Shoes are Taking Back the Amphibs
...I still don't understand a 13XX commanding an AS 'tho...
There is a point an officer’s career when they take a double take, and ask the question, “Why is that amphib commanded by an aviator?”
The excuses one hears…well…here’s a change, and it makes sense.
For LHA/LHD, LPD, and LSD, welcome to full-time SWO-dom.
You have to pay attention to a letter from the CNO that comes out of the gate as direct and as clear as:
Amphibious ship readiness and operational availability for years have been below Navy standards of acceptable levels.
There are a lot of parallel threads in this letter that ask great questions from what it takes to have a ship ready for war, to the questionable “fleet up” concept, to…what looks like…what does your aviation community and pilot/NFO status have to do with your chance of making Flag?
That’s too much for one post, but this does have me asking the question: for the classes of amphibs, how many aviators have been COs?
Looking through just the LHA/LHD’s for a sample size, it looks like it is a 50/50 split between Surface Warfare and Aviation getting these Major Command at Sea billets. Port and starboard, generally. The vast majority of Aviation types were helicopter pilots, but there was a Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance (P-8) bubba thrown in there as well for flavor. I know some VAW fellas have skippered amphibs too.
Huh. See a trend here? I do.
The same blinkered mafia that skillfully killed the VA and VF communities for their own interests, have…well…you can follow the bread crumbs from there.
More importantly than Aviation’s tribal wars, let’s go back to that CNO pull-quote.
The CNO is a nuclear submariner (perfect neutral party, CNO or not, for this Surface v. Aviation issue). He doesn’t do much of anything without mathematical rigor backing it up. There has to be a statistically significant readiness signal between SWO and Aviation skippered ships. Has to be.
<puts on foil lined watch cap>
It can’t be something cynical such as with the cruiser decommissionings cutting back on the SWO Major Command at Sea opportunities. The DDGs converted to Captain from Commander commands should be helping that. I mean, there’s a non-zero chance of that. After all, that is the community that made sub-100 Sailor commands Commander commands (see LCS manning CONOPS).
<takes off foil lined watch cap>
No, there has to have been a mess hiding under the rug for, as he states, “years” that no one was willing to point out and take action on. I will assume this is the case, and as such, BZ for taking action.
What that mess was that prompted this action would be a great question for Congress to demand answers to. How long, where, and why.
It would also be interesting to see a full statistical breakout of potential to Flag selection in the aviation community by community and pilot/NFO designator. Go back 20 years. That should give you a valid enough sample.
If there is a statistically significant difference? If so, then hard questions should be asked as to “why?”
In the end, great letter by the CNO. Continuous improvement, etc.
Easter Egg: for those former N1/Flag Secretary types who still beat themselves up over some mistakes you made in official documents with your boss’ name on it, let it go.
You’re not alone. It happens to the best of us.
This was a letter from the CNO to…everyone…and it misspelled “Commodore.” Additionally, as was pointed out to me right after this posted, it is “prospective”, not “perspective”.
Not quite “Quality Learing Center”, but worth a giggle.
Spelling errors from the Navy high command are allowed, as they can spell, even if they misspell a word here or there. We Marines do not have such concerns, rather we communicate with hand and arm signals, grunts and frowns. This seems like some recognition that “Houston we have a problem”, and a start at some introspection. If someone follows through perhaps we will find our way out of the defense procurement problems at the same time.
From a personal perspective, I served under and worked directly for three COs on an east coast LPD in the early 90s, two aviators and one SWO, each with completely different leadership styles and competency.
The first was a Vietnam helo pilot who absolutely was a leader beyond peer. Didn't sweat the small stuff but was very involved in operations. However, recent events underway dictate COs should sweat the small stuff lest avoiding collisions and fires.
The second was a by the book SWO who had a hard-ass style of leadership that turned off many junior SWOs that were used to the previous CO's positive leadstyle. I personally got along great with him as I new exactly what the standards were each and every day...no deviation ever, which most officers appreciate.
The third CO, an aviator selected for CVN command could have been the poster boy example as to why aviators will no longer command large deck amphibs. His leadership style and outlook varied every day. His sole motivation at times, and he said it out loud more than once, was the impact the crew had on his future CVN command. He couldn't give a rat's behind about a single crew member, only what they could do for him to get to command.
Bottom line...from my experience SWOs should command large deck amphibs. The ship got lucky with the first aviator CO but the second was enough to drive competent sailors out of the Navy.