Wonder how the poll would change if we had a draft?

Maybe the faddishly cool digital cammies will help us turn the corner in the popularity contest. After all, we’re the only service not to have gone diggie….until now!

I suspect the poll actually measures the presence of each service in the realm of public conciousness. As a Navy, we have not been the centerpiece of the GWOT (despite many sailors, including myself, with the complete GWOT collector’s set of GWOT campaign ribbons) for good or for bad. That said, it still hurts to lose a popularity contest to the Air Force.

Two quick comments:

Recruiting is an incredibly tough game. We put our best into it, best people, best effort. There simply is no magic. Those seeking panacea should remember Mencken’s comment: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

Second – not the answer to recruiting but raised above – we should quit screwing with the uniform. I’ve watched the Army and the Air Force make pajamas their daily dress … and now the Navy joins them. Is there a place for cammies? Sure. But it’s not shipboard or shore station unless small-arms attack is imminent. This is genuine silliness.

In for a penny, in for a pound so here goes with one caveat – as long as there is real interest (per my evaluation) and I’m responding to serious queries or concerns (again per my evaluation), I’m happy to try to participate in the blogosphere in a meaningful way.
Two limitations – my time and my typing ability. I’m not implying your time is somehow less valuable or that I’m so important, just that I have not yet mastered the art of doing it all and doing it all well in the working day. So I can play in bits and pieces and give at least part of the response when able.
I’m a two-fingered typist which adds significantly to the problem of staying connected in the blogosphere – I don’t like doing anything half-way, but a good answer/response takes me more time than others. My problem, obviously, not yours, but it does bear on how much I can get to at any one time.

A couple of points:
For Ultima Ratio Reg – the Navy and the Marines do not compete for the same recruit; our marketing works very well for us and their marketing works very well for them, but alcon need to understand we’re in very different markets.
By acknowledging this I’m simply acknowledging the very different service cultures that exist and how those cultures drive the recruiting strategies both services employ.
Certainly there are elements common to both cultures, but key differences as well. I believe we have a very good handle on what young men and women are looking for when they consider joining the Navy and we have been able to respond very successfully to those goals and desires to bring in the quality Sailors we need for today’s Navy and the one we want to build as well.

For Steeljaw Scribe and CDR Salamander – reaching the population of eligible, rpt eligible, 16-22 year olds (about 30% of the total population in that cohort) and convincing them to join the Navy is a vastly different value proposition than developing a “messaging” strateg to reach the population as a whole.
As I’ve stated, we’ve got the former challenge pretty well figured out; not so the latter.
I agree with you both that Navy must find the ways and the means to reach the greater population with our message – a message, backed by our actions, that convincingly and credibly states what we do is of enduring value to the nation and supports our vital interests and is, therefore, worthy of the resources required to “provide and maintain a Navy” (US Constitution, Article I, Section 8).
I take as gospel the ideas of Samuel Huntington in his seminal Proceedings article of May, 1954, National Policy and the Transoceanic Navy. In this article, Huntington highlighted the absolute necessity of the service to develop the national support for securing the resources, human and material, required to carry out the service’s missions.
Our present PA/Strategic Comms structure is far more reactive than proactive and is not up the task we have before us. But this effort is a very different, and far more difficult, task than our recruiting effort – we must be careful not to confuse the two.
That’s it for now – more later. All the best, JCHjr DNS

(shudder)

URR: can you give me the classic definition of a warrior?

Byron/URR regarding the warrior and history dilemmas,
I can’t define a warrior, but I can say that if we continue to say and stress that we are, we aren’t.
There is much debate everyday about what it means to be a Sailor or Naval Officer, but there is no one answer. The Navy is a diverse place, there can be no one definition.
What I can say is that my impression of the current generation we’re looking at for recruiting is that they’re a skeptical bunch. As but one example tripe like the sailors creed and an overt press of “warrior” falls into the “saying it not living it” trap and will backfire based on skepticism in today’s generation.
Some of the best sailors I’ve had work for me were of the “went to college, ran out of money, this job is paying me to use skills I already had and can improve upon” bent. Some of those folks were temporary, some we hooked. Most were not warriors, that does not mean they were not fantastic sailors.

