Early Morning Thoughts

It's 0530, and I've already had a pretty good run this morning! The temperature was fantastic, and the run was pretty good. I ran 2 miles this morning, then did pushups and crunches and a few other calisthenics and then ran another half mile. I feel it this morning, too--the hills are what get me. That last half mile was up a hill, by the time I got to the top, I was a hurting unit. But, I grunted my way through it (breathing heavily muttering "Hail Mary's" under my breath). Now I sit here, mostly worn out, getting ready to take a shower and go to work. We have a test on Wednesday, so I have to be ready for it. I studied for almost 4 hours yesterday, and I plan on going in tonight and tomorrow night and studying some more. I have to get the info into my head so I can take the test with confidence. That way when I leave to go home for Thanksgiving, I won't have the test looming over my head. Besides, like I keep telling myself, going to school and learning this stuff is my job, so I have to do it and be ready for when I get to the fleet. I get a little negative every once in a while and say, why am I learning this stuff? I'm going to a frigate and we don't have ANY of these weapons systems, so why are they making me learn it?! Then, my rational side takes over and reminds me of one thing--this is the only school we get before TWO department head tours. That means on my next tour, I COULD be on a ship that has these weapons systems. If I don't learn it now, I'll never go back to another school that will teach me the tactics. So, when my rational side says that, I smile, and say (pardon me for using the same words as President Bush) "Bring it on."

I was thinking about a few things on my way home from studying last night. One of them was parochialism within the services. I was thinking, at first, about how bad it is. Then I got to thinking about it, and I realized something--parochialism isn't all bad. It does have good points to. Like anything else, moderation is the key. Parochialism is good because it keeps each of the services focused on what their specific job is. Parochialism keeps the Navy focused on ships and naval air warfare and submarines. We are the only ones who do that, therefore we must have some parochialism to ensure that we can continue to do it. Where parochialism becomes bad is when we get so focused on doing "Navy Things" that we forget about the overall objectives of the national strategy--you know, the one that requires all branches to work together for the common good. And yes, sometimes that will mean the Navy sacrificing funding or other things so the Air Force can carry out its role in the joint mission. But, for the Navy, that also means sometimes the Air Force giving up part of its funding, etc. to ensure the Navy can carry out its part of the nation's mission. It lead me back to thinking about what Captain O'Connor told me when I was in one of my mentoring sessions with her. She said the key to being a good department head is to realize that the mission of the ship is what is primarily important. Therefore, as Chief Engineer, I not only have to do my job, but I have to be there, offering my support to Ops, CSO and Suppo to ensure that they can carry out their portion of the mission, and vice-versa--if I have to sacrifice some of my optar to ensure that Ops gets what he needs, then I should if it will help the mission of the ship. That simple motto can translate into the branches of the service, too. Our overarching mission is to fight the nation's wars, to carry out the orders of the President, and to support the Grand Strategy of the United States. Like department heads on a ship, the branches of the military need to work together on this mission. Parochialism to the extent that it improves each branch as a warfighting element of national power, but parochialism goes away when we need to support each other to accomplish the national mission. It doesn't mean that I have to agree with what we are doing in the nation's mission, but I WILL do it, because I took an oath and I love this country.

I must refer you back to one of my previous posts when I was going to talk to Captain O'Connor for a mentoring session. I was working out my philosophy for my department. It was "Answer the Ordered Bell." Simple, but overarching. Sometimes answering the ordered bell means sending people out on the forecastle to help Ops with some piece of equipment, or sacrificing some of my Optar to ensure that CSO gets his consoles groomed prior to deployment. It means supporting my fellow department heads in carrying out the mission of the ship and the orders of the Captain. It also means them doing the same. Shipmates helping shipmates--what a concept. Hearkens back to the days of the tin can sailor :)

But, I have to get ready for work, time flies and I need to go get ready for another action packed day.

God bless America!

A refresher so you don't have to scroll down and find this ;)

My Motto is: "Answer the Ordered Bell" To accomplish this, I have three priorities. They are:
1) Readiness- 100% readiness both material and personnel
2) Support- Be on top of the game and provide as much support as possible to all other departments because I recognize that engineering is not the most important department on the ship--no department is. We are all a team and we must help each other out. There will be no "us vs them" mentality in Engineering.
3) People- Sailors are our #1 asset and we must treat them as such. Sailorize the juniors and mentor all.

For the troops I came up with this:
As Chief Engineer, I have 3 top goals or priorities:
1) Readiness, both training and material
2) Support- All departments, we're one ship, one team
3) Sailorization and Mentoring- Sailors are our #1 asset

My motto is "Answer the ordered bell" and these three priorities will help us do that.

Readiness: Training- not rote training but effective training both schoolhouse and inhouse. Train our sailors right, train them well and train them often. Material- I understand that things break, but we must be flexible and adaptive enough to corrects problems as quickly as we can and fulfill our mission--not only the ship's mission as a warship, but our mission of support for our fellow departments. We should always be striving for the Red 'E' which leads into the next priority,

Support: Engineering is the most important department on the ship. So is Ops, So is CS, So is Supply. (I made this a positive statement instead of the negative statement it used to be.) We're one ship, one team and we all work together. We will support our fellow departments so that not only will we strive for the Red 'E' but we assist the other departments so, as a team, we can win the Battle 'E'. There is no us vs them in engineering. Finally,

Sailorization and Mentoring: Sailors are our #1 asset and we need to mentor them to make them better sailors, and we need to make new sailors feel welcome and a part of the team, and teach them Navy ways--that's sailorization--but make the GOOD sailors.
posted by scott at 8/27/2004 08:44:45 AM