A630.1.4.RB_HallMike

If there is one thing the Navy has provided me with, it is a plethora of stories that can be applied to many different situations.  I could probably think about several bridging the gap scenarios that have happened in my short time as an officer; however the first one that comes to mind is how my second CO turned my boat from a good ship into a great one. 

My first ship, the USS ALASKA, was coming out of a refueling when I joined her towards the end of 2008.  It was immediately apparent that the crew was something special – after almost 2 years in the yards, they still had incredible morale and great spirit-de-corps – 2 things not normally found in a boat that had been in dry-dock for that amount of time.  The CO at the time was able to get the ship out of the yards and back to deployments under both time and budget.  He was a great man but he did have some weaknesses, mainly that procedural compliance was not nearly stressed enough.  Following our recertification as a strategic asset, he was relieved by my second CO.  This CO immediately recognized that we did not have near as much experience as we thought we did and demanded (rightfully so) that we will use the procedures during all evolutions.  At first, many old timers on the boat complained about how using the procedures slowed them down while others said it wasn’t required, but anyone that was against the change was wrong.  The first several months of his command was summarized by the struggle to get the entire crew onboard with his message of procedural compliance, but he had a dedicated wardroom and chiefs mess that was ready to enforce the standard.  Eventually, using the procedure turned into second nature for the crew.

The results of this were amazing.  First off, the vast majority of the crew had a drastic increase in knowledge of the boat.  This was due to the residual effect of reading the procedure.  Secondly, and most importantly, we cut down on our mistakes and went about our business knowing that rework would be limited to unexpected outcomes of procedures (as it turns out the guys that wrote the proverbial “book” really do know what they are doing).  Inspection after inspection commented on how judicial we were with our procedures.  First, some divisions won squadron awards; the next year the boat won the battle “E”; and just last year the ALASKA was awarded the Omaha Trophy as the best strategic asset in the fleet – the apex of the community.  I truly believe that this can all be traced to the gap between not always using the procedure and using the procedure.  We had pessimists and pragmatists that said it couldn’t or shouldn’t be done, but in the end the CO with his vision and his senior leadership bridging the gap, we were able to turn the boat around into the envy of the fleet.