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 Toastmasters, I realized that the Public Speaking course at Georgia Tech was IDENTICAL to the Competent Communicator curriculum for Toastmasters. Continuing.

I looked at the text, but being that I was not only a defacto CC and majored in money, I informed my division while barely looking over the material. Note that I also took into account my Navy experience and made sure ALL of my enlisted men knew they could sign up for the Navy Federal Credit Union while overseas. This has changed over the years, but back in my day enlisted could ONLY apply at non-US locations. Since we were on a Mediterranean tour, I encouraged them all to sign up. 

This impressed my CPO. He said to me, "Mr. Jackson, you barely looked over the book before you delivered your speech." I let him know that this was my wheelhouse and it was easy for my to inform my men on how to maximize there potential. I have to admit, I had a sense of pride when one of my seaman (E3), Petty Officers start at E4, came to me and said, "I signed up for Navy Federal, while we're here in Italy."

This is the epitome of leadership when you influence someone to take a positive step in their life. I simply told him, "Good job" but he couldn't see how I was beaming later on!

Comments

  1. Jenn MooreSeptember 3, 2020 at 5:06 AM

    Training is an excellent source because we don't know everything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 7, 2020 at 7:59 AM

    I love the nomenclature, "majored in money!" Even that simple title helps people understand what your expertise is. And the fact that you had your men open up a Navy Federal bank account while overseas made it all real to them I'm sure. They clearly trusted that you knew what you were talking about. Excellent work, Jerry. And you're still sharing that knowledge with Goodwill Alumni Association members. Valerie Johnson

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
Read more

The Incident

 Note that is one is not in order relative to the other posts. This one takes place while Captain A was in charge. It happened while prepping to go to the Med. Note that there will some graphic content discussed. Before the issue can be further discussed and analyzed, the stage must be set. For this, we go back a few days when the group was in Puerto Rico. We were anchored just off the base and had to run small boats to the base. We were allowed full use of the base but since we were only planning to be there for only a couple of day, we were not allowed off the base. In the group were five ships, LPH (helo carrier), LKA (amphib repair ship), LSD (my ship, medium troop carrier with a helo deck and well deck), LPD (larger troop carrier similar to LSD but has a helo hangar), and LST (flat bottomed troop carrier designed to go on the beach, let vehicles roll off the top, then pull themselves off). As I was coming on watch, on the bridge since we're running boats and not tied to a pier
Read more

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 Capta
Read more