the CNOs number one priority.  The last time a saw a Black/Yellow/brown/white solution address this type of problem it was from the module on TTL logic and application of resistor color codes in BE&E.

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  8. cdrsalamander07:49

    Ana,
    Your last para is spot on.  That is the key; have the correct heads roll'd?  No.  They are burning CDRs at the stake because of decisions RDML to ADM have made and continue to make.  

    Once again, ADM Harvey is one of the only leaders I have seen who is willing to even be in the room with non-happy talk.  That is a good sign.  Happy talk and obsequious toadies got us here - an open mind with clear, direct communication is the only way out.  Did I just endorse Harvey for the next CNO?  Oh, goodness.

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  9. Salty Gator07:50

    Who the hell is going to keep signing up for command when you are not being set up for success?!?!?!?!  Or when your successes are attributed to some new PT uniform, a snazzy emo marketing campaign, a dredged up idea to write a maritime strategy and fill it with fluff, a new "business model," or flavor-of-the-month GMT issues becoming the cornerstone of a CNO and SECNAV administration?!

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  10. MarkT07:50

    Haven't missed a commitment?  You see that Chinese Han that surfaced in the middle of the BG afew years back - that would/should have meant the ASWC got fired, but I somehow missed that relief for cause report.

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  11. Salty Gator07:50

    by the way, does anyone remember back when GMT was actually General Military Training?  I don't.  Before my time.......

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  12. DM0507:50

    I was there for the hollow fleet. This is worse, as senior officers just ask the LT for another powerpoint that spins nicely. Readiness and ability to project power when needed dagnab'it. 

    Vern, Gary, Mullen, take a powder; ya blew it.

    Meanwhile, back at the well-staffed diversity shop....

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  13. Salty Gator07:52

    but Phib, how far would he get with this administration?  Could he do what needs to be done?

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  14. MR T's Haircut07:52

    I feel CSADD....

    Maybe we should address it to the CSADD committee.

    Oh I know!  Lets have the Black Female Engineer of the Year and the Latina Engineer of the Year, get with the Latino Supply Clerk of the Year and the American - Indian Logistics Specialist of the Year and have them figure it out!  They are all superstar after all!!!

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  15. LT B07:53

    Mike, this goes back almost a decade.  ADM Clark got us on the business (a'la McNamara) practices in our organizational mindset.  Trying to emulate civilian business from their Lean Six crap to their diversity drivel rather than Navy fundamentals, leadership and khaki/blue shirt treatment where everybody is a Sailor, vice Hispanic/Black/Asian/Pacific Islander/skin color of choice separatist mentality.  Navy Core Values, pride in mission will handle EO and diversity right there.  Take care of ALL your people and you are doing your job and showing Sailors form all walks of life that they are important and it takes less energy and money.

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  16. LT Andrew08:09

    It was a Song. You can hear a Han from 100 miles away by sticking your head underwater.

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  17. Toaster80208:12

    But isn't great we can show the Chinese our diversity, and how women on ships has led them to be floating birthing clinics instead of warships ready to defend our country. They will say how far we have come, and give up on the whole take back Tiawan thing...

    Now, I was just a stupid fucking Jarhead, but seems to me there is a leftist poison at work like acid in our military, culture and country. 13 Army types get shotdown by an open jihadi officer and all the political generals can say is they hope it does not hurt diversity.

    Flag level officers are just politicans. And ones who truly are warfighters are being driven out by this PC bullshit. It is up to those who have served and are out to work to elect people who will put an end to this madness. Before it is too late.

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  18. Byron08:40

    ADM Harvey is taking a big chance just talking about it at his blog. He seriously pulled no punches on this one. ADM, if you happen to cruise by here, BZ!

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  19. UltimaRatioRegis08:45

    I had an XO who described guys like Clark and Mullen and Roughead.

    "He spends all day drilling holes in the bottom of the boat and then is surprised that his socks are wet."

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  20. Pigs Fly09:01

    This is very sad in so many ways. The fact that this type of fake and totally incompetent leadership which smells of careerism and political ass kissing with "Yes" people has decimated fundamental systems. We seem so shocked when someone as dishonorable as Murtha gets a ship named after him but look at the conduct of the fake and incompetent leadership and how it has destroyed so much while pretending to be so good and PC.

    PF

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  21. AW1 Tim09:38

    heh... Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly. Amazing what they used to teach in our schools...  ;)   

       There was a time when ET's could not only troubleshoot a system, but replace actual individual parts. They could solder/unsolder, strip wire and even make their own circuit boards if needs be. I know it was back in the dark ages, but even at 16 years of age, we were being taught in electronics class at the voc school to etch our own circuit boardsm use a Dremel to drill out the holes and build the board ourselves.

      Now it's "replace the assembly" or 'replace the module" etc.

