The topic of servant leadership is no stranger to the elite members in the surface warfare community. Becoming a servant leader encompasses the will and desire to serve and be a servant to a group, mission, or idea. Those in the surface warfare community should possess the basic characteristics of servant leadership before arriving to their first command (officers and enlisted included). Individuals in the surface warfare community need to ensure that a ship’s crew become better versions of themselves to accomplish the mission. There is no better way to create a successful and cohesive unit than by fostering servant leadership. One of the tenants of servant leadership is listening to the members of the unit and observing their overall working environment. When one enters the surface warfare community, it is commonly said that they are gently thrown to the wolves. When personnel are expected to perform a certain job with limited experience, it is easy to doubt their abilities. One must be proficient in a job to serve and mentor those in the same command. If one is proficient, others will follow suit and aid in the training and assistance of others. Competency always builds trust within the surface warfare community.
The idea of competency and servant leadership go hand and hand when discussing the ability of ships to perform a mission when it counts. Personnel in the surface warfare community hail from different beliefs, backgrounds, and institutions and are expected to work together successfully. There comes a point in the surface community where an entire carrier strike group works with the air wing to train for complex at-sea scenarios. This event is called COMPUTEX (composite training unit exercise). COMPUTEX training is meant to acquaint different surface ships and crews with one another to expose the crews to more advanced mission tactics.
Before the aviators attend COMPUTEX, the members of the air wing integrate their training by flying and training together. Aviators from helicopter, F-18, and E-2 squadrons complete the workups together to better understand the different needs and actions required of the different aviation platforms. This way, when the aviators show up for COMPUTEX, they are already so comfortable with each other the whole air wing acts as a cohesive unit. However, before surface warfare personnel engage in COMPUTEX, no similar training existed until very recently.
The surface warfare officers involved with this specific COMPUTEX knocked a few ideas around with the destroyer squadron commander and the air defense commander to create a surface warfare command training program for sailors to be more practiced and prepared for the “fight” that occurs in COMPUTEX. The will and desire to make sailors succeed and grow as individuals jump-started SWATT (Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training), which falls between single ship training and COMPUTEX. SWATT is a 4-week advanced phase program that occurs pre-deployment. Over the 16-day period, more than 100 events are conducted along with a final battle program for the strike group to perform. The main goal of SWATT is to plan, brief, execute, and debrief to train and educate watchstanders to get crews to succeed in complex mission scenarios and maneuvers over a short period. The training generally occurs daily from 0800-1600 and every movement is videotaped so crew members can rewind the film and view their mistakes and successes. This debriefing process usually occurs with the captain and the junior watchstanders. This simple conversation bridges the communications gap between the captain and what he or she wants performance-wise out of the crew. The video clips are analyzed by warfare tactics instructors (WTIs). WTIs are top-notch performers in the surface warfare community. WTIs attend a five-month training and understand the importance of war fighting first by the conclusion of the evolution.
Credit: U.S. Navy
SWATT commits muscle movement to memory for the entirety of the ship’s crew. This program helps the surface warfare community become more practiced and competent at performing under high stress situations. Unfortunately, budget issues may halt the implementation of SWATT—especially on the aviation side. The cost of personnel and fuel is extremely high, but the U.S. Navy contemplated asking allies such as Chile and Canada for extra aircraft. The plan is to have all deploying carrier strike groups and amphibious readiness groups on the East and West Coasts participating in SWATT before heading to COMPUTEX beginning no later than 2018.
The servant leaders in the surface warfare community ultimately led to the creation of SWATT to build competency and trust within the community. It will be an honor and a privilege to learn from the current leaders in the community and shortly foster the growth and development of junior sailors.
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