Far East Cynic

Just got done watching a rather huge display of fireworks from our balcony. Seems everyone in ours and all the surrounding villages had fireworks to light off. It was really amazing-and unexpected.

Happy New Year-Zwei Tausend Zwoelf!

Lex just now has a post up-noting that DOD has started to trim the ranks of its flag officers.  The article he cites points out that DOD is making about a 10% cut in the number of Flag Officers it has. He bemoans the fact they are not being given the same treatment as the underlings beneath them:

The first round of cuts will save around $4 million per year, and so of course is enthusiastically supported by members of a notoriously tightfisted Congress. Even so, some Pentagon critics say the services are slow-rolling the initiative. To that criticism, one senior flag officer replied:

(The) armed services have up to two years to phase out a job targeted for elimination. “You need time to work this,” he added. “You can’t just give people their pink slips.”

Not flag and general officers, certainly, who will retire with generous pension and medical benefits, and have ready access to lucrative business development positions with major defense contractors. The “pink slip” treatment is reserved for mid-grade officers and enlisted personnel, who will be kicked to the curb with The Gratitude of a Thankful Nation, and some counseling on how to write a resume.

No retirement checks, of course. No benefits.

No doubt, as Admiral Lord Nelson was wont to say, their love of country will keep them warm.

While technically correct-and the righteous indignation just drips from the words as he probably wrote them-it does not tell the entire story, nor does it take into account the subtext of how we got here. I too,  bemoan the fact that the services have too many flag officers, about 50% too many. But the simple fact of the matter is that the services themselves-not their appointed civilian masters created this situation. As too, the services created the overpopulation of many skill sets that now are finding themselves downsized-just like their civilian counterparts. We-the participants of the “service management” created this bed-and now we have to lie in it. We should not be surprised that just like civilian management who ran their companies into the ground-our “CEO’s” are also leaving with Golden Parachutes.

I noted this problem months ago-and got castigated by one of the services “preferred customers” for rightfully pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes.

Let’s look at exactly what transpired in the last ten years within the services, and then ask yourself: “Is anyone surprised?” I’ll take my own beloved Navy as an example, although any of the services have been guilty of the same bad behavior.

In the last ten years-the Navy has created two new fleets, created a whole new shore infrastructure command-taking away from the type commanders what was a rightful part of their mission set.  In executing the seemingly never ending wars the nation has chosen to fight, it created a whole host of “Joint Task Forces”. Even among organizations that have been long standing-the number of flag officers have grown.

Then there were the re-alignments. Several I got to witness personally; where lies were told and re-told, to get “parity” with other commanders. Even though our P-3 brethren were completely undeserving of the restructuring (And you folks know who you are.)-they accomplished anyway. Staff numbers grew as a result. Good people got screwed-and in the end we were no better than we were before.

You can’t make the kinds of changes that are needed without some radical restructuring-I’ve pointed this out before. In today’s military you have one stars doing the jobs that were done by O-6’s twenty years before. Its systemic all the way up and down the line-O-6’s are doing O-5 jobs, O-5’s are doing jobs O-4’s could do ; etc etc etc. Does a Navy on the way to 240 ships really need “lead/ follow” Type Commanders? I think not.

This particular cut is simply window dressing that ignores the real problem. Too many staffs-not enough folks on the line. And I submit that is not going to change appreciably until our civilan masters do three things:

1) Repeal or revamp Goldwater Nichols. Jointness as a holy grail never made any real sense. And now there are too many JSO’s and not enough folks focused on warfighting.

2) Drastically restructure and revamp the Global Command Plan-with an eye towards reducing the number of COCOMS to just four: PACOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, and NORTHCOM. Southcom and Africom are ripe for the picking.

3) Commit to delegating authority and walking away from “command by VTC”. ( This last item is a pipe dream I know-but one can still hope).

The services themselves could start the ball rolling on this-if they chose to.

But they won’t. And Lex knows it.