      Sometimes, you'll be in a situation where you HAVE to replace a part. We need to be able to do that because the costs in training dollars to teach and nuture and matain those skills pales in comparison to the cost of a ship and 350 souls.

       respects,

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  22. Anonymous09:42

    <span>As broken as the system is, we have yet to miss a commitment. </span>

    Commitment?

    When was the last time the USN was seriously "committed" to fighting a battle at sea?

    Of course, this isn't the first time the USN has deluded itself into thinking all was ok during a long, peaceful period...

    When you are "commited" to the wrong priorities...

    Bad things happen.

    Oh. That last pic is a sad epilogue in a great case study on where a poor C4I system will get you....

    And, considering how vital such systems these days, seems we taxpayers are funding a fleet set up to fail.

    I wish Adm Harvery all the fair winds to be had in helping turn things around.

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  23. Butch09:44

    I saw this trend of sailors not being able to repair their ships & systems 20+ years ago at (then) SIMA Mayport (now SERMC).  Jobs submitted to SIMA that ship's force should have been capable of doing.

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  24. Anathema11:01

    @Guest and MarkT: "Commitment" in this case is a technical term for the Navy's ability to provide forces when requested by the combatant commander.  Nothing more, nothing less.  We have deployed a ship or squadron or unit every time requested.

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  25. DeltaBravo11:05

    Reminds me of a story.  Years ago I was visiting one of the Bravo Brothers down in Norfolk at Christmas.  As we drove down the pier toward his LKA (The only female on it was a dog, by the way.  She was really cute!) we passed all the ships lined up all decked out with lights and stuff for Christmas.  And there were two Aegis-class destroyers with the radar thingies all decorated like happy snowmen and Santy-Claus.  Bravo Brother laughed and told me how deceptive that is.  That those aren't all that friendly and in fact make them the most dangerous ships in the water. 

    So, Phib, what you're saying is.. Navy should just have done with it and outfit them all like snowmen and bunnies and Santy-Claus?  (I gather back in the day, they could not only decorate them, they could fix 'em too.)

    Maybe someone should do a powerpoint about how many classes they need to have in the next quarter to teach repair and maintenance. 

    Or start a Facebook Group.... 

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  26. Curtis11:38

    I'm kind of laughing.  Right after/instantly/that day 9/11, SPAWAR admiral directed every single CASREP be brought to the immediate attention of the PMW responsible for the system in question and instituted a 24 hour/day watch to make sure that that was so and then they got levied for some other things of the same nature. 

    Now how does one hold a SYSCOM PMW head accountable for the shabby training and total elimination of much of the training?  Well, that would be part of their Life Cycle Cost Reduction models that eliminated A schools and Schools and even such obvious keeps as BEE and of course the FORCED RATE mergers that dictated that now an outstanding FTG must also overnight be an outstanding FTM and how about the elimination of the AD tenders and Repair ships and total elimination of MOTU? 
    'S nothing new.  USS Bxxney pulled alongside Mina Sulman one day at the height of the tanker war wihtout one single solitary functioning radar.  Her role was Radar Picket Ship NAG, SAG, CAG.  But she couldn't really do that.  1984.  Funny how all of our radars worked..... 

    Went aboard one DD as FCO after attending the Missile School at Damneck where the Chiefs warned us repeatedly to sign for any of the GFCS test/equivalent cards since slimy FTG's would just burn through that box and never submit or wouldn't have the 1250s approved, to replace them.  They had a name but I can't recall it now.  When I reported aboard I found a box of about 90 missing troubleshooting/spares and no documentation on replacement or use.  They were just gone.  The missile system was even worse.  Manpower N1 had assigned 4 Petty Officers trained to the nth degree in CIWS aboard the year before.  2 years later when I left the ship still didn't have CIWS.

    If you have the time and the inclination and the ability, wander over to Lex's place and read his thesis about the Navy Enterprise Business Model.  What a complete disaster that was and remains.

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  27. sorry Anathema...that was me.

    I am well aware of the term.

    What good is putting ships to sea that cannot perform their mission?

    I know...I know.

    Been there done it too. I've been in the Persian Gulf on a broke d*ck Forest Sherman... but at least we were limping along under the larger context of superpower mutually promised oblivion then.

    And in a fleet -that while then bemoaned as incredibly shrinking- was nearly twice as big as the one now.

    Those days are gone Anathema.

    Since 1945 the USN has operated with the same perception of Nimitz at Okinawa, when he said, "at least we have more ships and planes than the enemy has bullets."

    Can't say that anymore.

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  28. Byron11:46

    Butch, no offense, but in the nearly 30 years I've been doing Navy work, our (the contractors) best friend was SIMA: We knew that every time they walked on board that we were sure to not only get the work they would start, but also get paid to fix the stuff they screwed up trying to do it. Anyone remember the Proceedings article a few years ago, about a Fig CO who was going to let SIMA bid on the whole upcoming SRA package? An ugly story, not fit for women and small children, unless the ladies are DB and AR :)

    Tim: the way I learned it was: Bad Boys Rape Our Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls :)

     I know, kinda dates me a bit...

