Below is the general outline of the email that I sent to all of my elected representatives in Congress, House and Senate. If so moved, please feel free to copy and send. You may not understand all of what I wrote, and if you choose to send just a simple request for understanding as to the leadership decisions and issues of the Navy, that would be much appreciated.
I have watched the crumbling of the proud service I joined in 1985. There is continuing embarrassment of failure of new assets, to complete even sea trials. This is the result of lack of oversight and engineering at all levels of the Naval procurement program, and particularly of this Secretary of the Navy, our longest serving in over 100 years. There is continued failures of commands and senior enlisted leaders at commands, an increasing and troubling trend that points directly at failures of leadership in development, training and mentoring of sailors as they progress to more and more important responsibilities. There are ongoing scandals for bribery and graft, resulting from lax oversight and poor leadership at the highest levels of Naval logistics. Most troubling, there is a continued relegation of the enlisted community, the ultimate strength and power of the sea service, to nameless, generalized automatons, instead of highly trained, highly specialized warriors of indominatable skill and character.
The USS Cole was not saved by anything other than the specialized training, esprit de corps, resolve and character of her crew. They refused to go down to the deep. They were recognized as experts and rightly regarded as heroes. Don't all our service men and women deserve the same training, the same leadership and preparation, so that, God forbid, when they do come into the hells of war, they are ready, effective and invincible?
Please contact your elected representative and demand some answers. The coming headline, if we do not demand change and reform immediately, is the unthinkable, loss of a multiple billion dollar national asset, WITH ALL HANDS. We have not seen that since World War II. And there is no naval power in the world capable of doing that to our Navy, except our Navy.
Thanks for reading, and please speak out, for the sailors, the professionals and leaders that are struggling to uphold long tradition and the pride of the greatest Naval service the world has ever known. They need your support and your concern and your action.
This website will show you how to email/contact your representatives. You have two Senators and a Representative. Remember to also contact the Senators and Representatives you know served, Senators McCain, Graham, Sessions, Nelson, Kirk, Coats, Ernst, McConnell, Inhofe, and Representatives Conyers, DeFazio, Duckworth, Gohmert, Issa, Hunter, McDermott, Rangel, Sanford, Joe Wilson
www.contactingthecongress.org
Senator/Representative,
First, I wish to thank you for your service as a veteran/Representative/Senator.
I am a concerned American citizen. 241 years of tradition, highlighting technical and professional excellence and training have been jettisoned from the Navy, with no specifics and no directions. It is a continuation of a remorseless slide to generalization and less and less technically capable and trained sailors, putting the fleet and lives at risk.
This Secretary of Navy, Mr. Mabus, has failed in many capacities. He has failed to oversee ethics and leadership effectively, evidenced by the Fat Leonard scandal, and the unparalleled rate of failure of commanders and senior enlisted across all Navy communities.
He has selected and promoted the most inept leadership of any Secretary of the Navy since Josephus Daniels. His CNO's and MCPON's have been abysmally poor leaders and champions for their service and their sailors. As former senior enlisted, it has pained me to see him completely dismantle the Chief's Mess, the source of professional leadership and elan in the Naval service. The previous MCPON, Master Chief Stevens, and the incumbent Master Chief Giordano, have seconded the poor leadership practices, the weak and feckless direction and leadership from the Pentagon, and the continued destruction of enlisted leadership and professionalism.
With the latest decision, to remove ratings from the Navy, they had dealt a death blow to 241 years of proud tradition. As a member of Congress, you understand the power and importance of tradition. You understand the continuity provided and the powerful role that provides in leadership and development of each successive generation of sailors. This decision has been roundly condemned, has generated a petition that has reached the number of signatures required from the White House, and has thoroughly angered and confused the entire Naval community.
There is no formalized plan for how this will impact the Navy. We are told to just trust them. We do not trust this leadership. They have failed to properly oversee ship procurement, resulting in the embarrassment that is the LCS, DDG 1000 and USS Ford situation. Poorly developed technology, poorly managed procurement contracts and unsustainable engineering and architechure, have characterized all aspects of our nations investment in naval armament and power. And it continues to flounder, fail and embarrass.
There has been an alarmingly large and unending string of commanders relieved for cause and lack of confidence in leadership, an a corresponding number of reliefs of Command Master Chiefs and Command Senior Chiefs. These are related and stem from a failure of leadership culture from the Secretary down to the deckplate. The secretive, poorly planned and often poorly formulated directives for personnel, uniforms and leadership are translating to a poorly led, poorly effective and increasingly prevalent lack of confidence in the service leadership. I support women in service, the ability of persons to serve regardless of sexuality. I am not contrary to many of the controversial policies, but I am constantly baffled and concerned about the poor roll out, poor plan and strategy and poor follow up and leadership that follows these difficult transitions.
The adoption of MCPON Steven's ill advised and weak CPO 365 initiative and the consistent and constant stripping of the CPO and senior enlisted leadership community's positional authority and the loss of respect of senior officer and civilian leadership for the CPO community continue to cause issues with roll out and implementation of these poorly conceived and planned initiatives. And is constantly visible in the repetitive failures of leadership and confidence at an increasing number of Naval commands. The CPO community is the bedrock of Naval leadership, and it's slow death is visible in constant headlines and embarrassment.
As a member of Congress, I ask that you please take a moment out of your busy schedule, and please look into what I have listed here. Not simply because I ask, but because I am prior senior enlisted, there are dozens of CPO's struggling to lead in the Navy today, that I trained during my time. They deserve better, and so do their sailors.
I do not understand where the Navy is going, but all the indicators point toward continued wasting of national resources, continued poor procurement and engineering decisions, continued advancement of weak and ineffective leadership. Our Naval service, our nation and our citizens deserve better than we have had. And we deserve to have it identified, investigated and addressed before the chief culprit, Secretary Mabus is allowed to slink off to cozy military contract fortune.
I am furious, not that things are wrong, there are always wrong things. But, that there is so little notice paid to an organization adrift, with endemic leadership failures, absorbing billions and billions of dollars of overruns, without functional equipment being delivered, and being detrimental to good order, discipline and morale.
Sailors deploy for six months or more at a time, regardless of whether the nation is at war. They deserve a civilian command authority, and senior commissioned leadership with their best interests and welfare at heart, not their own personal legacy and aggrandizement. I urge you to look into this, to ask hard questions and demand complete answers from those that owe those answers to the nation, not just you.
The Navy is being damaged, potentially catastrophically. Not because it is asked to implement hard policies and changes, but because it is forced to execute changes and upheaval with no planning, no direction and no leadership. That is the failure and it is significant.
Thank you for your time and attention and God bless.
