Return Second-Tour and Department Head SWOs to the Bridge

Shiphandling is a skill the surface warfare community constantly emphasizes, stressing its importance and centrality to the naval profession. Like any skill, it requires time and attention to develop, maintain, and improve. In the wake of 2017’s tragic collisions in the Pacific, the many changes to surface warfare training have included additional assessments and a significant increase in training ashore. However, the community still lacks a structured and standardized system with which to guarantee shiphandling opportunities for all officers at sea.

The cultural expectation for second-tour division officers and department heads is to tackle advanced qualifications in the combat information center and engineering. Simultaneously, these officers largely become uninvolved in bridge watchstanding and adopt an attitude that driving the ship no longer is their responsibility or concern. A new culture is needed in which all surface warfare officers believe they belong on the bridge driving the ship. 

On board the USS Normandy (CG-60), we introduced a plan titled “Shiphandling: A Plan for Victory.” After commanding officer Captain Chris Stone approved it, we implemented it successfully for the final eight weeks of the Normandy’s 2018 deployment. This was a powerful first step in ensuring the ship’s officers maintain consistent bridge time through their department head tours, and the model can be adopted fleet-wide to enhance shiphandling proficiency and help establish a new cultural mind-set for what is expected of surface warfare officers.

Second-Tour Division Officers and Department Heads

A surface warfare junior officer can spend as many as 13 years off the bridge before reporting for the executive officer tour—18 months as a second-tour division officer assigned to combat or engineering, 3 years ashore, 3 years as a department head (broken into two 18-month tours) standing watch in combat, and 5 more years ashore.

Department heads in their second 18-month tour appear on the bridge only to meet the requirements for command qualification screening. They must focus primarily on learning to “fight the ship” without losing bridge time altogether. It is not useful to provide more shiphandling training for second-tour division officers in Officer-of-the-Deck Phase II as part of the Advanced Division Officer Course without subsequently devoting time for applying these skills at sea. 

As part of “A Plan for Victory,” these junior officers are integrated into the special evolutions rotation, including for underway replenishment, sea and anchor, and anchoring details. Table 1 depicts, as an example, the rotation for underway replenishment.

In addition, junior officers are required to complete one simulator session for every four consecutive months the ship is confined to port. Second-tour division officers who stand watch in combat and in engineering also have a conning requirement. For short, five-day underway periods, second-tour division officers must stand one watch as conning officer in addition to their regularly assigned watch station. For underway periods greater than seven days, a conning officer watch is required once every seven days. During these watches, the officer will serve as an addition to the watch team and not a substitute. Conning is the minimum requirement, as second-tour division officers also are encouraged to stand junior officer-of-the-deck (JOOD) and officer-of-the-deck (OOD).

In this way, junior officers from the second-tour onward continue to build proficiency and confidence, mentoring first-tour division officers in shiphandling, improving their own ability to make recommendations to the bridge as tactical action officers, and ultimately becoming better prepared for command. To be clear, the plan does not take away from the six to eight hours of watch that second-tour division officers and department heads already stand in combat or engineering. It simply allocates a small portion of time to maintain a core competency of the naval profession.

First-Tour Division Officers

With even more training ashore, first-tour division officers are well prepared to begin their journey to OOD qualification. They must remain on the bridge for the duration of their 24-month tour to guarantee a solid foundation in shiphandling. The sheer number of ensigns reporting to ships typically forces officers off the bridge prematurely to make room for even newer officers. Officers also leave the bridge during their first tours to pursue an engineering officer-of-the-watch (EOOW) qualification.

This is why the Normandy has transitioned to a five-section rotation. The section breakdown, outlined in Table 2, fits the requirement for circadian rhythm and supports meal hours.

Four sections stand five hours of watch in two parts, with one section standing a single, longer four-hour watch, also designed to mitigate excessive turnover at night. This five-section rotation aims to value quality of watch time over quantity. Without five or sometimes six watchstanders crowding the bridge, officers are better able to fully embrace their respective stations and run their teams more efficiently with fewer members per watch team. The ideal watch section breakdown is shown in Table 3.  

It is crucial that newly qualified OOD watchstanders be immediately put in charge of their own sections, ideally with two other watchstanders. Sections with senior OODs are best suited to mentor officers under instruction. Ultimately, it remains the duty of the ship’s senior watch officer to identify effective watch-team combinations.

In a five-section rotation the number of hours junior officers stand watch on the bridge decreases. In a four-week-long underway, an officer in a four-section rotation stands 168 hours of watch. In Normandy’s five-section watchbill, in four weeks an officer stands 112 hours in section 1 or 140 hours if in sections 2–5. The additional off-time provided is spent working toward surface warfare and advanced qualifications such as EOOW. Under this construct, first-tour division officers are best able to perfect their shiphandling skills, more effectively train their reliefs, and achieve other advanced qualifications.

Of note, the Normandy received her Mariner Skills Logbooks in September 2018. These books perfectly align with the purpose of “A Plan for Victory” and serve as the administrative platform for recordkeeping. The executive officer also is required to provide one-on-one feedback to special evolution conning officers and to record comments in the “Notes” portion of the logbook.

Proud Shiphandlers

Shiphandling has been the skill that runs constant since the Navy’s earliest days. Today it defines our modern operations, and doing it well will propel us into the future. The Navy desperately needs to institute a formalized and structured plan that guarantees lessons learned ashore are applied at sea. As the service works toward this goal, a new culture will take shape that places a consistent premium on shiphandling, so that when asked about this skill and time on the bridge, surface warfare officers around the world will proudly proclaim, “It is always my time. It is always my place.”