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While it is still Thursday .... if anyone is going - could you email me your thoughts on how this went?-----Original Message-----
From: [redacted], Raymond F., CAPT, NAVWARCOL
Sent: Thu 11/3/2011 2:06 PM
To: _Students-CNW; _Students-CNCS
Cc: ......
Subject: Upcoming Events Requiring Special/Differnt Attire
CNW and CNCS Students,
Here's a heads up for upcoming events requiring specific attire through the holiday recess:
...
29 NOV - Navy Diversity Leadership Symposium with CNO and MCPON
USN students only: Khakis
8 comments:
I would be more than happy to attend such a symposium. I dare say, that I would bring a certain diversity of thought to the event. I mean, that IS what they want, right? It makes us stronger, these new ideas and such.
Damn. I guess my JPME 1 Fleet Seminar Washington DC cell won't get briefed on that one. But then again, we are too diverse to receive this brief. In my seminar are Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force, retired, Congressional Staffers, OSD, and Secret Service. We don't meet the "Navy Only" criteria.
This is in lieu, of course, of discussing how we execute The Maritime Strategy with 60% of the minimum resources needed to accomplish said execution, or other unimportant trivia....
Beyond whatever people may think of the subject matter--if this seminar audience is supposed to be composed mainly of the students of the college, then the presence of the MCPON in a presenting role might be deleterious to good order and discpipline if he is in anyway lecturing or presenting the 'company line'. This is because when battle comes, naval officers need to be able to issue orders without reflexively asking themselves if "chiefy" approves or if there is some instruction they have violated. It's a culutural thing--I don't think today's officer has been given the chance to develop the self-confidence he needs--a self-confident that makes him think that as long as he is not too far off base, he will be supported if the chief's mess complains. That in other words, he can act as a naval officer.
I understand it might be a declining point of view, and I'm sure some jackass is going to say "oh, I didn't listen to my chief as a JO", but I'm actually one of those who believe that if chiefs want to make policy, they need to apply to become officers. The idea that the command master chief program has not supplanted the chain of command of CO to JO to enlisted is simply not true, in my opinion, and the idea of the MCPON getting up on a stage and potentially telling a bunch of O-4, 5, and 6s "how it should be" is just yet another sign of a nail in the coffin--the declining ability of the officer corps of the United States Navy to have a belief in itself as anything special.Did Eisenhower cart his senior enlisted man around as SHAEF, or Nimitz as CINCPAC? I doubt it.
Like I said--maybe not the most popular view in the world. And I'm sure the MCPON is a great guy and has a lot of wonderful ideas. It's just that the officer corps needs to be the ones running the Navy, and at some point the MCPON needs to stay at home when the CNO goes on tour, so the officers understand that the final responsibility rests with them--that they are part of an elite.
Personally, if I was king for a day the Command Master Chief program and the MCPON spot would be gone. Since I won't be king for a day, no one needs to add in their snarky comments. However--being for the moment in a position to do so, right now I don't recommend young folks go for a naval commission unless they already have a desire to do so, so you might want to keep that in mind. I think the pendulum swung to far a long time ago, and I'm acting on it, and I'm not an idiot.
When I think naval officers actually can be naval officers at some point before they are 0-5 (and are the ones signing the chiefs FITREPS), I'll relent in this point of view. Until then, the Navy is just a corporation with guns, not a military, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to a young college person looking for a opportunity to be a military officer vice being a member of middle management.
Interesting thoughts. However, one thing your missing and this has been true for at least the last 20 years is that the CPO messess in the fleet aren't training the JO's out there. As a brand new Division Officer with a good and compentant Division CPO, they should have been training you on how to not have egg on face in front of either the Department Head, XO, or CO. Meanwhile they should have been working hard on keeping the division personnel in line and only letting you see the best of the best or the worst of the worst. However, during the post-Cold War draw down (IMHO) is where the CPO messes went off track and instead of being like they were during WW2, Korea and to an extent Vietnam era Navy; the modern CPO only cares about being a CPO and some command CPO messes operate like a bad version of the Mafia. Which is why this viral video is popular with the masses. If you think about it as well, how many CO firing for poor zipper control or poor booze handling could have been prevented earlier in thier careers if a CPO had pulled the young JO aside and verbally slapped them around about their stupid choices?
As to your complaints about the CMC/MCPON realize the where, when and how those programs came to be. The short version is during a CNO Call at San Diego and Norfolk in the mid-60's, a very large number of enlisted sailors were complaining that the Navy leadership (nee Officers) wasn't listening nor seeing some of the issues the Sailor was trying to deal with both in the fleet and at home. So the CNO and CNP created the programs as a way to provide a direct voice tube to the leadership postions with regards to the issues that aren't being seen by the CNO and the rest of the VCNOs. Before the CMC program came to be it was usually the senior member of the CPO mess (which was usually the longest TIS MCPO) was the direct rep to the CO/XO with concerns from the Sailors. Sailors may be bringing up issues at the Divisonal Quarters (which in today's Navy is happening less and less because there is too much work to be done for that luxury), but the DivO's weren't bringing these issues up with the DH's and at the DH meeting these weren't going up to the CO/XO. So the CMC's were supposed to troll through the shops, engage with the Sailors, using their life experience to help nip problems in the bud or even better bring up the really "Good Idea Faries" to the leadership so that the CO/XO could have an honest pulse on things. At times in the past the CMC and MCPON were on the fore-front of trying to get changes to the Navy. Such things that I know were coming from MCPON has been the expansion Fleet and Family Services to better help the Sailor and thier Dependents, fighting against civilians willing to rip off the Sailor/Dependent (like Payday loan centers or Buying Clubs) and even increasing liberty programs.
However, like everything else in the past two decades (which are the lost decades IMHO) these positions have become very political and the CMC's have become the Caporegime's to thier Force MCPO's (the underbosses) and the MCPON being the boss of the messes while acting as the Consigliere to the CNO. Which is why the E-6 and below have no faith in the CPO messes or anyone else wearing Khaki. Most of the
Oh and last thought, normally if the MCPON is following the CNO around the way the system is supposed to work is that the MCPON is engaging with the local CPO's and with the Enlisted.
I wonder if they will go through the non-attribution speech. Seems to me that they want the Khakis on so that they can figure out who's who during the question period. As a Grad of the NWC and someone who very much enjoyed the curriculum and faculty, I find it offensive that they would bring (or be allowed to bring--perhaps a greater offense) this brand of thoughtless cheerleading to an institution of higher learning and critical thought.
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