As is the norm for many a writer at year’s end-I have been doing a lot of thinking about the year past-and since the coming year will celebrate the 55^th anniversary of my birth ( God willing), a heck of a lot of time is also being devoted to the years ahead-which most probably do not outnumber  the years behind. (In and of itself a cause for great depression and thought).

This past year has been a tumultuous one for me-what with observing up close the mean-spiritedness of a government agencies attempt to screw people in the guise of “saving money” ( when it was later admitted that no money was saved at all) to executing a move across the ocean from the New World to the Old World, and dragging a more than reluctant S.O. with me, from a warm house with a yard, to a not so warm house with very little yard-but a great view. Balanced out by slow reponse to the need for utilities and digging out from boxes and boxes and boxes.

I think most of us get to a certain point in life where we outgrow our ambition. I know I certainly have-and I cringe when I think back to my 38 and 39 year old self motivated by the desires to advance and compete. I knowingly smile now, as I work among a group of similar 38-45 year olds, some of whom are already “preferred customers” and others are striving to become one of them. Others still, have seen that any path to advancement is not going to come through their first chose of profession and will have to make the same transition as I did –in mid life-from a career they dearly loved to simply a career/income stream they dearly need.

Now mind you, I’m not whining. I made some choices and they are mine and mine alone. My current place of employ is actually very satisfying and the location where I am living is fascinating to be in and to observe. Symbolically it is a lot closer to where I wish to be, and it my days are not filled with hearing the futility and outright stupidity that constitutes the daily political news cycle of the land of my birth.

And yet-there are times I wonder if this really the best I can be doing. For myself and for my fellow humanity. I have been thinking a lot recently about the parade of history that is represented by the places I pass by each day now, and the parade of history represented by my current place of employ. I think a lot about the warning words from former President Eisenhower about the rise of the military industrial complex. He uttered those words when I was 4 years old. They appear to have become appallingly true in my life time.  “Is the really the best I can do?”

I chose the military profession with the idealism of a 18 year old-without a long term vision,  really. I simply wanted to fly and to see the world. The Navy made good on both promises I am proud to say, and the military has continued to be an enabler of the high flying lifestyle that I deeply enjoy. It’s enabled me to live overseas where I doubt any other profession would have-given my background and lack of commercial career skills.  It also gave me a lifetime of vivid experiences that simple “office work” would never have provided. That alone made it worth the price of admission.

But at the same time-the passing of this last decade have started to give me pause. Because in the work that I and literally tens of thousands of others do-we produce nothing of value. Nothing of long term benefit to the human race as a whole. Do PowerPoint presentations on missile arcs of the missiles belonging to our adversaries do one thing towards providing a cure for cancer? Do they improve the lot in life of the 2/3 of the world’s population who live on less than $2100 dollars a year.

I can hear the response to that statement now-and the comments to come: “It prevents those missiles from being fired”,  you may say,  “we keep the peace through our strength.” Perhaps it does-but does that strength really come from a staff of over 1000 who do nothing in the way of maintaining or sailing with those weapons of deterrence? Just directing and coordinating their employment-and passing around taskers like so much toilet tissue.  And for that matter-does deterrence really deter anymore?

Deterrence did not prevent the colossal waste of the Iraq War, where-as Thomas Ricks and Daniel Drezner have pointed out-we have precious little to show for our efforts.

The continent I am living on has a 2000 year violent and bloody history of fighting-imagine what could have been accomplished if they had fixed their borders and put the manpower and money to more productive pursuits. Imagine what the 600 billion the United States will spend on defense and defense related spending could accomplish if we did not live in such a violent and un-peaceful world.  As I mentioned earlier-in this one week alone, I have three times stood in front of memorials to the Gefallene.  Unlike our war memorials, German ones are not so pretentious as to state that they died "for humanity." I don't think so.

