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Sub School Trying To Get Ahead Of Sailors' Personal Problems
Program could expand even to other services
By Jennifer Grogan Published on 2/4/2008
The Day
Groton — A sailor recently arrived at the Naval Submarine School with traffic violations on his record and debt collectors on his tail.
If he had arrived months earlier, chances are his superiors would not have intervened unless he got into trouble while enrolled at the school.
But for the past few months the sub school has been one of six Navy commands trying out a new system to get senior non-commissioned officers — chiefs — more involved with sailors who have minor behavioral issues or who could be prone to problems later on.
There will be about 14,000 fewer sailors in this fiscal year than last, as the Navy downsizes and decommissions ships. Thousands of sailors are serving away from the fleet, in individual assignments with ground forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We don't have any sailors to spare,†Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Joe R. Campa Jr. said in a recent interview. “We invest a lot of time, money and effort to train sailors, and we have to make sure that sailor is going to stick around so we can leverage that investment.â€
So the Navy has been piloting this project with the Chiefs' Standards and Conduct Board to see whether early, more structured intervention can avoid larger problems later. The pilot project wrapped up on Friday.
When the submarine school sailor who owed the money went before the board, he revealed that he was in the middle of a contentious divorce and about to go even further into debt. Heavy debt can end a career in the submarine force because it is grounds to remove a security clearance, which everyone serving on a submarine must have.
“This sailor's life was about to be completely out of control, beyond his ability to handle, and we were right there to say, 'Wow, thank God we looked, and what can we do to get this on track?' †Naval Submarine School Command Master Chief Wesley K. Koshoffer said.
The board assigned the sailor a mentor, gave him financial counseling, and brought him to the legal department to ask questions about divorce proceedings.
Sailors are not always forthcoming about their personal problems, Koshoffer said, because “it's counterintuitive that your boss wants to know how screwed up your life is.â€
Campa, the most senior enlisted member in the Navy, said there is a good chance that a version of the board will be used on a wider scale.
“We want to make sure we are setting up our sailors for success and being preventative in our approach instead of reactionary,†he said. “If we don't do these things to intervene, then we are not as engaged as we should be.â€
Up until now, a sailor who committed an offense not serious enough for a court-martial, like disorderly conduct, underage drinking or an unauthorized absence, could appear before a group of chiefs at a disciplinary review board.
Typically, chiefs would review the case and decide whether the command's leaders should also get involved. The commanding officer can impose fines, restriction or extra duties. The goal is to fix the problem and get the sailor back to work — unlike a court-martial, which often results in a discharge from the Navy.
With the new board, chiefs still review sailors' cases, but they also bring sailors in to talk about their problems.
“Folks join the Navy to succeed, and we don't want to hold past mistakes against them because they want to start fresh,†Campa said. “But we'd be foolish to ignore that stuff, too.â€
The U.S. Naval Submarine School in Groton reviews sailors' records so they can obtain security clearances. Koshoffer now uses that information — traffic violations, any minor criminal activity and financial issues — to decide whether the sailor should meet with the board.
Speeding and parking tickets alone do not necessarily indicate that a sailor would get into trouble later on, Koshoffer said. But he said the chiefs must get involved if a sailor has any past alcohol-related incidents, criminal offenses or unmanageable debt.
The pilot project authorized chiefs to allow sailors to admit mistakes without a visit to the commander, under “voluntary diversion.†Sailors can volunteer to give up their liberty privileges for up to two weeks, perform community service or suggest another way to acknowledge their wrongdoing.
About 1,200 brand-new sailors attend the sub school. Of those, about 10 per week met with the board. They were about evenly divided among those who would be sent to the commander, those talking to chiefs about lesser problems, and those flagged during the records review.
“The best possible thing you could do is to look at the sailors you're getting into your organization, look closely and try to find those risk factors,†Koshoffer said.
•••••
Fleet Master Chief Rick West says that any sailor has the potential to one day take his place as the senior enlisted person for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
“If we can put them on the path to be one of our reliefs, and to be honest with you, to be successful in life, then we've done something good not only for the Navy but also for society,†West said.
The way to make change, he said, is to get ahead of the problem.
Fleet Master Chief Tom Howard, the senior enlisted person for U.S. Pacific Fleet, said the Navy is not changing its practices because of an increase in misconduct. The number of incidents has stayed relatively constant, he said, but that is not good enough.
So far, sailors are responding well to the new system, and they appreciate the chiefs' concern, Campa said.
“Certainly, it gets their attention,†he said.
Koshoffer said he plans to report the pilot program as “a win across the board.â€
“Sailors are proud, and they often suffer in silence. They think that it will impact their career if they burden my command with this information,†he said. “But that's not the case.â€
He said it would be hard to find a problem that the Navy does not have a program for.
“If we can fix the issues here while they are still in training, when the sailor does arrive at the unit on arduous sea duty, he is able to focus on the mission at hand and the leadership can focus on the mission at hand,†he said.
