Please try to keep a civil tongue in your head.
I never said that the the CNO, or the head of any other service, was a mere figurehead. I know full well that their job is train and equip forces for the combatant commands. They buy the equipment, recruit the troops, and conduct the training.
You are the one who said the 7th fleet doesn't move without an order from the CNO. In reality, such a movement is an operational matter, not an administrative one. Thus the CNO is not in the chain for movements. He could not prevent the movement. If the CinC PacCom says go, they go, and tell the CNO and others in the administrative chain they've done it. I don't know about such things as uniform of the day, while on operations. I suspect if the combatant commander says it's utilities, whatever that might mean for each service component, the CNO can't countermand and say it's something else. I think he's lose that particular pissing contest.
BTW, were you a National Merit Scholarship recipient? I was.
I also developed the algorithm that, using radar data and "state" information from the aircraft's other systems, flies the F-15E , the F-16, the Army special ops Chinooks and Blackhawks, and the V-22 Osprey Air Force version, at low altitude and high speed, with the pilots "hands off" for the fast movers, and following the cue from the system for the others. How low and how fast, I can't say, but the fast movers would knock you on your ass if they flew directly over you at minimum height and max speed. Come to think of it, the helicopter down wash and Osprey "prop" blast might do it too, especially considering they go even lower.