At least when I was on active duty and I had such thoughts-they could always be easily offset by the little victories one could accomplish for your Sailors. Helping someone get the orders they wanted, helping them get over a financial or emotional scrape-stretching the rules just enough to give them the time they needed to work things out themselves. Those things outweighed the inability to influence major decisions. At the time it seemed enough. Receiving the occasional “thank you’ from someone you helped, was worth more than all the gold in South Africa. Post retirement-those days don’t happen anymore. As a contractor, you are reviled for being greedy. ( Thank you for that Mr. O’Reilly) and as a government employee you are reviled for being a part of the national deficit-undeserving of more money, benefits or thanks. And you certainly don’t have the direct ability to impact the lives of others, even though you want to. The bureaucratic straight jacket sees to that.

There are times I envy doctors, or for that matter car designers. They at least get to see the product at the end of the line. Doctors get to help people feel better (I like to think their victories outnumber their defeats at the hands of the reaper). Car designers see their product take form and life. Even computer technicians get to make people happy for a short while-by fixing a hard problem. But purveyors of the Power Point? They have no such satisfaction.

“Its not about the what at this point-its about the where.”, I tell myself. And for the most part-at this point in my life-that statement sums up my view towards the professions anymore. Money is not the most important thing or even the second most important thing. To be able to live comfortably, in the place you want-seems sufficient.

Or it only seems to. What I would really like to see for the New Year is the end of the cycle of violence. The bitter hatreds and conflicts that are getting simple people killed for absolutely nothing. People who for the most part are pretty much the same-they want food on the table, a warm roof over their head and a warm attractive body to love them physically and emotionally. That’s a new year’s wish I am pretty certain will go unfulfilled this year.

But the bills are going to pay themselves you know. So off to work each morning I shall go. Ein Gluckliche Neues Jahr.

Maybe.

A quiet Christmas was had by the S.O. and yours truly at Gasthaus Skippy. We got out oven to work reasonably well and I made a ham-and potatoes, salad, and a nice wine to top things off. I also found some time to work on the science project a bit-but in the New Year, I can see I am going to have to get it up on a rack and do some bigger work. I really wish I had not bought the car-its a good car for a mechanic, which unfortunately, I am not.

Called my Dad, and also dug through some more boxes. My “office” is now pretty well set up-but I need a much faster internet connection, which I do not have yet. This is not good. One more week and it should be here.

Today is out to explore some-the weather is pretty good. When I get some band width I will upload some pictures of our place in the country side. Tried doing here with the “stick” but no such luck……..

Today is Christmas Eve. Im Deutsch they call it Heilige Abend. Here in Stuttgart we discovered a few new things:

1) EVERYTHING shuts down at 2PM. We were out at Breunigerland shopping mall, and a store person came up to me when I least expected it, “Entshuldigung, wir schliessen.” (Excuse me we are closing). Within 30 minutes-the mall was locked up tighter than a drum. The good news for us-Nordsee was giving away free sushi boxes, because they could not keep them. We took some and made a hasty exit.

2) The streets become deserted by 3. That was a shock to me-being used to American and Japanese Christmas Eve’s where things don’t start shutting down till the evening-and in Japan where throngs of people are lined up to get their KFC boxes.

3) The sound of Church Bells were ringing as the S.O. and I went out to walk in our little village. I had wanted to see when the servce was anyway-and it turns out the children’s service was starting in 20 minutes. We stayed-and went into the service. The church is 530 years old-it was renovated in 1988-and was very interesting (and crowded). In the front are memorials to the Gefallene from World Wars I and 2. For as small a village as ours is-they lost a quite a few men in each conflagration. Anyway-the service was nice, and I tried to translate for the S.O. as best I could. First time I had ever heard the Lord’s Prayer in German. I said it in English-I gave up trying to follow it in German. We did get to sing Stille Nacht in German though-the original language it was written. It made me feel like it was Christmas. One thing about Germany-Christmas is a great time of year here.

And so it is we are now sitting and listening to Christmas music on the German TV. Frohe Weinachten! Schlaf in Himmilischer Ruh.

Merry Christmas aus Deutschland!