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  29. Byron11:47

    BTW, Butch, you get my email?

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  30. AW1 Tim12:01

    Heh... dates me too..... =-X

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  31. John12:11

    Results are the outcome of priorities established at many levels.

    Many wrong decisions and wrong priorities have gotten us into this mess.

    I see no prospect of this changing under an Obama/Gates/Mullen/Roughead structure.

    God bless ADM Harvey for what he is doing, he may be able to fix it someday, but meanwhile it appears he is the only Flag willing to at least see if there are readiness problems.

    Hope Harvey does not get hauled off to some diverstiy reeducation seminar to take his eye off what should be the real priorities.

    We are in deep, deep doo doo.

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  32. Generalities..

    To illustrate how bad it has gotten.....

    Approximately two years ago my commanding officer in no uncertain terms was told that INSURV was our highest priority.

    Meaning: Go onboard and fix everything I would inspect during the UMI, right before the UMI is to be carried out so the ship doesn't fail the UMI.

    The system is being gamed from TOP TO BOTTOM!

    Indications are that Fleet Forces is in fact serious about the challenges he faces.

    Lord help us if he is not.

    v/r

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  33. Outlaw Mike13:09

    LT B, I see what you mean and it's also what the CDR is hinting at.

    When I was a student in Ghent more than twenty years ago, we had classes with a few moroccans, a Congolese, a Vietnamese. By their skin color alone, these people should have stood out.

    Guess what? IT-WAS-NO-ISSUE-AT-ALL. When I am thinking back of that time, being honest to myself, their race meant absolutely NOTHING. We chatted with each other, we went out together, had drinks, chased girls, and these guys, they were just "some of the guys". Race was the least of our worries, it so totally was a no-issue.

    But what we have seen here over the course of the years, as the mainstream electorate of the socialists went away to centrist and rightwing parties, is that these socialists made a complete INDUSTRY of the whole race shebang. And now race DOES stand out... because these idiots KEEP hammering on skin color. It was no issue, but they made it one.

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  34. "I weep for the future!" (h/t Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

    Only this is no comedy...

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  35. Anonymous14:27

    Interesting.  Back to the early 90's when ADM Kelso determined we're  pursue TQM/TQL with a vengeance, the famous demo was the red bead/white  bead input, and how, without TQM/TQL, you can't shoot the assembly line  worked, it's management, who has not ensured a proper input resource is  actually to blame.

    Sounds to me like someone decided,  at upper levels to reject such thinking and just wing it and...blame the  COs.  Wrong.  And bad for the future.  On another note, it was passed  on to me, this sort of professional blood bath followed at the end of  the Vietnam era, when, ships that had been run into the ground and had  been denied maintenance, surprise, surprise...had major engineering  accidents that killed many and wounded many more...Who's fault?  The CO  and CHENG, for not ensuring safe operations, while suffering from a  paucity of parts.  The outcome begat the PEBs, and...for a time, the  crews also were hacked to death (figuratively speaking in the  professional realm), because they couldn't get the plant safe...again  without much help.  Then the shore side began to come on line and  provide support, and things improved, but not after much real and  professional blood was shed.  The beast grew to consume the lives of  many.

    Now, I have a personal peave:  CAPT Balisle's  first day @ CSMTT in 1992 (after his return from the Gulf War as the USN  Rep to the air war) was spent in CNSL N5's office (Bob Crawshaw), as I  laid out how to make the CSA an analog of the OPPE,...

    continued: http://www.chaoticsynapticactivity.com/2010/06/29/the-fleets-combat-systems-are-a-mess-go-figure-some-history/

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  36. xformed15:01

    I'm just hoping FCCM(SW) Joe Hill is long dead.  If not, that comment would either get him a few 1st degree murder charges, or stop his ticker.  I watched him toast the CO of USS VIRGINIA (CGN-38) in Dec 90 with a wardroom full of men at a debrief, for having his crew let the SPS-48E get moisture in the waveguides and all the other many, many things they let go (so they did not have a single successful engagement of the Learjet by any sysytem and detection ranges were very shortened).  Besides being a major developer of a dry air program for Air Search RADARs, he had commissioned CGN-38.  The CO then looked around the Wardroom and said:  "He didn't do this, we did."  Took it like a man, anyhow.  It was a bad day for the crew  on the upper decks.

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  37. xformed15:07

    MAMS Kits....I think is what you're looking for.  We had one SUPPO who wouldn't let us have a part before he got all his paperwork, then the next who would hand help out and call me the next morning to make sure the paperworkj did get done.  Teamwork...

