The U.S. Naval Academy does a fantastic job with its character and ethics development. It was not always that way, however. During the fall 1992 semester, there was a major cheating scandal that rocked the academy to its core. Electrical engineering always was seen as one of the toughest courses midshipmen had to take. Over the years, corners were cut, "gouge" was rampant, and eventually an escape hatch was found. A copy of a final exam was distributed and exploited by midshipmen. Over the next decade, the character and ethics development program at the academy evolved and grew into a separate center. The Naval Academy has come a long way in the past 13 years, and it turned bad events into something good. The fleet has not.
It is time the Navy establishes mandatory character and ethics training at the same level of importance as all the other governmentmandated training we receive. One does not need to look very hard for the reasons for this. In the past two years there have been at least 26 Navy commanding officers relieved of their commands or fired from their jobs. The prison abuse scandal in Iraq is another example of what happens when there is no foundation for ethical or proper behavior.
It seems the Navy cares about educating its men and women on the perils of drug and alcohol abuse, fraternization, and suicide, but I cannot remember the last time I had a mandatory, well-planned and -executed lecture, course, or training session devoted to character and ethics. We are fooling ourselves if we believe everything officers need in their careers is given to them prior to commissioning.
The bad press about all the commanding officers losing their commands should reflect the need for character and ethics training across all ranks in the Navy. Recommendations from the Navy Inspector General report addressing the firings, however, may have missed the mark. The report focused almost exclusively on training prospective commanding officers, a relatively small and senior group of officers within the officer corps.
Who or what is to blame? It is the Navy's damn-the-torpedoes, full-steamahead approach to getting the job done regardless of the unintended consequences. Specifically, it is the Navy's performance-oriented culture that drives ships and gets bombs on target. This attitude is everywhere-and it is a good thing if it is maintained by people who have a solid foundation in what is right and wrong. We carry performance too far, however. Go to a promotion board or get into any discussion about what is needed to get the best "paper" on a fitness report, and you likely will hear, "sustained superior performance." How about sustained superior character?
Take a look at the Navy's fitness report forms. There is just one block for character. If I had to choose between someone of higher character and someone who could get the job done, I would choose the former every time. I know I can get the one with a better character to perform at a higher standard with proper mentoring and training. Such a person inherently has more potential. I am not so sure the inverse is true. Can I get someone who gets the job done the proper training in character and ethics he or she needs right now? Not today. We have no formal system of character and ethics training in the junior officer or enlisted ranks with the same level of effect as most other general military training lectures.
The fleet would benefit from a three-tiered approach to character and ethics training. At the lowest level, division officers or chiefs should have discussions with their sailors. These discussions would be treated with the same level of importance as a promotion exam; it would send the message to sailors that this training is critical to the day-to-day operations of the Navy. Next, ready- or wardroom-based training sessions similar to those that discuss safety and review mishaps would be an excellent way of fostering common standards among peers. Finally, visiting lecturers to bases and commands would offer Navy personnel the opportunity to listen to experts in the field.
We owe it to our nation and sailors to turn these recent bad events into something good. We have repeated history enough; it is time to learn from it.
Lieutenant Alsina is an EA-6B naval flight officer currently stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy and enrolled in the company officer master's program.