Looking back...

Admiral Zumwalt is criticized for lots...and so is Admiral Boorda...but how many CNOs does the general public remember?

A post here reminded me that I regularly tell people to read Chapter 6 of Zumwalt's autobiography "On Watch"...and then CDR Salamander posts on diversity that also goes back to "I Like the Cut of His Jib"so I think...maybe it's time to relook at the Z-Grams...

Here's the list (from Navy History):
1. Relieving Admiral Moorer (Zumwalt assumes duties as CNO)
2. Retention Study Groups
3. Cryptographic procedures and Policy
4. 30 days leave authorization for officers receiving Permanent Change of Station orders
5. Civilian clothes aboard ship for First Class Petty Officers on certain ships in Sixth and First fleets
6. Dependent Air Charter Program
7. Navy Sponsor Program
8. Officer Assignment
9. Meritorious advancement in rate of superior performing career Petty Officers
10. Services to crews of transient aircraft
11. Enlisted requests to remain on sea duty
12. Civilian clothing on shore establishments
13. Post-deployment leave policy
14. Collateral duties
15. Statement of earnings (to all Navy members)
16. Swaps (established a centralized and automated exchange of duty program at Bureau of Naval Personnel)
17. Personal check cashing ceilings (increased to $50 per person per day)
18. Navy Finance Center 24-hour service
19. Below-zone percentage limitation suspension (concerning % of officers who could be recommended for promotion)
20. Lockers and washing facilities (for personnel who had to work in dungarees ashore)
21. Compensatory time off
22. Improving shore establishment habitability
23. CPO [Chief Petty Officer] advisory board to CNO
24. Wives ombudsman
25. Forces afloat liberty policy
26. Shore patrol staffing and training
27. Forces afloat operating tempo
28. Retention study group progress report
29. Leave policy for deployed units
30. Commissioned officers open mess
31. TyCom [Type Command] ship handling competition
32. Reenlistment ceremonies
33. Navy exchange and commissary advisory boards
34. Uniform changes
35. BOQ/BEQ conveniences (encouraged installation of beer vending machines in Bachelor Officers Quarters and senior Bachelor Enlisted Quarters)
36. Standards of service
37. Aviation squadron command
38. Holiday routine at sea
39. Extended commissary hours
40. Cash/check option at payday
41. Command excellence forum
42. Junior officer request for sea duty
43. Disbursing claims processing
44. Quarterdeck watches
45. Assistance to POW/MIA [Prisoner of War/Missing in Action] families
46. Refinement of 3-M [Maintenance Material Management] system
47. Responsibility for inactivating ships
48. People programs
49. Medals and awards
50. Cold iron status (to encourage liberal leave and liberty following return of ships from extended assignments)
51. Small craft insignia (new breast insignia)
52. Dissemination of CNO policy
53. Officer billet summary
54. CNO discussions with Navy personnel
55. Human Resource Management
56. Exchange duty for officers
57. Elimination of demeaning or abrasive regulations
58. Acceptance of checks in ships' stores
59. Professional development program
60. Action Line telephone
61. Reassignment of CWO [Communication Watch Officer] and RPS [Registered Publication System] duties
62. CNO senior officer forum
63. ComTac publications aboard ship (reduction of operational publications on board ships, thus reducing administrative workload to make changes to them)
64. Ship conning indication
65. Vietnamization challenge
66. Equal opportunity
67. Command inspection program
68. Civilian clothes aboard ship
69. Command in the grade of captain
70. Grooming and uniform policy
71. Battle streamers for Navy flag
72. Quarterdeck watches
73. Enlisted Vietnam volunteers
74. Preferential housing considerations
75. Sea/shore rotation
76. Outstanding recruiter awards
77. Enlisted blue working uniform
78. Inspection scheduling policy
79. Augmentation into Regular Navy
80. MCPOs on E-8/E-9 selection boards
81. Regular Navy warrant officer program
82. Boards, committees and guidance programs
83. Motor vehicle transportation for forces afloat
84. Copies of fitness reports
85. Legislation status reports
86. CNO scholars program
87. Navy uniform
88. Advances of pay
89. SecNav/CNO fellowship program
90. Responsibility pay for senior Naval advisors in Vietnam
91. Limited duty officer program
92. Civilian clothing aboard ship for nonrated personnel
93. People programs
94. Navy drug exemption/rehabilitation program
95. Master CPO of the command
96. Retention study group schedule
97. ComRats for hospital patients
98. Advance information about new duty stations
99. Officer swords
100. Personnel exchange program
101. Six-day sales operation at designated Navy commissary stores
102. Responsibility for standards of smartness
103. Sailor of the Year award
104. Challenge of 1972
105. Navy drug exemption and rehabilitation program
106. Quarterdeck watch officers
107. CNO Sailor of the Year
108. Continuation beyond 30 years of active service
109. Recruiting
110. Human resources development
111. Southeast Asia build up
112. Collateral duties
113. Career counseling program
114. Ecology spot reports
115. Alcohol and alcoholism among Naval personnel
116. Equal rights and opportunities for women in the Navy
117. Good order and discipline
118. Sea/shore rotation
119. Minority affairs assistance
120. Revised master chief petty officer of the fleet/force/command program
121. CNO change of command remarks

