Archive for August 6, 2022

The Navy’s poor poker face on manpower

Posted: August 6, 2022 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

It’s not often I get immediate verification of something I blog about. For example, I wrote about how we’re going to have to accept that Russia will in fact win in Ukraine, and at first that prediction looked incorrect, but as the conflict grinds on, its becoming more obvious that Russia can’t afford to lose, even at a terrible cost. I could be wrong, maybe Ukraine will pull out a big “W” in the end, but I still think its unlikely.

But the Navy’s manpower crisis…wow. That’s a gift that keeps on giving. Since the last article, Navy has released three more NAVADMIN messages that prove the Navy is in a middle-management manpower crunch.

The first is NAVADMIN 176/22, which seems like a mundane update to retirement policy. The second paragraph is most interesting:

2.  Reference (c) modified the service-in-grade (SIG) (also known as time-in-grade) requirements for O-4s.  Specifically, reference (c) modified reference (d) to require 3-years SIG for voluntary regular retirement eligibility.
NAVADMIN 176/22

Normally you can retire as an O-4 after only two years. This isn’t a huge change, however, it might push more people to stay an extra year.

But then NAVADMIN 177/22 came out, talking about incentive pay for submarine commanding officer special mission billets. There is plenty of competition to become a submarine CO, so many good people don’t select for submarine command. They can select for CO Special Mission, which is basically a way of saying “we need you to stay in the Navy to fill billets at higher levels” because so many submarine O-5’s retire at 20 years. It’s a problem that has waxed and waned over the years, but is now becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

The NAVADMIN allocates a bonus of $20,000 annually for members that sign a 3-5 year commitment. That is an awful lot of money, especially considering an O-5 submariner is likely making over $150K a year anyway. The eligibility requirements make it very obvious what problem they are solving:

    b.  Have completed at least 19 years of Active Duty Commissioned Service (ADCS) and not more than 25 years of ADCS at the start of the period of additional obligated service.
NAVADMIN 177/22

Which really means “prevent people from retiring right at 20 years and keep them in a bit longer by throwing $20K a year at them.”

Essentially, these two officer-related NAVADMINs are trying to stem the departure of mid-grade Naval Officers. Gee, I wonder why mid-grade Naval Officers would be leaving in the first place? I’ll let you debate that in the comments.

So are there applicable actions on the enlisted Sailor side? You betcha! The most interesting is NAVADMIN 178/22. The first two paragraphs lay it out pretty well:

1.  This NAVADMIN announces a pilot program for Senior Enlisted Advance to Position (SEA2P) designed to keep deploying units mission-ready by aggressively filling critical at-sea leadership billets.  The pilot program will convene a billet selection board consisting of senior representatives from Fleet and participating type commander (TYCOM) staffs to select those Sailors who are best and fully qualified to advance and fill specific priority sea billets.  The pilot includes the Nimitz Strike Group on the West Coast and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group on the East Coast. Additionally, the pilot will include USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73). Factors for consideration in determining best and fully qualified applicants include sustained superior performance, documented qualifications, platform experience, and potential to succeed in the billet.  Sailors selected must obligate service (OBLISERV) to complete 36 months in the SEA2P billet and will be permanently advanced upon reporting to their ultimate duty station.  This pilot will be limited to critical E8 and E9 sea billets and is 
separate from reference (a). 
 
2.  To be eligible for SEA2P, Sailors must have been selected or screened as a non-select for advancement to E8 or E9 by the respective fiscal year (FY) 2023 selection boards, or be advancement-eligible for the respective FY-24 boards in line with reference (b).  Time-in-rate (TIR) waivers will be approved for FY-24 advancement-eligible Sailors who are selected for SEA2P.  All Sailors selected for SEA2P billets should expect to receive permanent change of station (PCS) orders with a transfer date as early as  30-45 days after selection.
NAVADMIN 178/22

In one long sentence this says: “We are critically undermanned at sea in senior enlisted positions, yet somehow we have lots of people that haven’t selected for advancement to these senior enlisted positions, so now they can apply to fill this position and get permanently promoted when they finish the tour.”

