Today’s sailor is more educated and aware of the world than ever before, and it is easy to get caught up by life’s countless distractions. However, there are times when one must focus and be completely aware of the environment; to attune, adapt and anticipate to what can sometimes be an ever-changing landscape, especially in times of war. But how do we train this into sailors? We can put them through training scenarios, simulators, and we can talk with power point until blue in the face, but at the end of the day complacency will set in. In a perfect Navy, every sailor would be attuned to their surroundings, would understand the purpose in what they do, and would react appropriately when called upon to do so.
I propose a goal for our service: Increase our complacency resiliency through basic drill.
In a military formation, every single element has its place. Every column and rank is important and completely reliant on each other to execute as a team without delay, without personal emotions, without ambition, without distraction. One wrong move by any one member within the team can completely collapse the formation. However, over time and with practice, the unit molds itself into a machine of elegant precision. Every member is synergized as a team; aware of each other, their place, and their environment. This basic foundation of military discipline turns chaos into order. For what it is a foundation but simply something to build upon, to train upon?
By doing something as basic as drill and ceremony, this team dynamic helps instill that foundational sense of discipline, purpose, self-awareness and personal accountability into any team and would pay dividends in the form of creating a more resilient sailor.
So, what else can drill and ceremony do?
Personal Discipline
How can a sailor’s ability to put good order and discipline above personal desire, or selflessness over self be measured? How does a leader determine how disciplined a sailor, or even a command, is aside from the level of disciplinary issues? Unfortunately, there is no discipline meter. However, the ability to sustain a formation in drill does provide fundamental measurement. A sailor who tries to get back in step can reveal something very basic—that they care. The same sailor that learns to stay in step indicates that they want to improve. If they start to instruct other members how to get into step, that the sailor can lead. These are the marks of a disciplined sailor committed to the mission.
Teamwork
How can the discipline and skills provided by drill and ceremony translate to sailors working with others in their shops? It could be argued that the sailor who has learned how to perform within a team dynamic activity such as drill and is capable of synergizing with others in this matter should translate consistently in nearly any other activity that requires working with others—even more so if they drill and work in a shop together. The two most basic elements of teamwork are trust and a common goal. Marching and drilling in formation helps to establish basic, fundamental trust in one another, as well as providing a clear common goal.
Personal Accountability
Accountability for one’s own actions is an incredibly difficult trait to instill. No one likes to admit they are wrong. Even more so, no one likes to accept when they are wrong. For some, it can take a lifetime to learn to hold oneself responsible for poor decisions. If sailors are put into situations that force them to hold each other accountable and ultimately learn to hold themselves accountable, then we are training not only better sailors, but better people. Drill and formation is a perfect way to practicing this form of personal growth.
Leadership Development
Oftentimes, the role of the leader is to stand in front of sailors to discuss upcoming events in relation to the command. Usually, this is in the form of quarters. There is something to be said though about standing, marching, calling cadences, and issuing commands to a formation. A sense of comfort while in command is gained as the leader/subordinate relationship becomes better established in a concrete way, such as through drill and formation. Additionally, having junior personnel leading these efforts teaches sailors basic level leadership skills as well as those within the ranks learning to take orders not just from LPOs, chiefs, and officers but even frontline supervisors. This can have compounding leadership effects as those junior sailors gain rank and begin to lead in roles where the responsibility of leadership is critical to the mission and morale of the command.
Where to Start?
Nothing can happen overnight but educating an understanding that we are missing a critical piece of military prowess and what helped make the United States the most powerful Navy in the world. The Navy is not just a collection of ships, subs, and planes, but also the sailors who operate and sustain them. There must be a paradigm shift back to the fundamentals to raise standards. The Navy should strengthen its current curriculum at Basic Training to include additional time for military drill or re-evaluate ways to include it into the current training plan. Additionally, the fleet could conduct follow-on training as part of the Sailor 360 program while encouraging commands and leaders to implement basic formation and drill with their respective subordinates.
If something as a basic as military drill was implemented into standard naval routines, sailors will be more disciplined, more accountable, and able to function better cohesively as a team. Leaders will be more comfortable issuing orders, instill subordinates the ability to better take orders, and teach basic leadership skills to sailors. All of these of which will increase the stated original goal of this essay of increasing the complacency resiliency of the Navy by developing subordinate growth for a better sailor which will in turn lead to a better Navy.