American Girl Dolls

For a decade now, my wife has run Oh, You Beautiful Doll - an internet showcase for American Girl doll clothes. We must now have three dozen of these $100 dolls in the house who serve as models for the doll clothing she sells. And, with two daughters of our own they, of course, must have their own dolls.

A Bitty Baby each. A pair of Bitty Twins...each. And two or three American Girls...each. Which aren't always put away at night. I keep waiting to wake up one morning to a cry of anguish as we discover that our golden retriever has chosen to worry away a leg, or an arm, or a face of vinyl...just to figure out how it feels.

Anyway...one of the spectacular marketing pieces to American Girl is their collection of books and movies. With the weather a bit too hot for spring playtime, youngest daughter V asked to watch "Felicity" yesterday afternoon. And, once I get over the idea of John Schneider as a colonial father, it's a good movie. Just enough colonial politics to give the girls a sense and an idea of what happened then and also helps to reinforce what we are reading at night in the books that the movie is based on.

Time and decision making

"Vacillate" is a word I remember exclusively because of a quote relating to Midway and a Japanese Admiral who could not decide between launching and rearming his aircraft that were refueling on deck. And that inability to make a decision was a pivotal piece in that battle.

Seth Grodin writes about time and decision making. "First rule of decision making: More time does not create better decisions. In fact, it usually decreases the quality of the decision."

He goes on to talk about the potential for needing more information...but that can also lead to a decrease in the quality of the decision - analysis paralysis. I worked for a brief time for a well known and dictatorial Navy Admiral who has now moved on to the political world. He was known for brialliant strategical moves - as well as for a harsh, demanding, and demeaning work ethic. What was little known to those outside his close staff, was a penchant for delaying a decision until after the last minute.

You can get away with that in staff work...doesn't work so well in a car, or on a ship, or in battle.

A good rule of thumb - make a decision. Even if it is the wrong one, you did something. And, if you made the decision early enough, you may be able to monitor the outcome and alter it. If you wait until too late, you may be committed before you get a chance to influence things.

You're nuts if you believe me

Here's a post from Seth Grodin that I wish more remotely located leaders would ascribe to...

"You're nuts if you believe me

I'm the first person to admit that compared to you, I have no idea what I'm talking about. You're there, doing what you do, and doing it with skill.

Let me be really clear: My job is not to tell you what to do. I don't know what to do. You do."

And something I need to remember when I deal with my daughters. No matter how much more experience I have, it's my experience...not theirs.

It's gotta be about you...

So...one more attempt at blogging. Visiting the Army MilBlog Open House with Maggie, and finally coming up with a more holisitic approach to what the blog about I'm launching.

Presentation guru Bert Decker rolled out a classic Seinfeld line in this recent post calling up the "it's not you...it's me" - and then proceeded to tell a story about the instrusion of his 4-year old into his morning time. And I CAN relate. Everything from the extra ten or fifteen minutes I would carve out on the ship between my wakeup call and opening my door to enjoying those nights when one, or both, of the girls choose not to sneak into bed with me and the Wif I understand it when someone, anyone, even Toby Keith, wants it to "be about me".

But...there is a time, and this is what Bert is talking about, when it has to "be about you"...and knowing that, and using that, is what is key.

I had the fortunate misfortune of witnessing the Navy's Public Affairs Officer speak at the aforementioned open house...some of it chronicled at Galrahn's place and more to come later from Maggie - but in the end the good Admiral, through either his own faults or the failings of his staff, walked into a room competely unprepared and then made it about him. About bloggers having to seek him to establish a relationship...and in today's world relationships are not found by sitting around and waiting. They are found by going forward and seeking people out - clearly articulated in an unrelated manner by Lyndy Kyzer as she discussed how she had gone out and found the bloggers present at the open house.

If you want your message to get across you need to know your audience. Learn something about them. Speak to them in their language. But still be yourself.

Just don't reverse the order and stop after the first bullet.