There is a palatable historical disconnect between today’s Navy and the WWII Navy because, to my eye, they are two different forces. The recent Navy has been primarily a deterrent force vice an action force. It’s hard to make heroes out of folks who make a life out of making sure nothing happens as opposed to those who are involved in direct actions based on what does happen. Today’s tech-centric sailor has a tough time finding a role model in heroic sailors of the past because there is little commonality in how they perceive their jobs. I challenge you to find me a sailor publicly praised for their heroism as an ASTAC. This disconnect is not a problem for infantry, either Marine or Army. The Air Force as a younger separate service does not suffer the same disconnect.

As ADM Harvey said, we are emphatically not having problems recruiting young men and women. A lot of that is based on smarter marketing, we’re getting there. I’m watching the X games “sponsored by the US Navy” right now. Things like that and NASCAR sponsorships create an awareness. That awareness is not present, due to the nature of our current engagements, in media reporting. That awareness is what we need. Prospective sailors get an idea and go check it out on the internet, we are getting better in the internet domain. Top three google results for “navy” are navy.mil, navy.com and navy.com/careers, that’s not bad. Our leaders and policymakers are not necessarily comfortable as our recruits in that domain, but it will come. Getting people is not our current problem, nor do I anticipate it being a problem in the immediate future.

VADM, with all due respect, I believe you are missing some good stuff. All of the guest bloggers on the USNI blog are excellent reads, and the authors themselves not only deeply care about the Navy but also have their own suggestions. I know that people like Salamander, Steel Jaw Scribe, Eagle 1 and others are extremely good information and commentary. Granted some of it is social or humor. But there is a lot of good stuff to read. I think where you see things de-rail is in the comments. The down side to blogging is that unless you have restricted comments to those you want to hear from, you will always find those who have their own agenda to promote and mostly cause a loss in the signal to noise ratio. I stronly recommend giving them a try…the worst you have to lose is some time, and you just might find a few things to think about.

It’s my feeling that this will be one helluva place to start, as USNI has collected a terrific set of bloggers to submit content and while the discussion is heated, there is always food for thought here.

VADM Harvey
Cc: SJS, CDR Salamander, et al

VADM Harvey said yesterday:
“I stated yesterday that public support for the Navy is extremely important and we have to significantly improve our ability to reach the public in a meaningful, and compelling, way, but I don’t think we‘re in a crisis.”

Active duty type here with a possible solution to the marketing/message conundrum IRT to USN actual.
Naturally, my active duty status gives me pause on how to present such a proposal. It would require “eyes on” at the DNS/OPNAV level, up past CNO and SECNAV and possibly on up to USD(Policy). Ultimately, OSD actual would have to sign off on it.

As a Sailor in the age range mentioned, and recently returned from a GWOT deployment, I feel I have discovered the silver bullet to this.

The program I have in mind already exists. It is supported by the Navy League and endorsed by the Navy right now, as we speak. It would require a 10-fold increase in admin/logistical support by CNO/SECNAV/OSD, but it is doable. At the moment it’s treated somewhat as a bastard step-child of the Navy League and the Navy. However – working hand-in-hand with USN leadership, it could and should be a strategic communications outlet that doubles as a recruiting tool.

Executed properly, it would be infinitely useful in tailoring the message (whatever that ended up being) from on-high to the 16 – 22 year old set.

At present, none of the services do this effectively, sans USMC. USMC does it, and does it well, because Marines seek out the USMC. Not vice versa. Those drawn to it (admittedly, I am not one) seek them out. Granted, USN does something similar. But with the baby-boomers all retiring soon, this issue is not going to go away. The Navy is going to have manning shortfalls in intel, SWO’s, NSW/DEVGRU types and outfits like NECC, the P-3 / P-8A and EW communities.

The Corps simply has to wait until they are of age. No “recruiting” required for them. That’s why they do so well compared to USA. With USA, there’s no driving motivator to join and a lack of a coherent message. One that targets the age bracket in question, I might add. That is the important part.

