No man can serve two masters.

Thanks to Maurice for the title of this post.

This is a Navy Focused post. It would seem our boy Harvey is at it again-by usurping the chain of command:

UNCLASSIFIED//

FM COMUSFLTFORCOM NORFOLK VA//N00//

TO ALFLTFORCOM

ALPACFLT

INFO RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC//N00/N1/DNS// RHOVZCH/COMPACFLT PEARL HARBOR HI//N00/N01/N1// RUCBCLF/COMUSFLTFORCOM NORFOLK VA//N1// RHMFIUU/COMNAVPERSCOM MILLINGTON TN//N00/N01/PERS26/PERS3/PERS33

     1//

BT

UNCLAS

SECINFO/U/-//

/REF A IS BUPERSINST 1610.10C, NAVY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION SYSTEM.  REF B IS CSG-ESG COMMANDER AND TYPE COMMANDER COMMAND PAGE 02 RUCBCLF0161 UNCLAS RELATIONSHIPS GUIDANCE.// GENTEXT/REMARKS/1.  THIS IS A JOINT COMANDER, U.S. PACIFIC FLEET AND COMMANDER, U.S. FLEET FORCES COMMAND MESSAGE THAT OUTLINES REQUIREMENTS FOR CONCURRENT FITNESS REPORTS FOR DESIGNATED BILLETS.

THIS MESSAGE SHOULD BE RETAINED IN THE COMMAND FITNESS REPORT BINDER FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

2.  THIS MESSAGE ESTABLISHES THE REQUIREMENT FOR CONCURRENT FITNESS REPORTS BY THE TYPE COMMANDER FOR DESRON, PHIBRON, AIR WING COMMANDERS, AND O6-LEVEL AFLOAT COMMANDING OFFICERS.

3.  THIS CHANGE REFLECTS AND REINFORCES THE CLEAR AND DIRECT LINE OF RESPONSIBILITY BETWEEN THE TYCOMS AND THEIR O-6 MAJOR SEA COMMANDS DELINEATED IN REF B.  THIS ENABLES THE TYCOM TO DOCUMENT THE ABILITY OF WATERFRONT LEADERS TO DELIVER READY UNITS.

4.  TYCOMS WILL BEGIN TO SUBMIT CONCURRENT FITNESS REPORTS ON THEIR DESRON, PHIBRON, AIR WING COMMANDERS, AND THE COMMANDING OFFICERS OF THEIR O6-LEVEL SHIPS (CVN/CG/LHD/LHA/LCC/LPD) WITH A BEGINNING DATE (BLOCK 14) OF 12FEB01.

THESE FITNESS REPORTS WILL THEN BE SUBMITTED WITH THE SAME PERIODICITY OF REGULAR FITNESS REPORTS, INCLUDING CHANGE OF TYCOM AND DETACHMENT OF OBSERVED INDIVIDUAL, AS DELINEATED IN REF A.

5.  CONCURRENT TYCOM FITREPS WILL NOT BE SUBMITTED FOR SSGN OR SUBMARINE TENDER COMMANDING OFFICERS.

6.  DESRON AND AIR WING COMMANDERS AS WELL AS CVN/CG COMMANDING OFFICERS WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE COMPETITIVE REGULAR FITNESS REPORTS FROM THEIR CSG COMMANDERS.  PHIBRON COMMANDERS AND O6 AMPHIBIOUS SHIP COMMANDING OFFICERS WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE COMPETITIVE REGULAR FITNESS REPORTS FROM THEIR ESG COMMANDERS.// BT

I’ll translate into non-Navy speak. What that little missive above says is that the Type Commanders are now saying that they have the right to “comment” on your performance as an operational commander-even though the guy you really work for, and who is supposed to write your fitness report and rank you with against other commanders of equal rank-is a different officer, junior to the Type Commander and not in his chain of command. A “concurrent” report is not supposed to carry the same weight as a “competitive” report-but when the guy writing it is two or three pay-grades senior to the battle group commander-don’t kid yourself, it carries weight.

And what will they use to make an assesment? Metrics my boy, metrics. Those damn numbers that don’t take into account :where you were deployed, your operating tempo, your supply snarls, and sudden “pop-up” tasking from your operational boss. I suspect for good measure they will throw in your admin statistics and probably a couple bonus points about your support for women and gays in the Navy.

Now mind you-that being operationally ready to deploy is the primary responsibility of the individual unit CO, and backed up by maximum support from his Type Wing and Type Commander-who is supposed to provide that report with as little interference as possible.

Now it he gets to have a vehicle to hammer you when an individual ship captain justifiably complains about getting screwed out of an yard availability or an air wing gets screwed out of a training evolution-because the Type Commander was too stupid to apportion the right amount of TAD funds.

This goes back to my previous two posts about how the Navy is unbalanced. This is just another means for the flags to insulate themselves from the consequences of their own decisions.

And they wonder why their CO’s don’t take any intiative, drink a lot, and sleep with their hot looking YN’s.  🙁

But Harvey likes it-as if he needs yet another way to fire people and stack up bodies like cordwood.