Sooner or later, almost every young naval officer experiences that occasion of walking into the personnel office and being greeted with the yeoman’s statement: “A set of orders came in for you today, Mr. Roberts.”
“Where to?” is the breathless reply.
“To staff duty with the. . . .”
Whereupon, there is usually much cursing, groaning, and gnashing of teeth. Somewhere along the way, staff duty has gathered unto itself the repulsion of a banishment order to Siberia and the reputation of being unpleasant, unprofitable duty. Actually it has many excellent advantages, and a career without it is an unbalanced one. For the record, let’s look at some of the assets of staff duty.
First let us qualify “staff duty.” While some may consider Washington duty in the various bureaus as staff duty, I do not include it here. Neither do I include duty in the naval districts or the subsidiary naval missions in the continental United States as staff duty. But even these types of staff duties have many of the advantages that I shall mention. Rather, I would like to have the reader consider, for the purpose of this article, the scope of “staff duty” to include Fleet staff duty only—any staff duty which has a connection or relationship with working units of the Fleet: a cruiser, carrier, battleship, amphibious, training, destroyer, squadron, or aviation staff—any of those intermediate command levels which have both administrative and operational functions.
To begin with, the basic need and function of any staff is too often forgotten. A staff exists for the command, not the command for the staff. If there were no units, ships, or squadrons to coordinate, there would be no need for a staff. It is a service organization.
Duty in staff jobs gives the young officer an unparalleled opportunity to gain a broadened, balanced, and matured viewpoint. He learns to appreciate what has come to be known as “the over-all picture.” He is in middle position and can observe both ends— the operational work-a-day problems of the subordinate ship and commands, the problems and pains of the higher command levels. It is a unique position, permitting an officer to gain both operational and administrative experience and background.
For example, take a destroyer type command staff. The hard-working destroyers always have more work to do than it seems possible for them to accomplish. Foreign cruises, plane-guard duty, aerological duty, fleet maneuvers, reserve cruises—to mention a few—keep these work horses humping. It becomes difficult for each individual ship to appreciate the over-all picture. The destroyer officer is apt to think that his vessel is bearing the brunt of operations. Under his breath he unconsciously growls at the type commander for not passing the duty around.
But when this same officer goes to the staff and sees the volume and variety of tasks which are received from higher levels, he observes that the type commander has done an honest and conscientious job of apportioning the load; and he is able to see that all vessels are “sharing and sharing alike.” From innumerable such instances, the officer is bound to grow in broad-mindedness.
The staff officer learns an appreciation of the Senior’s problems—the headaches of high level command. He comes to know that as much competence and devotion to duty exist in the higher and intermediate levels as in the lower levels. He soon realizes that the inevitable bobbles which occur up and down the line, and which from the viewpoint of the operating units often seem laborious, are usually the result of forced choice of the least of one or more evils. To the destroyer, the carrier, the cruiser, the minelayer, it seems that the Navy is working on a day to day schedule, with long range plans scarcely existent. Actually, in these explosive times, this is often true. A slight change of course by the high command is a full rudder turn at the lower levels. Congress cuts the budget, and a single stroke of the financial pencil sets off reverberations felt at the very bottom-—personnel are cut, transferred, and doubled up; priority schedules are revised and reshifted; some ships light off, others secure; operations plans are re-written, training schedules are revised. And so it goes. At the staff level, tolerance and appreciation of such problems are valuable by-products which the staff officer gains.
Another important advantage that the staff officer derives is administrative experience. No naval officer can escape paper work; he gets some of it in every task, lots of it in most. The assignment which requires no paper work is almost as rare as the naval officer who relishes it as a steady diet. In a staff job, an officer is forced to use and master the tools of naval administration: the filing system, the Navy Department bulletins, Navy Regs, BuPers Manual, Naval Courts and Boards. True, even in the operational job an officer uses these same tools. But the treatment is usually the “once-over- lightly” kind, rather than the heavy doses which the staff officer consumes. Much in the manner of the Academy midshipman, an officer learns where to go to get things, where to look to find the answers. He learns to write a naval letter, not as easy a task as some officers assume. And he quickly recognizes that the nebulous “service reputation” which every officer acquires as the years advance, is partly based on the quality of the officer’s administrative output.