Vis a vis the program I spoke of and would like to propose to receptive ears/eyes: There would be a continuous stream of recruits for big Navy. Not just for “the college money” or because of economic woes, economy-wise or self-inflicted. They would join up, and go Navy, because they wanted to. The more I observe and learn about the program in question, the more I feel I need to present it to those who can ponder/examine/act upon it.

Its curriculum could expand or be merged with existing infrastructure and draw in college-age as well as HS-grad and post-High School grad youth. The entire proposal is centered around providing the amount of qualified applicants a draft would afford the Navy to pick and choose from, without the “bad” (read: logistical/political) shortfalls of actually having a draft. All the good stuff, without the side effects.

It’s an untapped resource USN has under their very noses and, if capitalized upon properly, would drastically improve the caliber of both junior enlisted and JO’s for the foreseeable future.

If I’ve intrigued anyone, just respond in the comments. I’ve given the USNI bloggers my unclass email so those who want, for whatever reason, can reach me.

“FORAC”
USN
longtime reader of SJS, Instapinch, CDR S and Blackfive

Damn, I’ve been waiting on that for the past 30 years! I’m a slippery fella though, hidin’ behind a real ID and all, I got those black helos foxxed good

I’ll have to take the time to stop by Gina, thanks.

VADM Harvey,

Two limitations – my time and my typing ability. I’m not implying your time is somehow less valuable or that I’m so important, just that I have not yet mastered the art of doing it all and doing it all well in the working day. So I can play in bits and pieces and give at least part of the response when able.
I’m a two-fingered typist which adds significantly to the problem of staying connected in the blogosphere – I don’t like doing anything half-way, but a good answer/response takes me more time than others. My problem, obviously, not yours, but it does bear on how much I can get to at any one time.

Awww, heck … you have a fewer problems than the rest of us. Keep swimming, the water warms up the longer you’re in it!

What blogs have filled is a gap that exists in our professional conversation. For the sake of discussion, let’s put SmallWarsJournal and LongWarJjournal on one side of the equation (almost exclusively policy/programs/strategy/reportage in a quasi-traditional format) and – just because he has his hand up (with fingers crossed) to start would would be a very funny and biting Personnel Policy Blog – Skippy-san on the other end (PPSR/social/political/humor/commentary/Agent Provocateur – nontraditional/conversational). In between you would have moving from one side to the other MichaelYon, InformationDissemination, MudvilleGazette, EagleSpeak, TheStupidWillBePunished, NeptunusLex, TheCastleArgghhh!!!!, SteelJawScribe, CDRSalamander and many others somewhere on the Journal-to-RantFest line.

In that gaggle, each of us individually have on average from just over a 1,000 unique readers to thousands a day and have been doing it day in and day out for years. (Just to use myself as a ref; I am not one of the largest eihter, a Technorati rating of 86 with ~1,250 unique readers each day while my buddy at Argghhh!!!! has a Technorati rating of 300, you can guess his unique readers).

Though our medium is humble, our writing editor free and dyslexic at times (usually pounded out over breakfast or after the kids go to sleep) – via our hobby we have been given the opportunity to be introduced either through our blog or because of it, to not just 3-Star GOFOs, but Congressional Staffers, authors of books and researchers, trial lawyers of national scope, MSM types of various stripes, proud fathers, grieving family members, old Shipmates, and young men and women who want to serve their nation.

It is a clunky and imperfect medium to work in. Now and then mistakes are made. The good blogs correct those mistakes and apologize when required; the bad ones fail in the Darwinian marketplace of ideas that blogging is.

The learning curve can be steep, but the rewards great. All it takes is to hear a father thank you for bringing his son’s case to a higher level so that it gets the attention it deserves, a daughter who thanks you for bringing to light her father’s sacrifice 60 years ago that is lost to all but those who drive by the neighborhood memorial each day – and yep, you realize that a blog has its place.

When you see an IP address from the Senate repeatedly hit a single post one day – then multiple Senate IP addresses hit the same post in the weeks that follow – then read about a program getting additional funding … then you realize that some issues just need a little more light than they are getting, and you can make a difference.

There are other reasons why blogs exist. In my case, though I have been published under my actual name, back in’04 a change in leadership meant that I could no longer due to many of the reasons CAPT Toti brought out in his excellent DEC08 Proceedings article. The old phrase “Kill one and you terrorize them all” applied. That and I needed some cheap therapy.

