Mold Builds Character. Thin Walls Enhance Lethality
trust is fungible, I guess
Randolph did not coin this phrase, it is repackaged from a couple-three thousand years of human philosophy, but this decade, this sticks to him more than anyone else.
So, ponder that for a moment, then let’s plow in.
"I have three priorities … and they are to get it right for our people, operate our fleet and build the fleet for the future."
"Our people are the strength of the Navy. We must recruit, develop, and retain a high-quality, diverse workforce."
"Our people are the Navy’s foundation. We will recruit, train, and develop a diverse and highly capable force, ensuring our sailors and civilians are ready to meet any challenge."
"Our people are our greatest strength.”
Admiral John Richardson, 2016 "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority"
"Our people are our asymmetric advantage.”
"Our people are the heart of our Navy.”
Six Chiefs of Naval Operations over almost two decades. I think you get the point. I’ll let others quote the MCPONs.
So, we have said these things. What action is the result in 2025?
Could we look at the one place that everyone from Beijing to Washington DC consider the linch-pin to any Great Pacific War to see how this concern has been operationalized?
What would a Secretary of the Navy find there in 2025 in his first few months in office?
After the Secretary of the Navy inspected a block of aging barracks on Guam and was "shocked and dismayed" by their poor condition, the U.S. Navy's top facilities officer has ordered a worldwide review of the condition of all housing for unaccompanied servicemembers.
…
According to Task & Purpose, Secretary Phelan was irate when he saw the condition of housing at Andersen Air Force Base's Palau Hall, which is home to a mix of sailors and marines. Phelan suggested that the on-base golf course was in far better shape than the barracks.
At the secretary's urging, a new Marine Corps housing complex at the base opened a month early, and 73 servicemembers from the dilapidated hall were allowed to move in.
It is not the first time that scandalous - or even dangerous - living conditions have been reported in enlisted housing. Inadequate berthing was an identified factor in a string of three suicides aboard the carrier USS George Washington in 2022.
We all have our stories. Generations of Sailors have become numb to the expected dilapidation. Perhaps it will take the fresh look from the outside to take action.
Here is what should put everyone on a slow burn:
After the Secretary of the Navy inspected a block of aging barracks on Guam and was "shocked and dismayed" by their poor condition, the U.S. Navy's top facilities officer has ordered a worldwide review of the condition of all housing for unaccompanied servicemembers.
Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commanding officer of Navy Installations Command, has ordered a global review after the "baffling" discovery of substandard housing on Guam.
Why does it take the most senior person in the U.S. Navy, the Secretary of the Navy, in essence doing a health and wellness inspection, to make this action take place?
Did no one else see this? Over the last quarter century; we have created an almost petty aristocracy of “Command Master Chiefs” with the MCPON on top. In theory, our Senior Non-Commissioned Officers should be focused first on their Sailors’ well being.
Maybe we should start with seeing what the United States Navy Chief Petty Officer Creed is all about.
Let’s start with the picture NHHC uses.
Huh.
Anyway, here it is.
DURING THE COURSE OF INITIATION, YOU HAVE BEEN CAUSED TO HUMBLY ACCEPT CHALLENGE AND FACE ADVERSITY. THIS YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED WITH RARE GOOD GRACE. POINTLESS AS SOME OF THESE CHALLENGES MAY HAVE SEEMED, THERE WERE VALID, TIME-HONORED REASONS BEHIND EACH POINTED BARB.
YOUR FAITH IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF CHIEF PETTY OFFICERS WAS NECESSARY TO OVERCOME THESE HURDLES. THE GOAL WAS TO INSTILL IN YOU THAT TRUST IS INHERENT WITH THE DONNING OF THE UNIFORM OF A CHIEF. OUR INTENT WAS TO IMPRESS UPON YOU THAT CHALLENGE IS GOOD; A GREAT AND NECESSARY REALITY WHICH CANNOT MAR YOU – WHICH, IN FACT, STRENGTHENS YOU.
IN YOUR FUTURE AS A CHIEF PETTY OFFICER, YOU WILL BE FORCED TO ENDURE ADVERSITY FAR BEYOND WHAT HAS THUS FAR BEEN IMPOSED UPON YOU. YOU MUST FACE EACH CHALLENGE AND ADVERSITY WITH THE SAME DIGNITY AND GOOD GRACE YOU HAVE ALREADY DEMONSTRATED.
BY EXPERIENCE, BY PERFORMANCE, AND BY TESTING, YOU HAVE BEEN ADVANCED TO CHIEF PETTY OFFICER. IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY – AND ONLY IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY – THE RANK OF E7 CARRIES WITH IT UNIQUE RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRIVILEGES YOU ARE EXPECTED TO FULFILL AND BOUND TO OBSERVE.
YOUR ENTIRE WAY OF LIFE IS CHANGED. MORE WILL BE EXPECTED OF YOU; MORE WILL BE DEMANDED OF YOU. NOT BECAUSE YOU ARE AN E7, BUT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOW A CHIEF PETTY OFFICER. YOU HAVE NOT MERELY BEEN PROMOTED A PAYGRADE, YOU HAVE JOINED AN EXCLUSIVE FELLOWSHIP AND, AS IN ALL FELLOWSHIPS, YOU HAVE A SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO YOUR COMRADES, EVEN AS THEY HAVE A SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU. THIS IS WHY WE IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY MAY MAINTAIN WITH PRIDE OUR FEELINGS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT ONCE WE HAVE ATTAINED THE POSITION OF CHIEF PETTY OFFICER.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRIVILEGES DO NOT APPEAR IN PRINT. THEY HAVE NO OFFICIAL STANDING; THEY CANNOT BE REFERRED TO BY NAME, NUMBER, NOR FILE. THEY HAVE EXISTED FOR OVER 100 YEARS, BECAUSE CHIEFS BEFORE YOU HAVE FREELY ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY BEYOND THE CALL OF PRINTED ASSIGNMENT. THEIR ACTIONS AND THEIR PERFORMANCE DEMANDED THE RESPECT OF THEIR SENIORS AS WELL AS THEIR JUNIORS.
