We would not dream of promoting sailors to chief petty officers based solely on their potentials or their ability to take tests. Twice a year, however, we promote tens of thousands of sailors who lack proven performance and have done nothing more than complete their time in rate. Among these are thousands of new airmen, seamen, and firemen who were fortunate enough to enter the Navy as E-2s or even E-3s. When compared to an airman who has been in a squadron since reporting as an E-I right out of Class A school, an artificially advanced airman does not hold a candle to the more traditional airman who is qualified at many different skills.
This difference in skills is not lost on airmen, and it certainly is not lost on supervisors. Yet, we still recommend these sailors for promotion, and virtually all commands insist all eligible sailors take the advancement exam if they are time-in-rate eligible. The result is some sailors who are being promoted because of knowledge from books and training but without proven performance on the flight line or in the engine room. When sailors who are not proven performers advance, they take billets from sailors who have demonstrated ability, and in some cases they prevent more experienced sailors from advancing.
Supervisors often lament they are unable to do anything to help a hard-charging sailor advance in rate, because V once the sailor gets to the fleet he must wait his turn to advance. The current waiting times are nine months as an E-1, another nine months as an E-2, and then a further six months as an E-3 before advancement to E-4. This two-year transition from civilian to petty officer third class is in sharp contrast to the experience of the sailor who reports to his first assignment in the fleet as an E-3 ready to take an advancement exam. How did this sailor get to be an E-3 so quickly? He could have had some college prior to entering the Navy; he might have successfully encouraged a few buddies to enter the Navy simultaneously; or he might have done well in recruit training or his initial A school prior to reporting to his first ship or squadron.
In the past, there was a thing called personnel advancement requirements (PARs) that had to be completed prior to being able to take the test for advancement. These established that sailors actually had accomplished tasks indicating they were ready to advance to the next higher rank. In time, these were satisfied by other tests, were ignored by commands, or, even worse, were signed off as complete when in fact nothing had been accomplished. Eventually, PARs were discontinued. In time, we even made it so completion of the professional courses for advancement no longer needed to be documented.
How did we get to this state of affairs? Too many in the chain of command wanted a fitness report bullet that indicated how well they did getting their sailors advanced. This is ironic, because it moved the responsibility for advancement from the sailor (where it belongs) to the chain of command, which should be making sure the sailor is qualified in all respects for advancement. This shift in personal responsibility does a disservice to all sailors who wear the uniform because it degrades and minimizes their senses of accomplishment. Another consequence is that manpower gurus who see that a command has just advanced a number of sailors to third class could believe mistakenly the command has all the talent it needs.
What can be done to fix the situation? It may not be complete, but there is a solution in the works-the Navy's new Five-Vector Model. One of the vectors or legs comprising the model is qualifications and certifications. By making defined accomplishments on the qualification and certification vector a requirement to take an advancement exam, we can restore integrity to the advancement system and ensure we advance the best-qualified and best-performing sailors to the next higher rank. This also will enhance the prestige of advancement to petty officer third class.
We easily could institute required milestones for promotion to each enlisted rank; this would greatly strengthen the ranks of our enlisted leaders. Some sailors will have their advancements held up because they are unable to obtain the required qualifications. This may affect individual sailors adversely, but it also will ensure we have fully qualified sailors earning promotions in the fleet.
Better sailors in better squadrons and ships makes sense. Anything less can cost us far more than we need to pay.
Master Chief Butler has 28 years of service and currently is the command master chief of the USS Wasp (LHD-1).