Program could expand even to other services
By Jennifer Grogan Published on 2/4/2008
The Day
Groton — A sailor recently arrived at the Naval Submarine School with traffic violations on his record and debt collectors on his tail.
If he had arrived months earlier, chances are his superiors would not have intervened unless he got into trouble while enrolled at the school.
But for the past few months the sub school has been one of six Navy commands trying out a new system to get senior non-commissioned officers — chiefs — more involved with sailors who have minor behavioral issues or who could be prone to problems later on.
There will be about 14,000 fewer sailors in this fiscal year than last, as the Navy downsizes and decommissions ships. Thousands of sailors are serving away from the fleet, in individual assignments with ground forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We don't have any sailors to spare,†Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Joe R. Campa Jr. said in a recent interview. “We invest a lot of time, money and effort to train sailors, and we have to make sure that sailor is going to stick around so we can leverage that investment.â€
So the Navy has been piloting this project with the Chiefs' Standards and Conduct Board to see whether early, more structured intervention can avoid larger problems later. The pilot project wrapped up on Friday.
When the submarine school sailor who owed the money went before the board, he revealed that he was in the middle of a contentious divorce and about to go even further into debt. Heavy debt can end a career in the submarine force because it is grounds to remove a security clearance, which everyone serving on a submarine must have.
“This sailor's life was about to be completely out of control, beyond his ability to handle, and we were right there to say, 'Wow, thank God we looked, and what can we do to get this on track?' †Naval Submarine School Command Master Chief Wesley K. Koshoffer said.
The board assigned the sailor a mentor, gave him financial counseling, and brought him to the legal department to ask questions about divorce proceedings.
Sailors are not always forthcoming about their personal problems, Koshoffer said, because “it's counterintuitive that your boss wants to know how screwed up your life is.â€
Campa, the most senior enlisted member in the Navy, said there is a good chance that a version of the board will be used on a wider scale.
“We want to make sure we are setting up our sailors for success and being preventative in our approach instead of reactionary,†he said. “If we don't do these things to intervene, then we are not as engaged as we should be.â€
Up until now, a sailor who committed an offense not serious enough for a court-martial, like disorderly conduct, underage drinking or an unauthorized absence, could appear before a group of chiefs at a disciplinary review board.
Typically, chiefs would review the case and decide whether the command's leaders should also get involved. The commanding officer can impose fines, restriction or extra duties. The goal is to fix the problem and get the sailor back to work — unlike a court-martial, which often results in a discharge from the Navy.
With the new board, chiefs still review sailors' cases, but they also bring sailors in to talk about their problems.
“Folks join the Navy to succeed, and we don't want to hold past mistakes against them because they want to start fresh,†Campa said. “But we'd be foolish to ignore that stuff, too.â€
The U.S. Naval Submarine School in Groton reviews sailors' records so they can obtain security clearances. Koshoffer now uses that information — traffic violations, any minor criminal activity and financial issues — to decide whether the sailor should meet with the board.
Speeding and parking tickets alone do not necessarily indicate that a sailor would get into trouble later on, Koshoffer said. But he said the chiefs must get involved if a sailor has any past alcohol-related incidents, criminal offenses or unmanageable debt.
The pilot project authorized chiefs to allow sailors to admit mistakes without a visit to the commander, under “voluntary diversion.†Sailors can volunteer to give up their liberty privileges for up to two weeks, perform community service or suggest another way to acknowledge their wrongdoing.
About 1,200 brand-new sailors attend the sub school. Of those, about 10 per week met with the board. They were about evenly divided among those who would be sent to the commander, those talking to chiefs about lesser problems, and those flagged during the records review.
“The best possible thing you could do is to look at the sailors you're getting into your organization, look closely and try to find those risk factors,†Koshoffer said.
•••••
Fleet Master Chief Rick West says that any sailor has the potential to one day take his place as the senior enlisted person for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
“If we can put them on the path to be one of our reliefs, and to be honest with you, to be successful in life, then we've done something good not only for the Navy but also for society,†West said.
The way to make change, he said, is to get ahead of the problem.
Fleet Master Chief Tom Howard, the senior enlisted person for U.S. Pacific Fleet, said the Navy is not changing its practices because of an increase in misconduct. The number of incidents has stayed relatively constant, he said, but that is not good enough.
So far, sailors are responding well to the new system, and they appreciate the chiefs' concern, Campa said.
“Certainly, it gets their attention,†he said.
Koshoffer said he plans to report the pilot program as “a win across the board.â€
“Sailors are proud, and they often suffer in silence. They think that it will impact their career if they burden my command with this information,†he said. “But that's not the case.â€
He said it would be hard to find a problem that the Navy does not have a program for.
“If we can fix the issues here while they are still in training, when the sailor does arrive at the unit on arduous sea duty, he is able to focus on the mission at hand and the leadership can focus on the mission at hand,†he said.