Nobody Asked Me, But...Don't Cheat the Division Officers

Of all the *XPLYG&# I have ever heard of, the idea that chiefs should fill the division officer's role takes the cake. Unfortunately, that is what the Chief of Naval Operations is doing in a pilot program on board the USS Decatur (DDG-73).

I don't think it's a good idea. It's not that the chiefs can't do the job-far from it-but there's a catch: What will be the cost to an officer deprived of a division officer tour, which is really all about what happens to that young, impressionable division officer as he goes about his daily things-to-do loop.

There are two training regimens that seem older than the sea itself: bridge watches and division, officer tours. These timeless duties at sea turn regular folks into professional naval officers. Bridge watches teach us about command; division officer roles teach us about leadership.

Every opportunity to stand the watch on the bridge builds a hunger for command. The formal conduct of the bridge watch team, the terminology, the procedures-the routine, the choreography, the contact closest-point-of-approach and recommended actions reports . . . repeated hour by hour ... all serve to shape the discipline, drive, and awareness of the young officer's everexpanding concept of naval operations and the span of responsibilities.

Of those responsibilities, the role of the division officer is what completes the development of the professional naval officer.

Captains, executive officers, and department heads don't train the junior officers in the ways of the sea and the new Laws of the Navy, because they really don't have the time. The chiefs are the true trainers. Chief petty officers in their earliest mentoring relationships with their division officers give the most successful officers a start on the soundest career paths. I learned more about being an officer from my CPOsat every level of command-than I ever learned at the Naval Academy, seven different leadership courses, and countless wardroom training sessions.

No officer can accomplish all of the division-officer tasks spelled out by the Ship's Organization Manual. As a matter of fact, in the 1990s the applicable pages were missing from most of the printed copies. How in the world can you excel as you plan and execute the training, maintaining, managing, cleaning, inspecting, reporting, leading, and other responsibilities of a division officer on a daily basis? Being a division officer does not come from checklists and books. It comes from the daily, often hourly, continuous interaction between officer and chief as shaped by the demands of the chain of command.

I was lucky. I was tutored earliest by the old chiefs of the pre-Zumwalt era, like the ones he talked about in his memoir, On Watch: "When I introduced myself to my Chief, he told me he expected to see me at morning quarters and then only when he'd bring me a guy he wanted to put on report," the former CNO recounted. I discovered that officers have to be way more involved than that.

Starting at Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit Idaho Falls, Idaho, at the good old AlW prototype. Master Chief Electronics Technician Brietinger, my Training Crew Leading Chief, taught me about watch, about tours, about it's okay to keep asking another question to pull the strings until they fit together and tie up the package. He taught me to follow-up. He taught me to push myself, my crew, and my ship toward excellence.

As a junior officer on the USS Long Beach (CGN-9), Chief Machinery Repairman Butterworth introduced me to the old salts and a nearly Jack Tar fleet: three first class petty officers-Dahlgren, Smith, and Kelly-who went on to make CPO (and higher) and also shaped my understanding, attitude, and performance. If I thought I'd gained a clue, Master Chief Machinist's Mate Montague would come in and knock my socks off with what the chiefs meant. They taught me that even when the whole job couldn't get done, that if you chose the right stuff to do today you could take off and come back refreshed to hit the new right things tomorrow! Their mentoring led me to develop a Should-Want-Can-Must do list:

There are lots of things you should do.

There are many things you want to do.

There are only so many things you can do.

But, every day, it really comes down to what you must do.

After those early career-personal shaping tours, I continued to be blessed with tremendous CPOs. I truly had an appreciation for who they are and what they mean. My chiefs made me a much better officer and leader.

Let's not deprive future generations of the seasoning and mentoring derived from the division officer-division chief relationship.