Sailors are overwhelmed.
In order to operate a radar, or any system component, today's sailor probably had to earn 37 different qualifications, each consisting of a 65 line "Personnel Qualification Standards" syllabus that he had to get signed off, line by line, ninety percent of which have no real applications to operating that piece of gear.
Without all of these sign-offs, he can't earn his qualifications. The qualification "on paper" is a requirement to as much as look at this piece of gear. Plus, his LPO said if he's not qualified before deployment, he'll get a counseling chit and DIVO won't approve his POM leave.
So what's a sailor to do? Simple. They get the qual gundecked. "Hey buddy. Just sign this off for me. I'll figure out how to use it later." His buddy doesn't think twice. Everyone does it. OJT is how we really learn stuff, not these stupid sign-offs.
Now in addition to the 90% of white noise that he doesn't need to know is the 10% that is absolutely essential to operating that radar! Of course, he's so overwhelmed with bulls**t that he doesn't recognize what he needs to know from what he doesn't so he gets everything gundecked; the crap and the important stuff. When it is time to take a proficiency test, his LPO gives him the answers because Chief is on his ass to get his workcenter qualled up!
Now he's fully qualified to operate this piece of gear but has no idea how to actually operate it. And there's 16 more pieces of gear he needs to get qualified to operate. And the quals he's already earned, he needs to requal every year. More gundecking!
And in between earning his work-related qualifications, he has to take CNO-mandated training on sexual assault, alcohol abuse, equal opportunity, suicide awareness, transgender acceptance, hazing, fraternization, social network usage, financial management, sex trafficking, drug abuse, and stress. And he needs college courses. And he needs to sell breakfast burritos to raise money for the Second Class Petty Officer's Association. And he needs to go out and paint orphanages or serve food at a homeless shelter for volunteer hours on his eval.
And he has collateral duties, half of which are total BS eval bullets that have nothing to do with seamanship but they take up a lot of time. And he has programs that are getting audited. That's OK. QA is overwhelmed too so they'll just gundeck everything as well.
And he has to work out. His command no longer PTs as a command in the morning before flight ops. There just isn't time but he still has to pass the PRT so he needs to find his own time to stay in shape.
And he needs to study for advancement.
And he has to stand watch.
And it is getting worse. The Navy is adding more and more tasking to their Sailor's plate and then gundecking all of it because the Sailor can't keep his head above water.
The Navy needs to return to the fundamentals of warfighting and seamanship.
Training ... New skippers no longer go to Newport to learn ship driving but are sent directly to their boat ... If the CO does not know how to drive his boat, what are we to expect from the enlisted?
When I was in, signing off on someone without making sure they knew what it is they are supposed to would get you a Captain’s Mast or worse.
An officer will ask questions to determine in the end if you know what they say you know.
If he finds you don’t, he is going back to those who said he did and they are going to be deep in the bilge.
Maybe this crap flew on a Supply Ship but not the elite Navy Combat Ships.
I last served in 1994 so maybe that has changed, if so the entire command chain needs to be canned for being obvious to their battle readiness.
FUBAR! Larry, Bannon was a Navy man. I’d be curious to know whether the facts Drew68 presents here are known to the CIC and his officers such as Mattis? And whether Bannon has any interest in the current problems of the Navy?
The future of the volunteer Navy requires seamen who find the work challenging and enjoyable, ones who take pride in a job well done. The best and brightest cannot be retained based on what is reported here.
Amen
It is the classic death by a thousand cuts on top of all the PC BS. I deal with environments that have heavily layered workflows to prevent harm to people. There is no such thing as allowing common sense (because it seems to be in such short supply as to be extinct) so everything MUST be spelled out in fine, granular detail.
It makes for wonderful policy and procedure manuals, but the layered workflows don't come for free.
People just assume that you can layer task on top of task on top of task (even with the best of intentions) in order to minimize mistakes, but one can reach the point where sheer bureaucratic weight will drag down efficiency as surely as a millstone around a neck will take that neck to the bottom of the ocean.
Eventually, it will drag down safety as well, since the prevailing thought becomes "Well, aren't there policies and procedures in place to prevent this type of thing?" leading people to become less vigilant.
So, all that you say is true. That is much the same way I have been viewing this. Your last statement needs to be shouted to the Navy:
"...The Navy needs to return to the fundamentals of warfighting and seamanship..."
Is there any news on the missing sailors?
Prayers out for their families.