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  38. Country Singer15:07

    Wow!  I just started following this blog, and what an eye-opener!  Here I've been lamenting for several years my decision in '99 to leave the active duty Navy and go to the National Guard.  Even though I've been with the Guard since then, I've always remained a Sailor at heart (and I love the funny looks that my ESWS gets).  That being said, what I'm reading just pisses me off to no end.  On the other hand, it does explain something to me.  I've been able to somewhat keep track of three of my A-/C-School classmates.  Now I understand why two of them are LDO's and the other is a Master Chief.  We were actually trained and gave a damn about our systems!  I saw this coming though, with the advent of TQM/TQL. 

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  39. xformed15:53

    Actually, it was the lack of a real TQM method:  If you actuially gave a crap about efficieny, then you got the TQM idea.  If you did, as with any other program/project/medal earning idea, window dressed, then yes, this happens.

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  40. AW1 Tim16:40

    What xformed says.......

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  41. MR T's Haircut16:48

    you get what you inspect.

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  42. Salty Gator21:58

    welcome back to the fold, shipmate!

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  43. Salty Gator21:59

    Wow.......it is a sad state of affairs when you are actually congratulated for your "Courageous Restraint" in repairing / maintaining your gear.  We should send a memo to the enemy:  "Please take note of our overall 98% T-FOM score in our next engagement.  Though our Mk-93s are currently OOC, our other systems are at 100%.  Therefore, please simulate your destruction."

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  44. FormerFC22:00

    A large part of this has to do with computer based training, it is pure crap.  You can spot the knowledge difference between a sailor who went through old fashioned "Tech Core" and "A" and "C" schools and one who did it all CBT.
    You'd see computer techs who do not know how to run simple POFA's on the UYK-43's or even the basics of troubleshooting something beyond running BITE.

    Another problem is that in recent years PHD has cut the number of assessments that are run during an SRA.  It used to be that each element got its own Aegis assessment now a ship is lucky to get 3.  Assessments were a great way for the ship to get an outside view of how the system is doing and to provide training for younger sailors who SHOULD be attached to the Tech Reps hip (however lately the Tech Rep is lucky to see the sailor at all except to let him in the space, but that is a leadership probem from the CPO and FCO). 

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  45. Anonymous22:28

    Before you expect ADM Harvey to work miracles, consider that he was OPNAV N12 (Total force manpower and training), and during his watch there, several of the manpower cuts to the SIMA's, training Command, Top Six roll-down etc were all enacted.  At the time, lots of graybeard LDO's foresaw the train wreck, but of course, were dismissed since LDO's dont fit into the business model.

    I hope this is a serious attempt to recover that which he gave up in his previous billet, but at least his political saavy cannot be questioned.  Why say the emporer has no clothes when you can get a respected, RETIRED Admiral to say so.  If things go the way you want, you look brilliant.  If they dont, it's caused plausible deniability.  There are SWO lessons to be learned here.

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  46. GIMP23:02

    No surprise.  The USN is a bureaucracy with the irritating task of having to prepare itself to fight.  The USN says its values are honor, courage, and committment, however, the USN does not screen for those qualities.  When leaders at the highest levels lack character, they select subordinates who display the same qualities, and everyone is surprised when all the readiness reports are lies, our Sailors are completely untrained (albeit at a much lower cost than training them), and our "fully operational" equipment is actually broken down crap.  When an organization has a problem, look right at the top and there you will find the problem.  We have a problem.  We value gadgets over people, management over leadership, and good news over the truth.  Stop buying new gadgets and reallocate the money, effort, and time to getting our deckplate Sailors real training.  Spend money on underway time and flight hours instead of new toys and the crews who man our machines will do more with old equipment they know than they could ever do with new equipment they don't.

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  47. xformed23:05

    LOL!

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  48. ewok40k23:22

    feeling like Reading Asimovs Foundation with Technically-declining Imperial Navy...

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  49. AW1 Tim09:04

    My oldest daughter, a recent college graduate, was interested in apllying for Navy OCS. The recruiter told her "no thanks" the Navy isn't accepting anyone for OCS without an Engineering degree.  I called BS and asked to see the documentation on that. He told me to leave his office, that he would only talk to my daughter if I wasn't present. I called the regional office, and complained and they said the recruiter was wrong and would look into it. That was about 4 months ago. She's still waiting to hear from anyone in Navy recruiting abour her request(s). Her attitude right now is "#^&*$ them"

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  50. Warrant Diver09:54

    The two best lines I've read or heard this month

    "The USN is a bureaucracy with the irritating task of having to prepare itself to fight.  The USN says its values are honor, courage, and committment, however, the USN does not screen for those qualities."

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  51. Winston Smith21:06

    You are absolutely correct.  We don't build master level technicians anymore, not even close.  We also underfund the maintenance teams and can't accompish the assessments as required.

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