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Those who are wrestling with whether or how to apply the principles of Total Quality Leadership (TQL) to the operating forces should simply go down to the waterfront and ask the operators. The possibilities are endless. For starters, we should look no further than Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s ninth point—break down barriers between staff areas (departments, warfare communities, services, etc.). With a few paradigm changes, plus a willingness to ignore bureaucratic impediments and inbred parochialism, we can begin at least to ask some interesting questions. If the primary mission of the Aegis ship is antiair warfare (AAW), why don’t we have an AAW officer billet on the ship? And from a battle group perspective, wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to have an experienced E-2C naval flight officer in a billet on board an Aegis or new threat upgrade cruiser? And if we are going to fight in a joint environment, wouldn’t it be great to have an Air Force airborne early-warning aircraft (AWACS)-experienced officer in the combat information center coordinating with the Air Force and working to establish the data link between the AWACS and the AAW Center? From a customer’s (operator, if you must) perspective, there is no, repeat no, down side to
By Captain E. B. Hontz, U.S. Navy
answering these questions in the affirmative. If every Aegis ship had a fleet-experienced E-2C naval flight officer permanently assigned as the AAW officer, the benefits would accrue to both the surface and the aviation communities, as we all learn how to work in an integrated battle environment.
As the sponsor for the Aegis program from the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in the mid- 1980s, I proposed establishing such a billet on the Aegis cruisers for an E-2 officer. But the time was just not right. Neither the surface nor aviation leadership was receptive. Times have changed, however.
When I recently submitted a proposal to establish an Air Force exchange billet at the Aegis Training Center for an Air Force captain with AWACS experience, the request was enthusiastically endorsed at every level. The Personnel Exchange Program billet is approved, and we are now waiting for our AWACS back-seater to show up. When he arrives, he will go to school for a while, he will ride a ship, and then he will prepare to become an Aegis weapon system instructor. When he leaves after several years, he will be an expert on shipboard friend-or-foe identification. data links, identification doctrine and the SPY-1 radar. And the rest of us at the training center
will be smarter about Air Force procedures, the use of minimum- risk routes, and perhaps even the intricacies of the infamous air tasking order that we all contended with in Desert Storm.
The Marines long ago figured out how to integrate their aviators into infantry commands. To get an aviation billet on an Aegis cruiser should be no more difficult than it was to establish surface officer billets on aircraft carriers. Those aviators who perceive a tour on a surface ship as a career-stopper should talk to Captain Bunky Johnson, an E-2 naval flight officer who is currently commanding officer of the USS Forrestal (CV- 59), who was operations officer on the staff of the Commander, Seventh Fleet, during the Gulf War, and who served as navigator and combat information center officer in the USS Farragut (DDG-37) a lieutenant.
The time is right to make some bold changes. Read the lessons learned from Desert Shield and Storm, reread the principles of TQL, and then head to the waterfront and ask the operators what ought to be done!
Captain Hontz is former commanding officer of the Aegis cruiser Princeton (CG-59) and now heads the Aegis Training Center, Dahlgren, Virginia.
would be less than it would be in terms of lost careers. Before the push for joint training, any officer who left his community—or the Navy itself—was viewed as having committed professional suicide, as many fallen officers can attest. Undoubtedly, such a proposal would require a new vision on the part of the Bureau of Personnel to send the best and brightest aviators and not only the fallen and adventurous—which has seemingly been past practice. It would also necessitate continued support for these young leaders in their careers. Can the community itself support such a proposal? Certainly not. Only if tactical fleet leaders call for an improvement in our airborne early- warning doctrine will such policy change.
Fourth, expose junior pilots and naval flight officers to joint training earlier and more often in their careers- Establish a week-long fleet readiness squadron joint training course for all air crews, while they are still it1 their first fleet squadron. After completing a single cruise, most operationally experienced aviators would benefit from a course to help them better understand the joint piC' ture. This course should complement and build on a much-needed introductory course on Aegis and AWACS systems. Every nugget should be taught at the fleetreadiness level before he arrives at his first airborne early- warning squadron. The concept of waiting to reach midgrade before being introduced to joint concepts is puzzling
Proceedings / July