Senior enlisted leaders teach the fundamentals of firefighting and damage control to junior officers and enlisted personnel prior to commencing operational reactor watchstanding at nuclear prototype school. (U.S. Navy)
When Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a junior officer on board the USS New Mexico (BB-40), he served as assistant engineer. He was part of a team that won his ship the Battle “E” in engineering for two years in a row. One ensign was so inspired by Rickover’s devotion to the engineering section that he penned the poem “An Ode to a Senior Assistant Engineer.”1 However, Admiral Rickover would have been the first to say that a crew’s success depends on the team dynamic far more than individual effort.
A successful team, a Battle “E,” and the safe operation of a naval warship all require a standard of excellence from the entire crew. This lesson is evident to submarine officers long before reporting to their first boat. It is at the foundation of the nuclear training model.
Warfare community training pipelines vary widely in length, purpose, and structure. For surface warfare officers (SWOs), training before joining the ship is brief. SWOs attend the Basic Division Officer Course for only two months before they are expected to lead a division of sailors. Marines attend The Basic School for six months before specialty training. Pilots may be in their training pipeline for up to two years before reporting to a fleet squadron. In each case, junior officer training is separate from enlisted training. In the submarine community, officer-only academic schooling is followed by six months of practical application at a prototype nuclear power plant. At prototype, officers and enlisted personnel study and stand watch together, just as they will in the fleet.
The Prototype Model
Prototype nuclear power plants may look nothing like the ones on the submarines where junior officers will eventually report. They may have a different layout and components, even an entirely different type of nuclear reactor. However, training as a watch officer at a prototype plant is crucial to submarine officer development. It is the first time an officer will practice acting as a supervisor—from giving orders in a casualty situation to approving equipment isolations for safety and deconflicting complex maintenance schedules. Officers also become immersed in the culture of the submarine community—the formal language and watchstanding conventions common to all submarines.
Formality is Essential
Formality is essential to working as a team to operate the reactor. Admiral Stavridis writes in The Division Officer’s Guide, “You must encourage and reward effective teamwork, promote a positive team image, and implement a process that fully indoctrinates new team members.”2 In a submarine, the physical space where junior officers first stand engineering officer of the watch is called “maneuvering.” They coordinate with three enlisted members of the watch team to safely operate the nuclear reactor for submarine propulsion. At prototype, standing watch in maneuvering is a major part of training. Learning to stand watch is challenging—conventions in speech and behavior must be practiced and perfected. Orders must be given to the right people using the right words. Formal verbal conventions ensure everyone understands what is said and what they need to do. On watch, “sorry” and “please” are not part of the vocabulary. The focus is on concise orders and verbatim recitation.
Level of Knowledge
Knowledge in the form of technical acumen is the most highly valued commodity among submariners. However, distinguishing expertise from confidence can be difficult. The value of confidence and charisma in a watchstander is clear. Yet these same traits can mask deficiencies in understanding. Watch teams that include pretenders are unacceptable. A standard of excellence in level of knowledge begins with junior officers and extends to the entire crew.
Admiral Stavridis writes that one of the principles of naval leadership is to “know yourself”:
Even the most complete knowledge of the job is incomplete without a matching knowledge of your own capabilities and limitations. Seek to identify your own strengths and weaknesses and gradually improve yourself in areas of weakness. And don’t be too hard on yourself either as a leader or as a division officer—everyone makes mistakes.3
Level of knowledge does not mean that every sailor needs to memorize the entire reactor plant manual. Nor is having a single technical expert on board enough to sustain a submarine. The entire crew must meet the level of knowledge required to safely operate. While recognizing that learning involves making mistakes, this requirement challenges everyone to ensure the highest standard is maintained.
Forceful Backup
The watchstanding principle of forceful backup is often the most painful for a young junior officer to accept, as it requires a willingness to be loudly and obviously wrong. Watchstanders must always speak loudly so that others can correct them, and each watchstander must forcefully announce when they hear something wrong or disagree with a course of action. As the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote, “Don’t hide yourself in the chorus. Let yourself be laughed at sometimes, look about you, shake yourself up, so as to at least find out who you actually are!”4 This advice is essential for a junior officer working to engender a culture of forceful backup.
The first watchstanding experiences in prototype can leave the impression that being wrong is unacceptable. It is embarrassing to be corrected by four people at once. It wounds pride and can even dissuade a person from speaking up in the future. A watch officer who demonstrates that being wrong is inevitable and that forceful backup is expected best utilizes the breadth of experience in the watch team.
From Watch Team to the Fleet
Rank takes a backseat to experience in the engine room. An ensign recently qualified to stand engineering officer of the watch is a supervisor, but he or she is often the most junior person in maneuvering with respect to time onboard. Where junior officers can have an immediate effect is through strong leadership. They bear the responsibility of establishing a climate where learning from mistakes is valued. The prototype training command is an important, if often overlooked, venue for developing this attitude in junior officers.
The prototype model is unique to submarine training and officer development. Unlike in other warfare communities, the first test of submarine officer leadership skills comes long before they qualify as watch officers. The watchstanding principles of formality, level of knowledge, and forceful backup provide a foundation for how junior officers lead their watch teams. Openly admitting areas of weakness, loudly making mistakes, and treating each other with formality and respect are critical to division officer and watch officer leadership.
1. LtCol Joseph J Thomas, USMC (Ret.), ed., Leadership Embodied, 2nd ed. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013), 132.
2. ADM James Stavridis (Ret.) and RADM Robert Girrier. Division Officer’s Guide, 11th ed. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2017). 19.
3. Stavridis and Girrier, Division Officer’s Guide, 17.
4. VADM James B. Stockdale, USN (Ret.), “Stockdale on Stoicism I: The Stoic Warrior’s Triad,” https://www.usna.edu/Ethics/_files/documents/stoicism1.pdf.