IT IS REQUIRED THAT YOU BE THE FOUNTAIN OF WISDOM, THE AMBASSADOR OF GOOD WILL, THE AUTHORITY IN PERSONAL RELATIONS AS WELL AS IN TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS. “ASK THE CHIEF” IS A HOUSEHOLD PHRASE IN AND OUT OF THE NAVY.
YOU ARE THE CHIEF. THE EXALTED POSITION YOU HAVE ACHIEVED — AND THE WORD EXALTED IS USED ADVISEDLY — EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE SERVICE, CHARACTER, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE CHIEFS BEFORE YOU. IT SHALL EXIST ONLY AS LONG AS YOU AND YOUR FELLOW CHIEFS MAINTAIN THESE STANDARDS.
IT WAS OUR INTENTION THAT YOU NEVER FORGET THIS DAY. IT WAS OUR INTENTION TO TEST YOU, TO TRY YOU, AND TO ACCEPT YOU. YOUR PERFORMANCE HAS ASSURED US THAT YOU WILL WEAR “THE HAT” WITH THE SAME PRIDE AS YOUR COMRADES IN ARMS BEFORE YOU.
WE TAKE A DEEP AND SINCERE PLEASURE IN CLASPING YOUR HAND, AND ACCEPTING YOU AS A CHIEF PETTY OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY.
Well, we have 42 “YOU” or “YOURS”, but no “Sailors.” There is a mention of responsibilities to their fellow Chiefs and that they “demand respect” from superiors and subordinates…but I don’t see much about stewardship or taking care of your Sailors…so…my bad.
I was mistaken. Perhaps it is the responsibility of the SECNAV to make sure that Seaman Timmy does not have mold growing down his walls and Lance Corporal Jones has hot water to shave his head with.
My bust. Maybe the First Class Petty Officers will pick up the slack.
Secondly, there is no reason that has to be a 3-star command.
Culture. Expectations. Incentives. Disincentives.
The absolute back-burner state of base housing is not isolated. This is not new. In my 21 years on active duty, we never lived in base housing. As a LTjg, coming back from deployment, I saw what happened to the family of a fellow JO whose son tested positive for lead contamination and how they were treated. For the enlisted, it was only worse from what I saw. Avoidably worse.
Nope. Not my family. Never.
How does this happen? It is just another byproduct of a thread woven throughout our culture that degrades the entire cloth. It is the culture of untruth that starts with our FITREPs and EVALs and weaves its way through readiness reporting and program management.
Unless senior civilian leaders like the SECNAV refuse to accept it, it will continue. Sadly, problems won’t be brought to their attention; they will be hidden. Actively hidden from them by senior uniformed leaders who rose through a system of incentives and disincentives that encouraged the nudge-nudge-wink-wink nibbles of lies we tell each other.
A habit of little lies will always lead to larger lies. When you punish those who raise problems or demand actions reflect words, then those people rarely reach the levels to brief the civilians who control them what is sub-optimal. Just the contrary, they act to conceal. Some things are not reported, some things are stripped of anything negative. Standards are changed, or in a final act…they will find ways of hiding things behind classification.
Here’s just one more example. This is manpower version of yesterday’s INSURV Substack.
During his tenure as Chief of Naval Personnel from 27 May 2016 to 23 May 2019, Admiral Bob Burke, USN (Ret.) — yes, THAT Bob Burke — was the first to classify the “Health of the Force” personnel data that was compiled every quarter and sent to the entire Fleet, all Flags, and SES. Every bit of “Street to Fleet” was covered, recruiting, training, fit/fill, retention.
Why classify that? Simple…for exactly the same reason I covered yesterday about INSURV being classified 16 years ago:
It was never about protecting national security. It was always about protecting people, programs, and leadership from accountability ... It did not increase readiness. It did not bring more resources ... All it did was make it harder to hold resources providers—Flag Officers and SES mostly—accountable.
Culture of untruth I’ve often discussed here that infects our Navy isn’t just about saying things that are untrue, it is also about preventing uncomfortable truths from being known. In many ways, it is the later that is more pernicious than the former.
Score one point for the new SECNAV. He's already out-achieved many of his predecessors, especially Mabus. Wonder how many others are now getting the business for including the barracks on the SECNAVs tour.
I’ve got Thoughts, and lots of them. Mind you, some are 15 years old from my experience living in the barracks as a Third Class.
Usually, facilities requests to the managers were impossible and flatly sucked. Offices only opened limited hours, and never late so a sailor working on ships would have to make appointments to get anything fixed. Staffing, if there was any, was often pregnant young women from supply rates, who had other priorities in life. We came off patrol Thanksgiving week 2008, and I returned to my room to find the toilet was slow and almost overflowed when flushing. I had to request help on the holiday, and I was asked if it was really necessary. When I pointed out that yes, an overflowing toilet is a real problem, I did get help that day. When highly urgent requests like that get pushback, there’s a real issue for culture on who runs the barracks.