Staff duty of necessity throws the junior officer into daily contact with senior officers. He discovers how policies are formulated, how they are applied. He observes many successful senior officers and learns of their methods, of their talents for organizing work and discharging their duties. Example is an excellent tutor, and the junior officer on a staff has splendid opportunity to improve himself in the technique of being a more competent naval officer.
A staff officer is frequently thrown with experts, specialists of many kinds—legal, electronics, ASW, engineering, aeronautics— who must serve with staffs. The atmosphere and relationship is always favorable to the young officer, for it enables him to broaden his knowledge and extend his experience in an easy and practical way. As for personal advantages, there are many, both tangible and intangible. Not the least of them is the valuable contacts that a staff officer makes. To deny the advantages of working directly with and under the higher command, with resultant daily and even hourly opportunities to show your ability, is to distort everyday fact. Getting ahead in any organization, civilian or military, depends on many things —ability, brains, performance, personality, luck, and contacts. It is quite as true in the Navy as in civilian life. Staff duty is not a prerequisite to command; but neither is it a retardent. For proof of this, examine the records of a number of flag officers. The vast majority of them had staff duty in their early careers; some of them even had a predominance of it.
Duty on a staff keeps an officer “in the know.” He gets more “dope,” and he gets it faster. The problems which arise, the operations which must be accomplished, are manifold and varied. Staff duty does not always require a monotonous repetition of a single task. Even though the primary assignment may be personnel, or engineering, or communications, the particular problem may today be operational, and tomorrow be maintenance. And what is more important, the connection with these problems is usually personal and intimate, and not just that of a casual spectator. The staff officer may be junior in rank, but he can express his ideas and opinions, and often finds himself in the position of researching the project or problem. In the administrative follow-up, the staff officer frequently prepares the report or the reply which the Admiral signs. To the young officer it is gratifying and helpful to see such approval, for with it comes the realization that one is a useful, if small, cog in a complex machine.
One tangible asset not commonly appreciated regarding staff duty is that one learns not only how to do things, but sometimes what is even more important—how not to do them. There are always a variety of accident reports, administrative reports, courts-martial, groundings, collisions, investigations, inquiries and the like, which permit the staff officer to see what errors are made and how they might have been avoided. And not to be forgotten are such small advantages as sea pay with a modicum of movement, regular, working hours, fewer watches, and a sense of camaraderie.
A further advantage to staff duty is that, thrown into daily and repeated contact with senior officers, the young staff officer gains social stability. Most young officers, when meeting an admiral or a captain socially, feel themselves at a loss; their minds are paralyzed, they fumble for words, and they feel ill at ease. An officer on staff duty soon realizes that the “Old Man,” to use a countrified expression, “gets in his britches one leg at a time”; he is no different from any other human being—frequently, he is a lonely character because the majority assume he is frigid and unapproachable. It is an asset to have learned to be comfortable and at ease in the presence of rank, and to think accurately, speak respectfully and yet with purpose.
Staff duty, nevertheless, has disadvantages and it has pitfalls which should be avoided. The staff officer must continually avoid getting out of touch with the problems of the operating units. A staff at any level is a service organization. It exists for helping the fleet units, and making their job easier. The staff officer can easily lose the pulse, become unsympathetic or indifferent, and he can grow to assume that he knows better what the individual needs of the operating units are than they do themselves. In short, he can unconsciously acquire an “LMD (Large Mahogany Desk) Complex”—a swivel chair psychosis. An officer can get too much staff duty; it becomes easy for a line officer to do his sailing down the corridors, and some aviators become content with a four-hour- per-month-diet. Staff officers must also avoid developing a haughty, know-it-all attitude.
If the junior officer avoids these shoals and steers a middle course, fleet staff duty is a valuable education, teaching him understanding, tolerance, and broadmindedness, and placing him in a position to become a better naval officer.