Now, my first question is: if we don’t have enough senior people to fill these jobs, but we have people that aren’t selecting for senior positions, why don’t we just select more people? Enlisted management sits almost entirely in the Department of the Navy’s purview, unlike Naval Officers that face considerable Congressional oversight as to their selection and promotion. The DoN doesn’t appear to be upping the selection rate, and is instead opting for a tightly controlled board that meets in relative secrecy to pick people for specific jobs. There are advantages to this, since you can force someone to take sea-duty orders, but you could do that anyway (to an extent), so I’m not sure why they are opting for this method.

These NAVADMINs, coming on the heels of the messages I previously talked about, are just another indicator that the Navy is experiencing a massive flight of talent that is really getting senior leadership concerned. I think they would be far better off addressing the real concerns of junior officers and junior enlisted, and to be fair, Navy Sailors get plenty of surveys about the health of the force, but then the Navy doesn’t appear to act on any of these issues. Just like the suicide crisis on the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON, Navy has all the data, but isn’t choosing to solve the correct problem.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you enjoyed this article, please like it, share it on social media, and send a tip to Peter in DaTipJar. You can also buy one of my books for yourself or a friend to help me out.

We Interrupt My planned Post Today to Second Stacy McCain’s call for people to give Lisa Grass a hand with her Cancer Treatments

Posted: August 6, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: ,

Yesterday I woke to the rather unpleasant news that old friend and Catholic blogger Lisa Grass has been diagnosed with Cancer.

Lisa is a convert to Catholicism and the primary driver of her conversion was the Eucharist.

I just sat there when he kneeled but stood up when he stood up. I didn’t yet know there was really a good reason to kneel. I don’t remember the homily at all. It wasn’t good or bad to me. I just don’t remember it. Finally came the consecration. “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body,
which will be given up for you.” Um….WOW. Then the second part: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” BINGO!! This was it! This is how! This is what it means in the Bible where Jesus says you have to do this! This is how!!! Wow! I had to contain my excitement. After all, this was a Catholic Mass and I couldn’t stand up and say “Hey, everybody, etc.!”

I was literally trembling in the presence of God. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, God is here! Everyone started filing up to Communion and, to me, it was like they were filing up to the gates of heaven. What came next may seem trivial but it meant a lot to me. There was a man in the pew behind me and he had a little girl with him. She said, “Daddy, she didn’t go to Communion.” He replied, “That’s okay.” She said again, louder, “But Daddy, she didn’t go to Communion.” He said, “It’s okay. She doesn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to.” It then hit me. I can do this! I can become Catholic and go receive our Lord in Communion! It’s up to me! I can do it “if I want to!”

Lisa decided that she wanted to and pursued her faith with a strength and purpose that is be worth emulating and like the good Catholic she is her faith as Stacy McCain notes in his fundraising plea for her, comes complete with works:

When I was covering the Louisiana primary, and got busted in the notorious speed trap town of Livonia — they towed my rental car! — it was Lisa who drove all the way down from Kentucky to Louisiana to bring me back home.

That’s quite a drive to take on for a person that you have pretty much only exchange emails with, even if gas prices were not at Biden levels.

I reached out to Lisa to ask if she needed anything she replied that for now all she needed was prayers. Lisa understands that the truth of the phrase from Flannery O’Conner who said:

People think faith is a warm blanket when in fact, it’s the cross.

and the instructions of Christ

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

Matthew 16:24

This is the Cross that Jesus has given her and like the cross of Christ it’s given to her but it can help save others. When we pray for Lisa, as she asked we do a spiritual work of mercy for her and bring ourselves closer to God. It is an act of faith, but what about works?

Stacy McCain is not a Catholic but when it comes to works to repay a debt of gratitude he’s on it:

 Lisa’s diagnosis sounds very serious and her chemo treatments will cost $10,000-$20,000 per month, some of which should be covered by insurance, but still this is an ordeal for her. Lisa helped me in my hour of need, so everything y’all could do for her would be greatly appreciated.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO LISA GRAAS

I highly endorse all aid that you can spare for Lisa, both via faith and via works.