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The Beginning

Welcome to The Ward Room. This will be a blog about my Naval experiences as a junior officer. I will not use the name of my ship and nor the names of people to protect the guilty.  What I intend to do with this is provide leadership examples of what to and not to do. As an officer, I was charged with handling my own division as a Division officer (DivO) I reported to a department head (DepO), who reported to the executive officer (XO), who reported to the captain/commanding officer (CO). Similar to what you've seen on Star Trek and other shows where a chain-of-command is emphasized, the CO had broad powers over his command. While they can't directly violate any order, they can disagree, and where the order is considered unlawful, outright reject it. I will be giving examples of all of this. Please note that the blogs are not necessarily in chronological order but more order of importance and what lesson I want to convey. Also, these incidences took place over 30 years ago, so t...
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The Piano Man

After graduating college, but before heading to my first assignment, I had to go through training. For me, this training was standard Surface Warfare Officer School (SWO) and Communications' Officer (CommO) School. Yes, my first assignment was to be the CommO. This was also going to make me the CMS Custodian. You don't really need to know the acronym, just know that CMS is the crypto that the military uses to ensure secure communications. In order to even do this it requires a Top Secret (Special Category) clearance which basically says you have access to whatever cryto you need. This is because you are responsible for getting, inventorying, storing, distributing, and destroying all cryto material on your ship and keeping a PERFECT record of all of this. Note: My then girlfriend, now wife noted that while I was the CommO I gnashed my teeth a lot in my sleep.  Anyway, to get back on track, this story takes place just before CommO School, while I was still in SWO school. There I ...
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Welcome Aboard, Ensign

As a young ensign, reporting to my first duty station, there was a lot to deal with. When looking at it from a leadership position, this is the one thing you must understand: You are going to be put in charge of people who know more than you, most have been in the Navy longer than you, and there are some, though subordinate to you, who have been in the Navy longer than you've been alive. It's intimidating! How do you survive it? Here are a few tips on how to lead those who know more about what's going on than you. These are ideas to keep in mind in the civilian world too. 1. Chain-of-command.  A lot of people who go the enlisted route don't want to be in charge. Also, they know and respect the chain-of-command. This applies in the civilian world as well. I had a job as a project manager primarily because the programmer who was the previous PM didn't want to do it. They wanted to stick to programming, not deal with the paperwork and the day-to-day items of making sur...
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Show your light

 One of the things the Navy emphasizes it training.In my division my CPO had scheduled a training session on personal finance. Being that I had a Management Science degree from Georgia Tech and had take personal finance, I was well qualified to teach this class. The only thing was, I wasn't supposed to teach it. My CPO had scheduled someone to teach our junior enlisted this class. As the division officer, I was only to observe and make sure they received the training they were supposed to receive. Well, if that had happened, I wouldn't be writing this. The person who was supposed to teach it got called away. So there we were, in my space (what you call your room, location, area your in charge of in the Navy) and no one to teach. Being as I am the DivO I stepped up. I told my CPO, "No problem, I'll teach this lesson."  Ok, I need to let everyone know, that as a Management Science Major at Georgia Tech, I was required to take public speaking. When I joined Toastmast...
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How to Get a Standing Invite to the Chief's Club

 I will admit, I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to Navy traditions. Going to ROTC, you miss out on a lot of the more nuanced traditions in the Navy. For example, it is customary for the Bull Ensign - the next one to be promoted to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) - to give a speech when the previous bull is promoted. As the Bull Ensign, you walk around with large gold bars that are designed to be worn on coats and jackets, not collars. They also have the words "Bull" engraved on them. Well, I didn't know about this tradition and wasn't ready to give a speech. My captain then said, "Say something now or give an hour speech in 2 days." I belted out something to the effect of, "Thanks, it's an honor, I look forward to serving, blah, blah, blah." Very plain and basic. Now the next person, who was a Naval Academy grad - also know as "ring knocker" - came prepared with a silly fun speech promising outrageous things like ice ...
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Knowing When to Stand Down

 "USS <redacted>, this is Comphibron 6. Since you can't seem to get your directions straight, we'll do it for you! Now get your head out of your ass and come to course 350 and rejoin the formation! Comphibron 6 out!" This was an actual transmission to our ship from Commander Amphibious Squadron Six. He said this to us after my 2nd captain, a total racist, refused to listen to and acknowledge my initial recommendation to rejoin the squadron. Let me set the scene. Several months prior, our great captain rotated out. He started as a Commander (05) by rank but make Captain (06) when he left. Note: Captain refers to anyone in charge of a ship, regardless of rank. Commander refers to the Executive Officer of a ship, regardless of rank. However, they are also ranks in the Navy. My first captain, I'll refer to him as Capt A going forth, was a straight shooter, mentor, and knew how to handle a ship. He passed these skills down to his officer. Our second captain, Capt...
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The Rest of the Story

 It was a dark and stormy night, a shot rang out, a door slammed and suddenly... yeah, ok, not really. But was a dark and gloomy. On the horizon we could see the burning oil fields. Thick sickly black stringy clouds loomed in the air, reflected off the moonlight.They contrasted against the normal clouds you would see at midnight while in the middle of the Persian Gulf. It was the third day of the ground attack of Operation Desert Storm, and we had a mission. My job was to steer us there and back.  One thing to remember about leadership is it's a skill, like a lot of things. Most people aren't born one way or another when it comes to skills, though as you grow you will gravitate towards something. You can be trained to be a leader, just like an architect, gymnast, engineer, or speaker.  That night I had one job, keep our ship 2000 yards (1 nautical mile) behind the helo carrier and staying in its wake. Fortunately, Captain A taught me all of my ship handling skills because...
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