As a surface warfare officer (SWO), I constantly was reminded that the pinnacle of a naval officer’s career is to command a warship. In every fitness report I received from the time I was an ensign, I was evaluated on my suitability and progress toward someday successfully commanding a ship. Even in my nuclear tours, my commanding officers and reactor officers (ROs) all discussed my qualities to command a ship. Needless to say, after I left my principal assistant tour (second department head tour on board the carrier), I questioned my desire to someday return to a carrier to lead the reactor department as the RO. In fact, as a lieutenant commander, when asked what I planned on doing after my command tour, the only thing I knew for certain was “NOT RO.” Yet here I am 20 years later, having successfully completed an RO tour onboard the USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76). How did I go from “absolutely NOT RO” to being one of the ROs who successfully served on board the most powerful ships in the world?
When I got selected to be a SWO(N), I told Admiral Bruce DeMars during my accession interview for the nuclear power program that I loved being an engineer and I wanted a challenge. The only thing I knew about the nuclear power program came from the anecdotes I’d heard. Everyone I spoke to said it was challenging. What I learned first-hand was the job was incredibly tough, yet rewarding. Now I am not a glutton for punishment, but like many naval officers, I love solving problems and being a part of an elite team. That’s what I got from every nuclear tour in my 28-year career.
As a propulsion plant watch officer (PPWO) leading one of five watch teams, I loved the daily challenges of running drills.[1] Emergency securing the plant and using the experience and technical acumen of the best engineers in the fleet to safely restore propulsion is exhilarating. I reveled in not only demonstrating that we could restore the plant better than any other watch team, but also in beating our own record for doing so. The drill team would run the most challenging drills on my watch team, and every man and woman on that team had the shared goal of demonstrating his or her technical prowess. We shared a sense of pride and teamwork unlike anything I had experienced to that point or since. We drilled and trained until we knew not only what to do, but how our fellow teammates would respond. That singular focus was incredibly captivating and left me yearning for more.
Looking back, as a newly qualified PPWO on board the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), I remember making what seemed a minor mistake while on watch in the plant. I quickly corrected the issue and moved on. However, later that day, while sitting in a classroom for our daily continuous training lectures with every officer and chief in the department, my division chief, who also was my propulsion plant watch supervisor during the previous watch, stood up in front of everyone and said, “Lieutenant Francis made a mistake on watch.”[2] I was flabbergasted and embarrassed. I thought, if I couldn’t trust my own chief to look past a small mistake, then who could I trust? That was my first experience with the issue resolution process that is a part of every nuclear command in the Navy, and I hated it!
I left the John C. Stennis with the stinging feeling that perhaps I was not cut out to be a nuke. I had done well as a SWO(N); I loved the camaraderie of my division, peers, and watch team, but I didn’t enjoy the constant questioning and critiquing. I especially hated the constant oversight. The Navy’s self-regulating body of naval reactors required its inspectors to oversee every aspect of safe propulsion plant operations and maintenance. It was not unusual at the time for some of these regulators to let PPWOs know of their displeasure in our subpar standards through a good chewing out in the propulsion plant. I knew they had a job to do, but I disliked and sometimes feared “naval reactors,” as we referred to the collective. They wore civilian clothes so we never knew their rank, even though most were lieutenants or junior to us. Therefore, we had to listen to the message instead of focusing on the messenger.
After leaving the John C. Stennis with conflicting feelings, something interesting started to happen on my shore tour and first department head tours. I started approaching every evolution as a learning opportunity. I constantly critiqued my actions and the actions of my teammates because I wanted to be on the winning team. I wanted to restore the shared team spirit I had experienced as a PPWO. I was using the new-found skills of self and team analysis to learn, just as we had done in my nuclear tour, except I was doing it without thinking about it. Even so, I was not convinced that I could ever do the reactor officer job. Working for a ship captain after completing a command-at-sea tour did not seem like an equitable opportunity at the time. From my perspective, I did not understand how I could go from being the one calling the shots to being just another department head on board the carrier.
It wasn’t until I was a principal assistant (PA) that I started growing in confidence in my abilities as a leader in my nuclear world.[3] I overcame some tremendous challenges on my PA tour, having suffered through a disastrous repair period on board my second aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The days were long, the commute to Bremerton from Everette, Washington, was even longer, and a lot of the crew believed we were getting a bad deal after two back-to-back deployments followed by a long docking planned incremental availability. I saw leaders who showed little care for their work, some who stopped leading, and others who rose to the challenge and showed grit and determination in adversity. However, it was my second RO in the Lincoln who really inspired me for the first time. Through his supreme confidence in me, Captain Gordon Rutherford put me in positions for growth and provided timely counsel and mentorship when I needed it most. It was then that I started believing that I someday could manage a 450-person department and overcome any challenges I would face.
