Latest Surface Navy Sleep Policy Aims for Better-Rested, More Alert, Healthier Crews

U.S. Naval Institute ^ | January 29, 2022 | Gidget Fuentes

[Retain Mike]

Surface warfare reforms crafted to improve mariner skills and manage demand for ships are trickling into the fleet five years after two fatal collisions in the Western Pacific forced the Navy to retool how the service trains the surface fleet.

Multiple investigations and criminal prosecutions found that basic failures in seamanship and ship handling led to the June 17, 2017, early morning collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan. Seven sailors died.

Two months later, a misunderstanding of a newly installed throttle control system led to USS John McCain (DDG-56) drifting out of a ship separation scheme outside of Singapore and colliding with merchant tanker Alnic MC. Ten sailors died.

[Night Hides Not]

16 hr shifts were not uncommon to me

My first two years in Germany were spent at Hahn AB. During AF alerts, I would be down in the hole for the duration of the alert, usually 4 days.

After the first one, I had my "alert bag" ready: 3 sets of fatigues, shaving kit, underwear, etc. I was one of two officers with the requisite clearance for entrance to the Wing CP. The other was the Battery Commander, he needed to be running the battery.

30 minutes into my first alert, it was made clear by the Wing Cdr that I would not leave...lol, I recommended a lower alert stance after the Wing Disaster Preparedness officer panicked during an NBC alert. After I gave my reasons for alarm yellow instead of alarm red, the Wing Cdr said, "I like that LT, alarm yellow," as the NATO Chief Evaluator was nodding his head.

15 minutes later, the Wing Cdr's voice boomed from the Eagles Nest, "as long as I'm in command, every time we get an NBC input, I want that Army Lieutenant up here."

I'd catch a couple of catnaps during the night, it was no big deal, I was 23 YO, used to pulling all nighters in college.

During training exercises, I rarely slept, that's just how it was. No way could I do that today.

It was a bit humorous to hear the zoomies griping about a 12 hour shift.

[Night Hides Not]

I'll say this for the AF: y'all take far better care of your servicemembers than any other branch. My 4 years in Germany were spent at Hahn AB and Spangdahlem AB.

If we had an underperforming soldier in my platoon(s), I gave them a choice: get your stuff together and continue having your omelets made to order, or I'll ship you off to our sister battalion, who was attached to the Big Red One, and you'll do 8 months out of the year in the red mud at Grafenwoehr.

It was pretty effective, lol.

[EEGator]

I was stationed in Cocoa Beach. It was hard, but somebody had to do it.

[M Kehoe]

“...who was attached to the Big Red One, and you’ll do 8 months out of the year in the red mud at Grafenwoehr.”

That mud would suck your jump boots right off your feet.

5.56mm

[Night Hides Not]

Right out of Once an Eagle: the Courtney Massengales are running off the Sam Damons.

I had a couple of REMFs write me efficiency reports that made sure I'd never make Major. Boy, they thought they had me over a barrel, and I just laughed. Once I got my Battery Command, that was the end of the line for me: I just wanted to meet that challenge of commanding a battery. Thirty days before the change of command, I tendered my resignation. For me, it was the ultimate FU to my Battalion Commander.

On the metrics I could be evaluated on as a HQ Battery Cdr, they were damn good: CG's Best Mess, 98.5% pass rate on the PT test, nothing but praise from the five Colonels that headed directorates at Fort Bliss. I had their soldiers for an hour a day, for PT. Of course, I was the one leading it every day.

My problem was I wasn't married, so I didn't have a wife that went shopping with the Battalion Cdr's wife. That was old school Army, all the way back to pre Civil War.

It shocked those Colonels when they heard I was getting out. They raised enough hell with the CG that my Battalion Cdr wasn't recommended for the Army War College. He retired a Colonel, never recommended for a star.

No regrets, the Army treated me very well. Oh I caught a lot of flak for flunking my first ARTEP as a butterbar. I saw how the game was played, and ran with it. Took 3 more platoons through ARTEPs, before getting kicked upstairs to Battalion HQ.

I'm big on leadership, especially coming down hard on Platoon Leaders who pulled stupid stuff, like missing a mission time by 30 minutes. There were NCOs depending on us to do our jobs, and I made sure those platoon leaders were effectively "counselled" on how to do their jobs.

The fact that no one was relieved for that debacle in Afghanistan sent a simple, possibly deadly message: we're screwed.

Lastly, I felt the entire chain of command should have been relieved after our National Guard soldier drowned in the Rio Grande. Lack of equipment, with no rules of engagement, told me the wrong people were in that job. Anyone with a lick of sense knows you don't leave the river bank without a flotation device. As a result, one of your soldiers died needlessly.

[Night Hides Not]

I was stationed in Cocoa Beach. It was hard, but somebody had to do it.

I lived in a small town on the Mosel River for 4 years. My weekends during the summer were spent traveling up and down the river, looking for a winefest. I discovered that Monday nights were the best nights, as the tourists were gone, and the townsfolk let their hair down.