Blogs can get quite emotional because, well, they are blogs. Some are more like the SWJ/LWJ e-zine/blog while others are more like the ‘ole BBS/forums. Some are like the smoking sponson at 2230 on a Sunday. Most all have comments – and that is where a lot of the trouble starts – but that is just part of having a blog. It is a conversation. Creative friction is good. Like all things raw, there are good and bad things in the unrefined – you just have to pick through them.

Part of the problem we have in our Navy is too often opinion is too refined. The higher you go, the harder it is to get unrefined opinion. We become an echo chamber. To the outside, we sound like an echo chamber. We refine all the edges out of data that works its way up the chain. We demand and reward loyalty to people and programs – not an institution. We like hearing opinions that echo our own. We select opinions like we select our leaders – in our own image.

Did the problems of DD-(X)/DD-21/DDG-1000, LCS, ACS, LPD-17 happen by accident or by habit? Did they occur because of too many hard questions, or too much group-think? Did properly edited thought by the right people have the Navy ready for RIVERINE warfare when the nation needed it? Where did the discussion about the need for RIVERINE start, in blogs or in “official publications?”

Traditional methods for professional discussion are important and critical – and in the end the most important; no question there. That being said, blogs of all stripes are an important addition to the development of the institution we all love. From Admiral Stavridis to Skippy-san; I think we all love our Navy with the same passion and want her to succeed. None of us has the correct or final answer, but together we can help make her better.

Having you in the mix, edging in when you can – only makes the medium better and more informed – and makes sure we at least use the spell checker now and then – the blogg’n version of checking the gig line, if you will.

FORAC, I’m intrigued. Send me the information, I’d be glad to look it over.

VADM, in my 57 years I’ve learned one or two things. One of the most useful is that it’s very easy to get married to an idea. You do this by seeing a problem and developing a solution. In your mind, you have asked and answered all the questions and answers. You have de-bugged the progam. In reality, you’ve only looked at one side, the side you first looked at. Many problems have different solutions, some brute force, some elegant. You always want the elegant solution, of course, but there can be a vast gulf between one answer and another. I’ve learned that when I get a particular problem, that I turn it over to someone else with as little info as possible; sometimes, “Look at this and see what you think”. Most times, the answer is very similar to mine. Sometimes? Something I didn’t see, because of my pre-conceived notion. I was married to it, and didn’t want a divorce.

In much the same way, blogs have presented to me different ways of looking at things. I’ve learned from them and truthfully, was entertained by them for the thought provoking concepts I had to digest. I think what Salamander is trying to say is that blogs are a good way to hear what the people who have nothing to lose, no boss to write you a deadly OER, no axe to grind for your program manager, and thus, you get many truths to sort through. In the midst of all those truths, some good, some fair, some suspect, you will find gems. In closing, it would do you no harm to listen in every now and then. Who knows, you might find a gem. When you find one, you’ll know for certain that no one was trying to grease his boss when it landed in your lap. It will be freely given to you from the rough and tumble world of blogs.

Thanks for your time, sir. I’m sure your valuable time won’t be wasted.

Over the past three years as CNP/DNS I’ve had the benefit of some pretty full and frank discussions with SecNav, two CNOs and our four star Fleet Commanders – not all of these discussions reached outcomes I wanted, but all, repeat all, of them were fundamentally about the institution we call the Navy and what was right for the Navy.

Knowing the personalities involved it’s hard to accept that statement at face value-but anyway…….

The problem is that the communication is not coming downward. In particular Admiral Harvey, your two digit P-codes were in general uncommunicative with their customers about the outcomes of these discussions. The issue is not that you made decisions-it is a lack of transparency and a willingness to explain them once made.

I was in the Navy long enough to have seen the change-we’ve come a long way and in the wrong direction from the days when Dick Dunleavy would offer “free shots at a three star” to the situation that existed last year when the head aviation detailer would not communicate with his O-6 constituents,even when they were close to PRD or had legitimate questions. A free flowing discussion does no good if the results are not communicated downward.