As the officer responsible for resourcing the Navy, I am interested in more than just the monetary capital required to maintain and transform our service. Achieving the goals of "Sea Power 21" and the full potential of the Global Concept of Operations (ConOps) will require prudent use of the Navy's most precious resource—people. Not only do our sailors man the ships, they also generate the ideas that are indispensable to our Navy's future. Equipment by itself can only enable transformation. If our people do not have both the vision to see future possibilities that new technologies have enabled and the courage to embrace the resulting change, true transformation will not occur.
History is replete with examples of forces that were inferior in either size or technical quality to their adversaries carrying the day. In almost all cases the key ingredients to the winners' successes were their people's quality and training and their superior operating concepts using the technology at hand. Sea Warrior is our path to developing that human capital. Through targeted recruitment, focused training, and thoughtful assignment of our people, we will develop the technical expertise to operate future technologies and the mastery of the operational art to achieve a true transformation.
The Navy's Global ConOps is the brainchild of one relatively junior staff officer, Commander Steve Richter, who had the vision to see the possibilities and the courage to translate talk into deeds despite his critics. Navy leaders must create a vibrant intellectual environment where new ideas, both technical and operational, are rewarded. We must create an environment where we can find and develop the next Wayne Meyer (the father of Aegis), Arleigh Burke, or Alfred Thayer Mahan. Only then will we reach our full potential.