Junior Officer Failure

After the Vietnam War ended, the Marine Corps’ main focus changed from broad scale operations, to being an Expeditionary Force in Readiness. Although this was no new role for the United States Marine Corps (USMC), there have been many changes in society, technology and tactics that affect how the Corps operates. However, over the last 36 years one thing has remained the same, and that is the role of the Marine Non Commissioned Officer (NCO). With the world changing ever so rapidly, the strong values and responsibilities of the Marine NCO are now, more than ever, necessary to carry out the operations being assigned to United States Marines. The role of the NCO is characterized by their

But there is one simple way to fix that problem that a lot of us lower enlisted seem to have. If the person you are about to talk to is not your chief or one of the other chiefs in your platoon. Do not talk to them unless they speak to you first. And all you really need to say to them is check, roger, hooah. In the past year and three months, I have had a lot of trouble realizing this. I tend to do the wrong thing and go talk to who I need to talk to without going about it the right way. If you want to talk to your commander, you need to talk to you chief, then your platoon sergeant, then your first sergeant, then you can talk to your commander. This may seem like a lot of work. But in all actuality if the problem that you have is able to be fixed beforehand, then it was all worth the work. Yes there are going to be situations when you know that it can only be fixed by talking to the highest person in the chain of command, but the chain of command needs to know what is going on so that they can try to help you and explain the situation to the next person up. Before I realized that the chain of command is here for the soldier, I always thought that it was just so that your chief and your platoon sergeant do not look bad to the person above them. In some cases this may be slightly true, but it is not just about that. It is about helping you out as much as possible. Help yourself by going through the chain of command. There is no reason for you to

2. Over the last several years, we have seen a move in the Coast Guard’s Senior Enlisted Leadership Roles from that of a technical expert to a leader who monitors, manages, and evaluates the readiness of their members to include training to meet Core Competencies. They ensure that their unit maintains 100% mobilization readiness at all times. This is evidenced by the implementation of the Senior Enlisted Reserve Advisor (SERA) billets. According to

A more approachable Senior Enlisted Leader is needed in the Coast Guard. The following is a common story for junior enlisted 15+ years ago when the title of Command Chief was Command Enlisted Advisor. An FS3 was serving on CGC Munro when his father fell off a water tank and was placed in intensive care. The Munro went underway to Japan. The FS3 was sent temporally to TRACEN Petaluma to take care of his father. While at Petaluma the FS3 found out he was not eligible to advance due an administrative over sight.

In his current position, Trevor’s primary responsibility is to train officers along with enlisted members of the Coast Guard at Training Center Yorktown on policies and procedures pertaining to the execution of the Coast Guard’s marine safety mission. As the Senior Chief responsible for the training and development of all Coast Guard waterway managers,

1. Senior Enlisted Reserve Advisors (SERA) do not have enough drill time to be responsive to the readiness needs of the reserve force. In between duty weekends many reserve related matters need attention in order to maintain reserve readiness. These matters vary from meeting with the Officer in Charge to working with a sector yeoman on a reenlistment. During the week a SERA may need to coordinate with the unit training officer to verify training activities or check in with a reserve member to make sure they’re studying for a board. The issue is that SERAs spend a significant amount of time in between drill weekends tending to the needs of the reserve program. The Coast Guard should consider offering SERAs additional compensation or drill time so they can more effectively manage reserve readiness.

7. One may argue that new enlistees in the Coast Guard have a purpose and know what they want to do, but the facts that are presented are the Coast Guard is 3500 people short at the non-rate level. We are accepting everyone who walks through our recruiting doors, and still can fill our personnel gap. The US economy is struggling so new recruits’ do not have the exposure required to make an educated decision on a career path. The Coast Guard will make more efficient Petty Officers as long as future goals of its service align with the future goals of the

Mentorship - Severing as LPO IS1 Bush spends time every drill weekend mentoring junior sailors by forwarding the POM in advance to make sure every sailor is better prepared for each DWE. He has guided sailors on how to manage their own careers by showing them how to create and organize a career binder separated by orders, evaluations, orders and awards. He educates unit members on how to best manager their careers by introducing them to all-in-one online reserve resources, and takes time to mentor each of his subordinates on establishing effect evaluation bullet points so to helps draft the possible yearly evaluations.

Petty Officer Bailey demonstrated to be an outstanding team leader consistently promoting a team effort and worked effectively with his co-workers and other divisions. As the Pollution Incident Response course manager he expertly managed the preparations and execution of 02 Pollution Incident Response courses including the coordination with Boat Forces during the boom deployment exercises. He demonstrated a can do attitude while assisting his peers with the delivery and execution of Facility Inspector, Waterways Management, Explosive Handling Supervisor courses and supporting the International Maritime Officer Courses during the Marine Safety week. As a member of the Senior Management workgroup team, Petty Officer Bailey assisted with the

As part of leadership, the mentoring program must be implemented across the squadron as a great tool to counsel, coach, look after the welfare of, and ensure Marines accomplish the mission in support of commander’s vision and expectations of teamwork, leadership, and communication. Also, a Values-Based Leadership Integration (VBLI) program will be incorporated into small-unit leadership. The VBLI is a good tool in that it improves communication skills of each Marine during a guided discussion as well as builds and sustains trust and loyalty between subordinates and leaders. Overall, making ever Marine relate better to the commander’s vision and expectations.

Membership to the Boat Forces Advisory Council will allow me an opportunity to assist in shaping the Boat Forces community and to provide insight to a consistently evolving mission. I feel the Coast Guard forms policy and procedures based off of operational, ‘deck plate’ level feedback and insight. My operational background and experience on several different platforms as well as the collateral duties I have held have provided me with experience and insight that I believe would be beneficial to senior leadership. This opportunity provides me an avenue to ensure future boat operators are not subjected to unnecessary risk by helping to shape and improve the current standards. I feel I have insight and experience to offer the Boat Forces Advisory

Audit Recommendation #3 --- (8th STB) direct watercraft units to train for their mission-essential tasks by having vessel masters:

This is not so much the junior member’s fault but more so a failure by their direct supervisors and commands to actively engage and mentor the junior member. Amplifying factors include geographical separation from supervisors, a lack of concurrent drilling schedules, and no defined training plan. This could be alleviated by having a quarterly, centrally located alternate-drill site, perhaps the AORs largest ESD or BASE, where reserve members could drill together and pursue planned training goals in order to maintain and develop proficiency within their respective

This follows the "Semper Paratus” motto that each Coast Guard personnel live by. This is, as stated above, the responsibility of the Machinery Technicians. While the vital assets require funds to be put into service to begin with, there is also a required funding to ensure that they are maintained. It is not clear as to which other source of the perceived rightful program is in fact an extraneous drain of the limited sources of funding from the Federal government these days. It can be unequivocally stated the budget cuts cannot be done at the level that would endanger the safety of this great nation. The position of MKC is essential in this process in that they are proving themselves to be a worthwhile investment, both long and short term. The many concerns from a capital allocation perspective seems to only observe a monetary outlay must now see the new Coast Guard Strategy, one they have termed “Human Capital”. In the document released by Admiral Paul F, Zukunft, Commandant, he states “The Human Capital Strategy underscores the critical nature of the unit-level leadership in developing the workforce of

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate what I learned about mission command and reflect on how I will use the philosophy and concepts of mission command in my future duty assignment following graduation from the Sergeants Major Course. Although mission command is commander centric, noncommissioned officers (NCO’s) play a dynamic role in facilitating it.