Life on the end of an internet “stick” can be more than a little frustrating. Sometimes it’s quite fast-other times, excruciatingly slow. Thus I have been more than a little remiss in making my usual round of holiday postings. Integrating into life here in Germany has been quite a unique experience for me-and one of the most interesting phases of my life. The jury is still out on whether this was the right detour for me, but there is no going back now (Unless some rich, good looking Tokyo heiress wants to adopt me as her Viagra fueled boy toy). I came across this article in my most recent e-mail from Foreign Policy Magazine. Items 2-5 are right on the mark-as is the recognition that China is the actual enemy. Enjoy-more to come if I can get some stable, and relatively un-snooped on internet connections.

14 Biggest Lies of 2011
From Foreign Policy Magazine
1. “This next summit of European leaders will be decisive …”
We’ve heard this one every few weeks for months now. And every time our supposedly sophisticated financial markets fall for it again. It’s like Lucy with Charlie Brown’s football. When will we learn?

2. “The war in Iraq is finally over after 9 years.”
Much celebration today due to this “fact.” Seems pretty straightforward. But of course, we’ve been militarily engaged one way or another with Iraq since the early 1990s. This is just the end of one of a series of wars in the region. My bet is it’s not the last one.

3. “America’s mission in Iraq was a success.”
See previous lie. The place is divided, undemocratic, heavily influenced by Iran, corrupt, and our invasion cost $1 trillion, thousands of U.S. lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and our national reputation. Look in the dictionary next to fiasco. There’s a little picture of a dude in a flight jacket standing on a carrier deck in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner.
4. “We are winning in Afghanistan.”
Latest version of this howler came just today from Secretary of Defense Panetta in Afghanistan. If winning were narrowly defined as beating al Qaeda, it’d be true. But, if we leave and the place is more dangerous, the Taliban is back in charge, we’re associated with corruption and departure, we’ve strengthened the region’s extremists and the threat of instability in nuclear Pakistan is now actually higher than it was when we went in, it’s hard to see how we can call it “winning” unless by “we” we mean Charlie Sheen.

5. Tie: “Pakistan is America’s ally” and “Afghanistan is America’s partner.”
I know, I know, you say “it’s a lie,” I say, “it’s diplomacy,” potato, potahto. But there is actually no credible definition by which the government of Pakistan could be called an ally of the U.S. unless you are willing to overlook all their enemy-like behavior. Same re: our pal Karzai in Kabul. He’s only a partner in the sense that he’s got his hand in our pocket, even as he is talks smack about us to the world.

6. “America is unthreatened by China’s growth.”
Secretary Clinton was the latest to utter this little prayer. And I’m sure she meant it. And it should be true. But it’s not.
7. “We believe diplomatic pressure may stop Iran’s nuclear program.”
If we believed that would we be waging a secret war there? Which brings us to another lie, “America will never attack Iran.” This is a lie — because we already have.
8. Tie: “Republicans are the problem” and “Democrats are the problem.”
This is the great lie of American politics. It’s not the parties that are the problems. It’s not even the parade of snake oil salesmen and the idle rich who make up our political leadership class. It’s the money. The system is so resolutely corrupt that recent scandals have only resulted in more money flowing into the system and past reforms being undone. (Skippy side note: In the end, the real problem is the voters themselves-especially the arrogant crop of folks who believe that the tables are really equal and therefore any problems or inequality in outcomes can be blamed soley on an individual’s poor choices or lack of ‘moral upbringing’. Good luck with that fantasy-the simple truth is American society is not progressing; its regressing-and we have no one to blame but our own stupidity. If we had an educated and rational electorate that actually understood the issues and voted for their interests-we might not be in this regrettable position).

9. “Cutting the taxes of millionaires helps creates U.S. jobs.”
This one wins in the audacity category. It is said with a straight face without one shred of evidence to support it. You know why there’s not one shred of evidence, right? ‘Cause it’s an idiotic, insupportable idea.
10. “The U.S. might default on its debt.”
Wasn’t close to happening. Will never happen. This is still the country that owns the printing presses that produces what is unchallenged as the world’s reserve currency. No president or congress of either party would ever let it happen. The “scare” in August was half hysterical, half fabrication and, in keeping with the way we do math here in D.C., half about trying to jolt the inert denizens of the U.S. Capitol into actually doing something to fix the U.S. deficit.

