SECNAV to Implement Sweeping Changes

[Recovering LSO]

Would be great to see @ben4prez 's comments here. I know he's shared quite a bit since last week's speech over at Sailor Bob.

I think many of us are interested in hearing some more implementation plans; some hows; some then whats. Now that these good ideas (and most of them really are good ideas) have been floated and bought off on - whose job is it to "get the ball across the line?" Whose job is it to develop a plan for working without year groups? Whose job is it to realize that this only goes part of the way, and that FITREP reform is really the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed to prevent these initiatives from realizing a still birth.

When discussing this very topic yesterday, a very wise man reminded me that "no amount of work is too much for the person who doesn't have to do it."

 

[hscs]

^ This - it is the standard problem when a leader makes a sweeping change. You run into what CNO Roughead called 'antibodies' - those that slow the pace of change.

Hope the anti-bodies do not get their hands on the year group business. To be honest - I don't care if an officer shows up at his / her DH tour @ YG +14 - is he / she qualified; are they ready to be DHs; do they have enough aviation experience that they can lead their department and lead a mission without being over-tasked?

This may free PERS up - they won't be as stressed about inducing risk into a member's career by having to manage via YGs. I have seen tours cut short or qualified candidates not considered for jobs because their timing doesn't work to get them to their next milestone on time.

 

[Brett327]

Would be great to see @ben4prez 's comments here. I know he's shared quite a bit since last week's speech over at Sailor Bob.

I think many of us are interested in hearing some more implementation plans; some hows; some then whats. Now that these good ideas (and most of them really are good ideas) have been floated and bought off on - whose job is it to "get the ball across the line?" Whose job is it to develop a plan for working without year groups? Whose job is it to realize that this only goes part of the way, and that FITREP reform is really the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed to prevent these initiatives from realizing a still birth.

When discussing this very topic yesterday, a very wise man reminded me that "no amount of work is too much for the person who doesn't have to do it."

CDR Sal has been curiously quiet on this particular development. Perhaps it will be addressed the next time CNP is on Midrats.

 

[Recovering LSO]

^ This - it is the standard problem when a leader makes a sweeping change. You run into what CNO Roughead called 'antibodies' - those that slow the pace of change.

Lack of tone/inflection/context on the inter webs.... Does me asking these questions = "antibodies"? I think they're fair questions.

 

[ssnspoon]

The rope and choke is a joke, but I think a lot of those 'weightlifter' types would be surprised to find that they are, in fact, over 22% BF if the Navy used a more accurate method like calipers. The rope and choke allows far more out of standards sailors to pass the BCA than causing in standards sailors to fail.

If the Navy is truly interested in accurately measuring BF%, it should move to calipers.


Just a point of reference for a 'really big guy who is fit,' Arnold Schwarzenneger had a 29" (two-nine, not a typo) waist in his competition days. If you have a 39" waist, 99.9999% chance it's because you are fat.

His 29" waist was while doing a vacuum....
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-tips/arnold-schwarzeneggers-vacuum-pose

 

[nittany03]

I think it would've made a hell of a lot more sense to keep me with my real peer group - i.e., other dudes who were finishing their First Shore - rather than whoever I happened to throw my hat with in Annapolis. It especially makes sense in Aviation because of the vast differences in time to train - a NFO could theoretically finish the FRS as an Ensign, while most Hornet pilot nuggets are O-3s or senior jg's.

Hope the anti-bodies do not get their hands on the year group business. To be honest - I don't care if an officer shows up at his / her DH tour @ YG +14 - is he / she qualified; are they ready to be DHs; do they have enough aviation experience that they can lead their department and lead a mission without being over-tasked?

This is huge. And I speak from personal experience. My double trip through the TRACOM, combined with NAMI hell, put me showing up to a first fleet tour essentially as a Super JO. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad the Air Boss at the time thought highly enough of me, or at least my FNAEB package, to give me a second chance. And I'm glad my head shed was willing not to write me off when I got there. That said, the only method to "fix the glitch" was to put me through the ACTC syllabus way ahead of schedule, and simultaneously put me in some senior JO billets not normally given to a newer JO. It worked . . . for a while. Then, for a number of reasons, it just became too much for a first-tour JO to handle. In the end, I got the minimum quals I needed to "succeed." But good God, that tour turned into a complete mindfuck on multiple levels. Though I wouldn't have recognized it at the time, with the benefit of hindsight, I'm very concerned at the human-factors shape I was in from the end of workups on.

It would have been infinitely better for my sanity and my job performance if my head shed had had the option to say "look; you made it to the fleet. Relax. You're going to have a normal junior JO tour and shore tour. Don't expect to be up for O-4 until you've had a chance to compete with your new peers and see where you shake out." Instead, my front office was forced to try to work me what turned out to bebeyond my abilities, in a last-ditch attempt to make me competitive for a board I had no business being in front of at my fleet experience level.

 

[hscs]

Lack of tone/inflection/context on the inter webs.... Does me asking these questions = "antibodies"? I think they're fair questions.

No - not at all - in violent agreement with your statement. The implementation will be on those at the action officer and planner levels - if action doesn't happen fast enough, the initiative may not be implemented.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Interesting dual mil BAH proposal from SASC. Regardless if you think this is the right thing to do or not, I'm curious how this proposal squares with some of the ideas SECNAV pitched in his recent speech.

 

[Spekkio]

Won't dual mil couples just abstain from getting married to avoid a $12000-24000/year or so paycut then?

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Won't dual mil couples just abstain from getting married to avoid a $12000-24000/year or so paycut then?

Don't you need to be married to get special consideration for orders to the same area? Seems like a gamble.

 

[Brett327]

This is a negotiating tactic. I'll be very surprised if it survives to the final language of the bill.

 

[IKE]

Interesting dual mil BAH proposal from SASC.

What's next? Will single junior officers be disallowed from sharing a rental house, because they're pocketing half of their BAH?

This just highlights the problem with pay whose justification is need-based rather than merit-based (or purely rank-based). It is a screwed up system where a responsible 25-yr old has to live on a ship/base w/o BAH if he's an E-4 or below while a chucklehead 18-yr old E-2 can get extra pay and live off base because he married the first thing to wink at him outside the gate. I've also seen newly-winged pilots with mediocre performance work their way past the usual orders-picking system because they married another servicemember and need to be collocated in sunny SD instead of overseas.

Edited because it's Friday and I got a little hot-headed

 

[Recovering LSO]

It seems that this proposal sets up a potentially difficult decision for existing mil-mil couples. They would continue to each draw single BAH until time for a PCS. SECNAV mentioned his intent to do a "better" job of collocating. So now it's time to PCS, the couple needs to decide if they want to be stationed near one-another and take a substantial pay cut, or geo-bach and continue to draw individual BAH. If this decision is being pondered near the end of an MSR, I can foresee it having unintended consequences.

 

[Gatordev]

What's next? Will single junior officers be disallowed from sharing a rental house, because they're pocketing half of their BAH?

Something similar was actually how it used to be done. You had to turn in your lease in order to receive BAH. Obviously it went away, but I'm curious how long that actually lasted. Seems like something that wouldn't survive for long due to it's ridiculousness.

 

[snake020]

Something similar was actually how it used to be done. You had to turn in your lease in order to receive BAH. Obviously it went away, but I'm curious how long that actually lasted. Seems like something that wouldn't survive for long due to it's ridiculousness.

That's how it still works for OHA though.