Today's social dynamic and the attendant pressures on our military customs and traditions easily can steal center stage from the more wholesome aspects of time-honored rites of passage. Last September's Navy-wide Chiefs Initiation and Ceremony offers an interesting case in point. The ceremony—unique to the Navy—has special significance beyond just donning khakis and fouled anchors. The newest echelon of chief petty officers is charged with providing the vital leadership connection between officers and enlisted.
On one hand are those who argue adamantly against any change to the existing ceremony, however slight. On the other hand are those who feel the need to change a word in every verse of every old Navy song. Somewhere in the middle are the young commanding officers and command master chiefs who must execute the ceremony in the midst of adaptive guidance. Those above them in the chain of command are careful to provide sufficient latitude for interpretation and those below them are quick to grumble about "how it used to be." Ordering a true course for last year's ceremony was difficult. There was no lack of guidance, but it was interpreted and reinterpreted—right up to the 11th hour. A new interpretation was delivered by fax less than 48 hours prior to our ceremony and was received only because the right command representative happened to be in the right place to obtain it. This caused some last-minute scrambling to ensure that ceremonies were traditional, yet professional. After all, no command seeks the exposure of CNN, let alone a dozen or so of prime time's feared "60 Minutes."
Adapting to the changes induced by social pressures while trying to maintain the finest traditions of more than two centuries of service is a balancing act that the Navy has struggled with—and won—over time. For example, since the 1970s the Navy has weathered the turbulence of racial integration, drug abuse, and gender integration. Although problems in all three areas remain, they have become fewer and less major with time. In fact, we have reached the point where most people agree that the Navy has been successful with these challenges. Consider that Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) was the praise-bringing keynote speaker at the commissioning of the USS Hopper (DDG-70), a gender-integrated warship named for the late Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Facing all these challenges, the Navy has responded with internally motivated revisions to leadership style and training. The relatively recent and revamped "Leadership Continuum" is the latest of these sincere efforts at addressing the challenges head-on, with top-down concern.
Most ringside critics should put their money on the downsized Navy to succeed with the latest challenge—interpreting what is and what is not hazing, and how it relates to traditional rites of passage. The traditional rite of passage for a chief petty officer has undergone change, and those who are smart will adapt rather than complain, adjust rather than resist, and Navy life will endure. During the period of adaptation and adjustment, there are bound to be controversies and questions about various interpretations, but they, too, will pass and fade with patience and pride.
Such patience and pride was never conveyed more clearly and concisely than by the radiantly proud parents of a chief petty officer selectee who had traveled far from the cornfields of Iowa to attend their son's pinning ceremony. The distance and time had taken this farming father, himself a retired sailor, from the pressing responsibilities of raising crops in these challenging agri-economic times during a critical period in the growing season. Yet, with a pause, a proud glance at his khaki-clad and beaming "spittin image" son, the father slowly cracked a measured Midwestern smile on his weather-worn face and said, "The crops can wait for this."
Somehow, the concern over whether or not every little detail of active command-level involvement in the ceremony process was error-free and politically correct no longer mattered. The center stage of the ceremony had not been stolen by concern over proper execution, but rather by a proud father who said what most people cannot say—and what others obtain degrees in national security to express. In that one simple statement, he clarified any remaining confusion in the various interpretations of existing ceremonial guidance. Yes, the crops can wait for this.
The Navy exists for the nation—and as long as disciplined, hardworking families are willing to send their sons and daughters off to serve, and as long as the Navy provides opportunities for recognition of their achievements—then the value, the vibrancy, and the vitality of our Navy and the nation remain secure. Even while our Navy is continuously on watch in faraway oceans, upholding our freedom, there are many who hasten to judge harshly the Navy during its adaptation to changes in tradition. There are others who are quick with hidden video and poison pen. They all should have the same patience with and pride in Navy—as the weather-worn endurance of a farmer standing in his field.
Commander Rosenlof was the commanding officer of the Leftwich (DD-984), and is assigned to the staff of Commander, Carrier Group Six.