11. “The Obama administration is committed to serious financial services reform.”
Ha. Dodd-Frank was a palliative. Creating oversight responsibilities without funding the overseers is kabuki theater. Virtually all the serious threats to the financial system that caused 2008 remain. (Even if U.S. banks have made some progress on the capital requirements side, that’s offset by the fact they’re connected to even more reckless eurobanks. And there are more “too big to fail” financial institutions today than there were before the crisis. Derivatives? Only a bigger problem than before. Global regulation? Not an inch of progress.)

12. “Only 9 percent of Americans approve of Congress.”
This can’t possibly be true. There can’t possibly be that many.

13. “The operation in Libya will be over in a matter of days or weeks.”
The operation was a success. But this was wrong and then wrong and then wrong again for months. (Skippy-san note: And in the end, Libya did not merit any intervention by any Western Nation. It was an Arab problem from start to finish.)
14. “I love Israel.”
Everybody in U.S. politics says it. Most of those who say it however, mean, “I want American Jews to think I love Israel enough to vote for me and give me money.” Think we will move the embassy? That they’ll make their first trip there? That the U.S. will stand loyally by Israel under any circumstances, even if Israel continues to complicate matters with its settlements policy and the rest of the region creeps toward something like democracy? Ha. This is right up there with “the check is in the mail,” “I’ll respect you in the morning” and that other one. ( Skippy-san note: Having just returned from the promised land (no not that promised land in Pattaya) too many Americans think of Israel as a mirror of America transplanted to Mediterranean shores. It’s not-it’s a distinct culture, a Middle Eastern culture, whose values and language and use of language is quite different that ours. Too many Americans fail to understand that-and when you mix in the religious aspect, it has made for some disastrous results. Would that we could bring back the Mandate-but that’s a pipe dream).
Those are just a few of a bumper year for duplicity, mendacity, and craven misstatements. Got more? We can’t wait.

Got back from Israel-late but none the worse for wear. The storms in Europe delayed departures out of Istanbul, but luckily enough for me, I did not get strip searched going through Israeli security. They actually do things differently than our TSA brethern-and while you go through a lot of check points, the line was not too bad, and for the most part you did not have to get naked. They do ask a lot of questons again and again. Then again-I’m told it had to do with the time of day we went and that the witching hours can be bad. ( Like early in the AM).

Got back to learn that they still have not come to install our phone service and will not till January 2nd. So we, like so many others will be waiting 6 weeks plus for a land line and reasonably fast internet. So posting may be sparse-especially as we finishing unpacking and locating the last of our four missing, undelivered pallets. Besides-blog readers have better things to do during Christmas, like drink holiday cheer.

When I can get to faster speeds, longer posts to follow.

The last forces are leaving Iraq. about 9 years too late-but they are leaving, thanks be to God.

Now if you peruse my archives, you will find that I have not been a fan of the adventure since day 1. And now-I still believe, that for whatever tactical successes we had, the war was a strategic mistake for the United States. Like Britain’s ill advised adventure in Suez in 1956, the corrosive affects of the war on the US military, the US economy, and the psyche of America will continue for at least a generation.

And what do we have to show for it?

Not very much. Sure Saddam is gone, but what have got in its place? A shaky and corrupt Iraqi government, and a resurgent Iran.  A real enemy that we ignored, except when we were borrowing money from him-China-labored under no such burdens and is expanding militarily.

But we have the rise of democracy in the Middle East you say. I’m not so sure-Egypt is having elections and the wrong guys are winning. Iraq is certainly not an ally for us-she can’t be she has too many closer folks who don’t like us to worry about. Syria and Libya? Don’t ask. Do we know how either of those countries will turn out?

