For the junior Navy out there - what do you think of your command's mentorship program? What do you wish your leaders would do differently?

That's my take on it. People design programs instead of hold people accountable to be the leaders they were intended to be. It shouldn't be a Mentorship Program that mentors Sailors - and usually isn't. The most active I've seen a Mentorship Program aside from one command where I think we had it right was the months of July through October when folks were scrambling for eval bullets. I also have seen those misguided youth who felt it was a way to circumvent their chain of command.

However, let me ask you this: When a program has been implemented - and people openly balk at it, for example, like the CPO 365 which has been the subject of a lot of criticism - what message is being related to the junior enlisted? I don't know about your experiences, but I've seen plenty of times where private CPO Mess discussions were leaked to the junior folk and at the assumption of disunity it would minimize the effectiveness of something mandated to us from higher up. Do you think that many of these programs - such as CPO 365 are directed as a result to correct inconsistency and have intentions (key word - intentions) of making things better?

I'm retired and don't have a dog in this hunt any longer. I ask these questions to make others think about the situation. It's that "Even-numbered Chief" thing.

I don't think that it was a formal program that got me where I wanted to go as a junior, then senior enlisted. It was my personal drive and willingness to seek the answers to my questions, to qualify for positions of increased responsibility - and the eye of the CPOs who saw the potential that got me there. (Don't forget the sage patience that they had in not killing me when I'm sure they wanted to when I was green and inexperienced).

I feel that CPO 365 was developed because we needed consistency and - let's be honest - if the CPO Season of Pride/Transition/Initiation/Phase Two was the first time someone learned about leadership they were destined to fail and make fools of us all. Then their was the incidences that made allegations of hazing front page news. It wasn't the FCPOA that created CPO 365. It was MCPON West and his "Leadership Mess" as a course correction and a way to convince higher ups that we need a valid CPO transition.

I don't know how many times from the voice of a trusted MCPO have I heard how close we have been to watching it all get thrown away because to the eyes of the flag officers and the other unknowing folk out there it appeared we were hazing junior folks. When I left my last command I told them I foresee it all going away within 10 years if the trends continue - I hope I'm wrong. My most memorable time in my 22 years was July-September 2005 when the SLUG PO1 that I started off as became Chief and then through the first year learned through trial and error what that entailed and what that meant. I don't think a program can accomplish that because it assumes that one size fits all, which isn't the case.

CPO-365 was designed because the CNO directed the MCPON West to either fix it or shut the whole thing down. I think we are at no more than 5, possibly less than 3 years away from the whole thing being shut down right now, unless we get another Joe Campa -- which won't happen because there aren't any more in the extremely insular community from which the MCPON must now be chosen. They learned their lesson and fixed the problem.

I think the concept of a mentorship "program" that involves paperwork and books is flawed. Now -- the Navy doesn't actually mandate that the program has to be that way -- they simply mandate that there must be a program in place. So it can be done in many ways, and I think many of them would be good -- like the simple direction that every Sailor is being mentored by their immediate supervisor. I'm sure there are others -- I'm not the smartest guy in the room, I just know at least some of what works, and almost every single FCPO who has ever worked for me is wearing Anchors or bars right now.

I'm sure that all of these programs come about because someone wants to make things better, it's often the execution that is lacking, and sometimes the fact that the people who come up with the ideas haven't set foot on the deckplates in two decades in some cases. That's an institutional problem I don't know how to fix.

I made Chief in 2004, and that July-September was the most difficult evolution I'd gone through at that point -- but it molded me and taught me what I needed to know to carry me through the next 11 years. What we went through simply doesn't and can't exist anymore.

All the roads to hell were paved with good intentions...or so I've been told...