Even though my second RO inspired, it was my peer Paul Algiere who got me to see the bigger picture. It was during a discussion about our careers and long-term goals when I mentioned that I had no real desire to be an RO after my command afloat tour. Paul was shocked! He then reminded me that there were only a handful of officers who were even capable of doing the job, and out of duty to the SWO(N) community, I should seriously reconsider my future. That brief conversation got me thinking. The Navy had invested heavily in me as a leader. I had toiled long and hard in both conventional and nuclear billets, and through these variety of experiences, I was well-equipped for any possible leadership challenge. More importantly, there were almost 400 sailors who needed my leadership and experience. As a SWO(N), I had the benefit of experiencing career diversity on my sea and shore tours. This perspective as a leader would be very different than someone who worked as a nuke every day, such as a nuclear-trained limited duty officer (LDO). The career enlisted nuclear-trained operators got no such variety. The short and challenging nuclear tours I had endured and excelled in were the everyday reality for our nuclear operators. Why didn’t I think about their well-being before my discussions with Paul still remains a mystery to me.
I had a successful command tour on board the USS Lassen (DDG-82), and I used my experience as a nuclear-trained operator to excel in that tour. However, at that point in my career, I knew I COULD NOT leave the Navy until I had successfully served as an RO. In fact, I always told my wife Rena that I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror if I left the Navy without being an RO. It was the one job in the Navy that I felt I was trained to do from the day I was commissioned as an ensign, and I was determined to see it through. Besides, post-command I could either go to an RO tour and lead fleet sailors, or go to the Pentagon and push a desk. To me, there’s no comparison to leading sailors. We only get limited opportunities at leading the best and brightest our nation has to offer and I was intent on taking it.
After serving as the reactor officer in the forward deployed aircraft carrier, I look back with fondness at the challenges faced and overcame, my successes and failures. As the RO, I was the senior department head and senior SWO on board the carrier. As such, I had a lot of say in the day-to-day as well as long-term planning we conducted as a ship. Even though every one of my peers was capable in his or her job, they often used me as a sounding board for their plans, especially since I had unfettered access to the captain each day. Because a number of my department head peers had little shipboard experience, I had a hand in every aspect of ship operations, from navigation and seamanship to combat systems. Even so, we were incredibly tight and I enjoyed my time as RO.
I also appreciated the relationships I developed with my two commanding officers (COs) Rear Admiral Buzz Donnelly and Captain Pat “Fin” Hannefin. Both are excellent leaders, and I was fortunate to have two COs who allowed me to do the job as RO, even under the most stressful conditions. No one else on board the carrier besides the CO and the RO feels the immense pressure to maintain the highest standards of the naval nuclear power program while getting the ship to sea on time. It’s the type of challenge that would drive an ordinary man or woman crazy, but to the experienced and highly trained officers who make it to the RO tour, it’s another day at work.
As a junior officer, I often thought of better ways to do things in the nuclear community, but I could never overcome the Navy bureaucracy or the old-fashioned thinking of some leaders to implement and learn from these new ideas. However, as the RO, I not only had direct access to the people who could implement these ideas across the fleet, but I could immediately implement the idea in the Reagan and be the pilot ship for the community. After all, my goal was to make the community better as the RO. We implemented for the first time a circadian-rhythm watch rotation, something that one of my sharp principal assistants came up with. It was something the SWO(N) community had never implemented, but I was determined to give it a try. It was a risky proposition, but to me it was well worth it my 450-person department benefited from well-rested and alert watch standers. Not all of my ideas were successful, but the lessons learned from all of these initiatives were shared widely with the rest of the Fleet, all in an effort to be an instrument for change.
As RO, my perspective of the naval reactor inspectors changed. While I still saw them as a regulating body assigned to maintain the highest standards of the naval nuclear power program, I realized that just like me, they wanted to see the ship in her best possible fighting shape. I got to understand and observe their effectiveness at holding other entities accountable for quality work, on-time performance, and being better team players in getting and keeping the ship ready for sea with full redundancy. They were not just there to give PPWOs and watch standers a hard time. They were there to make us better, and they were excellent at doing it. These professionals made me a better RO and the Ronald Reagan a better ship.
While I started out like most junior officers who had no desire to be an RO, I now can’t imagine completing my Navy career without this incredible opportunity. I loved every minute of my time mentoring and helping my officers and sailors. My only regret is not spending more time selling them on the benefits of being the RO. It was a missed opportunity to call the next generation to duty, just like I was called to duty by Captain Rutherford and Paul. So my advice to the current and future ROs is to sell the job and groom your officers for the CO as well as the RO job.
Endnotes
[1] A Propulsion Plant Watch Officer (PPWO) is similar to the Engineering Officer of the Watch in a conventionally-powered ship. The PPWO is responsible for one of the two propulsion plants in the NIMITZ Class CVNs, and reports to the Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW). The EOOW is responsible for both the propulsion engineering plants and reports to and coordinates with the Officer of the Deck and Combat Systems Officer of the Watch.
[2] The Propulsion Plant Watch Officer is the senior Enlisted supervisor on the watch team in a NIMITZ Class CVN and works directly for the PPWO.
[3] A Principal Assistant(PA) runs one or more divisions on a CVN and is the equivalent of a 2nd tour Department Head on a conventional ship.