In the end, I think history will judge the Bush Administration harshly for both the run-up to the Iraq War and its initial execution. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, which had no connection at all to the regime of Saddam Hussein, they exploited the nation’s fear of terror from the Middle East to ramp up war fever against a nation that we had gone to war against ten years before, and whom we’d been staring at, and striking, across a no-fly zone ever since. Saddam was developing a secret chemical and biological weapons program, we were told, even though the United Nations weapons inspectors never found any evidence of the same. There were whispers about a secret nuclear weapons program, which turned out to be entirely unfounded. Yes, it was true that every major intelligence service in the world believed that Saddam had a WMD program, but what nobody seemed to realize was that the intelligence was based on unreliable witnesses and, apparently, an effort by Saddam himself to make the world think he had them. Because his real enemy was not the US but Iran.

We must remember this misadventure-and above all remember the Soldiers Sailors Airman and Marines who died or were wounded. George W. Bush certainly did them no favors by the reckless rush to war and its aftermath. They must be remembered-for their sacrifices. And we must vow to learn for their hard work and sacrifice and not make such sacrifices again.

““No words, no ceremony can provide full tribute to the sacrifices which have brought this day to pass,” the defense secretary said. “I’m reminded of what President Lincoln said in Gettysburg, about a different war, in a different time. His words echo through the years as we pay tribute to the fallen in this war: ‘The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.’ ”

Thank God its over.

Is worth what you pay for it.I had the unique experience a while back,  of being asked for advice about life in command. That caused me to do a lot of thinking-both for good and for bad.  So here for your information and comment are the comments I sent back:

Free advice is worth what you pay for it. Asking advice on leadership from me is like asking Amy Winehouse for advice on sobriety.  But here goes:

First, my background-which shapes what I see, and more importantly what I don’t see. I was pretty much a straight line squadron guy all the way through my command tour. With the exception of a year at the war college, it was squadron or wing tours. In hindsight, that was both good and bad-particularly bad for doing things after the Navy.  I had two major commands while I was in Japan-both of them quite by accident. ( Seriously-I wasn’t supposed to have either one, but it just worked out that way).

I tell you this-because I think the Navy you have to work in is far different than the Navy I had to deal with. I am very convinced now that I probably would have been fired in today’s environment. I was lucky because I had a CAG that believed in me, and also was great about letting you run your own show.

So here goes. Most of what I have here is advice on things I wish I had been better at-and from the view of hindsight. I sure wish I could be back in squadron command knowing what I know today!

