Junior Officer Failure

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

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.

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

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,

The goal of mentoring in military organizations is to help junior personnel reach their full potential by having senior personnel help develop them, and pass on their practical expertise and professional knowledge to personnel who are committed to advancement and success (United States, 1995). A thriving mentoring program will enhance our overall professionalism and help meet the future needs of our organization. In my current job, I am charged with implementing a mentoring program where officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian employees can pass on not only career development guidance to junior personnel, but also the principles, traditions, shared values, and lessons of our profession.

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.

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.

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

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

The staff is showing signs of burn out due to a demanding work and duty schedule. They also do not get the time to take sufficient leave. The busy training schedule also eliminates time to improve the curriculum. This results in graduating intelligence professionals that are not as effective as they should be. Sending them into the fleet does a disservice to them and the Coast Guard. Since it has been such a rough year the petty officers do not have many positive things to say when prospective instructors call asking about the billet. As the chief, I know it

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

Currently program managers impose upon field commands artificial restrictions to serve in collateral duties. These artificial restrictions can limit the local command’s autonomy to assign the best qualified member to do the job thereby resulting in lower quality performance for that collateral duty. The Coast Guard needs to eliminate artificial restrictions imposed on field commands.

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

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.