First thing Tuesday morning, I'd be in the Battalion Cdr's office giving him an after action report. If my skin was pale from the previous night's fest, that's where he wanted to take his wife the next weekend.

I loved my time in Germany, great experiences, tons of stories interesting only to myself.

[Mariner]

Carriers and Q squadrons.

Sea time.

VQ1? Agana.
I was VQ3 for a while, airborne communicator.

[Night Hides Not]

Closest I got to Graf was Vilseck, for the "gentlemen's courses". That first one on NBC Warfare was excellent, to the point that I was the point man for NBC inputs during Air Force tac evals...it wasn't that difficult.

Those experiences also got me to Oberammergau for a week, to attend the NATO NBC Warfare School. I'll never forget that!

[joe fonebone]

I was with VAQ-133...

[M Kehoe]

The cold and snow were brutal. Especially for a Florida boy.

I always asked myself, why didn’t they do REFORGER in the summer?

5.56mm

[rlmorel]

"...Right out of Once an Eagle: the Courtney Massengales are running off the Sam Damons..."

Yes. One of my favorite books...when my wife started painting, she did this primitive one of my favorite books some years back:

Thank you for your service, FRiend.

I agree 100% with your sentiments, and I admire your gumption in having it in you to flip them the bird. That is called walking the walk, and talking the talk. I respect that greatly. I have been in discussion with some veterans, and that Afghanistan debacle really hurt some of them to the core. Brought back memories for some, and not good ones. I know at least one who was visibly angry about it. I am not of that era, but it isn't hard for me to understand it completely.

Leadership is a real, tangible thing. And it is rarely practiced outside the military, and now, even in the military it is eroded IMO.

Anyway, I appreciated your reference to the book. I think of it often in my world now. Particularly the part where his wife convinces him to go spend a few weeks at a rich industrialist's estate, and he just watches these guys hobnob, and observes that, even though there are no insignia on the collars or stripes on the sleeves, they have their rank, file, and pecking order as well.

And how they all condescended to him because he was "military". Only losers were lifers in the military, and he was "wasting his talent" there. They didn't say it. But they didn't have to. And I love how they threw down the gauntlet with the company's marshalling yard with all their goods completely mixed up with no inventory or tracking, and he just went in, read the lay of the land, saw the fat loser in charge, and dealt with him, fixing the problem in the process. I have never been in the infantry or combat, but I get the impression that men who are learn how to evaluate people and read them. And they learn to do it quickly and accurately on the fly, because lives often depend on it.

That was what Sam Damon did there, as an effective leader. Read the people there, figured out who was who, zoned right in on the lazy pig guarding his fiefdom, and figured out immediately what made him tick and how to make him fall in line.

Just wow. How often I have wished I had that capability, but I don't really. And that is why good leaders make all the difference in the world, especially in the military, and particularly...in combat.

[A Navy Vet]

"I did 103 consecutive days at sea in the Arabian Sea on USS Tarawa...got the two beers."

IIRC, I'm was on my first ship (LPH-11) and first cruise, we spent 90 days or so at sea in 1976. We also got the beers :). It turned out to be a 10 month deployment with few ports o call.
Being at the end of VN and many ships being sent home, we had to pick up much of the slack to continue to receive evacuees and body bags. It was a learning experience to say the least.

[A Navy Vet]

"But, what the hell else did I have to do but write letters and read?"

Yes, mail call was a big deal. Modern sailors now have satellite phones and internet connections on board. They can talk to their families in real time. That has to be a big morale booster, as I'm sure it is for grunts in country.

[Mr Rogers]

“We only had 12’s at 4 on 3 off, 3 on 4 off. USAF.”

I worked 12 hour days as my normal work shift most of my career. Near the end I had a desk job and stopped 12 hour shifts. But for most of my career, it was 12 hours a day 5 days a week. When deployed, 7 days a week. USAF.

[EEGator]

I had a nerd job.

[rlmorel]

I used to nearly salivate with anticipation when I heard “COD INBOUND” over the 1MC on the flight deck...I was an inveterate letter writer. I would write 10 or 15 letters at a sitting, and long ones, too. I had a case with stamps, envelopes, my address book (a real “black book”) and all that stuff.

I was told if you don’t write, you won’t get, so...I wrote!

[A Navy Vet]

I don't remember COD INBOUND. It was just simple "mail call" on the 1MC. Those who could would line up at the Post Office and see if we got any. Letters from my Wife were the high-light of my day. Of course, it all depended on underway replenishment IF we got any mail.

Sometimes it would be weeks to get an incoming letter. So, the time frame of sending one out and getting an answer letter could be over a month. It was difficult to keep the timeline straight since we would write about different stuff.

I'm glad sailors now have satellite phone and internet connections aboard. Must be a huge relief to talk to their families in real time. Later.

[A Navy Vet]

Thanks for the diagram. I forgot the initial cook off came from the other side of the deck. That’s a saver.

[rlmorel]

You bet, shipmate! (They didn’t say it over the 1MC (my error) it was the flight deck announcement system such as “Corair 307 Inbound or something like that, IIRC)