1) I believe politeness goes a long way. I believe you should address Petty Officers as “Petty Officer” and Chiefs as “Chief” and “Senior Chief” etc. I never tried to address a Sailor as just their last name. I think it goes a long way towards establishing mutual respect.
2) Try hard not to shoot the messenger. One of my failings was not knowing when to make a show of being angry and when just to keep very quiet and listen. I believe there is a time for the old man to show his anger-but those times are few and far between-and if the folks are doing their job you don’t have to. I wish I had been better aware of that.
3) I believe the rules are actually your friend-provided you know how much room you have to work within them. It is important to make sure you convey that to your crew. If you don’t like the rules-try to get them changed, but if you obey the rules you have a better defense when things go wrong. I know that is especially true when dealing with Nuke power.
4) I am not a fan of people who use the pronoun  ”I”. I think it is important in any explanation of anything when the crew is in earshot-to use the word “we” or “our”. If you use it-your Sailors will tend to do so too.
5) Your Chief’s mess will make or break you. A strong wardroom is important-but because you see them more up close its easier to deal with a weak sister. Having a good Master Chief and good chief’s will save your ass every time. I was lucky-I had a GMCM who I really respected and got along well with.  The chiefs also make a great network to find out things-that people would not tell you directly.
6) One of the biggest problems today that you will have to face that I didn’t is liberty. The Navy I grew up in encouraged units to go out drinking together. Now they don’t. So the challenge for you will be to find a balance where the crew can see another side of you besides work-but also not get yourself into trouble by being the senior man present when things go wrong. The primary reason for that is the presence of women-something I only had to deal with in my squadron command tour. I guess I am saying-don’t be the last to leave the bar. And find time to get away for yourself.
7) You live in a world I didn’t. One with Cell phones, Twitter and Facebook. While these our useful tools-treat them like a loaded weapon. I think I would be in trouble today because I like to post very opinionated things on FB. Always assume some JO is taping you. Along those same lines-e-mail is also a two edged sword. Never be in a hurry to hit the send key. Write, review, review again-then send. And don’t let e-mail be a substitute for a phone call.
8 ) RE: the Commodore and the Admiral. You will have to figure out how much information is enough. Make sure you understand what are his critical information requirements. Even if you don’t agree with them-know them and try to meet them. Too much info can be as bad as not enough. Along those same lines, bad news never gets better with age-and it’s always better if the boss finds out bad news from you first-before he hears it from his boss.
9) I’d also point out that most flags and Commodores want to use their rank to help you get what you need. Be able to tell them succinctly what you need-but go to the well only when have to.
10) I am a big believer that people will forgive a lot administratively-so long as you are good at the “flying of the plane”. I realize its different in other communities-but as the CO they have to know you can fight the ship. ( I think it’s worse in ship’s and submarines because Command there is a mortal responsibility-in a squadron it’s not quite the same. You train people but once they sign the yellow sheet-they get airborne and you just have to trust them).
11) For me one of the hardest things to learn was when to sit on my hands. You know how to be an Ops or an Engineer etc. You DH’s are learning as they go. It is really hard to know when to let them go and when to intervene. But when it’s possible-learn how to sit on your hands and let them do it themselves.
12) Another thing-that is different between aviation and other communities is that in a squadron, there is a lot you do not see. I don’t think it’s quite the same in a sub or a destroyer). But in a squadron, I was a big believer in understanding what your night shift was doing –and that meant being out and about your spaces at night. On the carrier I was a night crawler, unless I was on the early launch. I made it a point to drop into all of the work centers at odd hours-when they did not expect it. In aviation, it is your night shift that gets the big things fixed. You need to be able to feel confident they are doing it. I am not sure that has a counterpart on a ship, short of showing up once in a while on weekends to see how your duty section is doing.
13) Follow the money. Again I think there are big differences with aviation. But know how the money you control is being spent-and demand that the folks responsible for it show you how you are doing on execution for the quarter.

14) One thing I have no appreciation for is the responsibility that comes with “driving the ship”. I would submit in that regard aviation command is much easier than ship or submarine command. But clearly in today’s Navy, that is a big deal judging by the number of folks fired from something happening while entering port.

15) Get involved in detailing. Get to know your detailers and placement officers personally and work with your CMC to know what is going on with the detailing of your crew. You can’t give more money to your folks-but you can help them get the orders they want. Conversely, if after advising someone not to take a set of orders-they do, then work with them to make it work for them and you. Just be sure they take those orders with their eyes open.
16) Finally-relax and have fun. I think sometimes, in command, we all get too fixated on the “FITREP 500” that we fail to just relax and enjoy the ride. You will never have a job like this again. Savor every second of it-the time will go past faster than you realize.

My squadron command tour was one of the highlights of my life. I was very lucky-I had great DH’s, a great Chief’s mess and a CAG that believed in his unit CO’s. I used to look over at the other CO’s who were getting the stuffing beaten out of them-and wonder what I did wrong. But in the end it all turned out just fine and I have no doubt it will for you too. Congratulations! Good luck in your tour. I envy you a lot. I still miss the Navy more than I care to admit.

Skippy

How I spent my Saturday:

Prowling the Holy City of Yerushalim!

The Wailing Wall:

And of course we spent a fair amount of time in the church of the Holy Sepuchre:

Was on one side of the Atlantic in Washington DC. Now I am about as far away from there as you can get. Flight over here was pretty OK-save for the fact that the services on the airline sucked. Fortunately the flight was only about half full-so I had room to sleep. When I got here-this was the view from my hotel window:

Where am I?

For not posting more recently. Between moving into our house, and departing on a business trip-its been busy since last Wednesday. This trip has me covering both sides of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This morning I woke up in sight of the Capitol of the US-tomorrow, I will be in another place-quite different than this one. Frequent flier miles will accumulate.

Much to tell, just no time to tell it. Have a great day till I do.