The huge changes to Navy careers that MCPON wants

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. – What if sailors could be advanced immediately to openings based on their performance — no test needed — and could broaden their skills across multiple ratings, earning coveted certifications that will better set them up for high-paying jobs after the Navy?

Those are some of the implications of the sea change that the Navy's top enlisted is proposing in what could become the most radical enlisted personnel overhaul in decades. A system that widens sailors' experience, allows for more predictable advancement and that deep-sixes hidebound career tracks and promotion systems.

The changes are aimed to persuade mid-career sailors like Engineman 1st Class (SW) Mark Santos to stay in. Santos, who only has seven years until earning a Navy retirement, says he's hanging it up — simply because the Navy is holding him back.
“I’m tired of being pigeon-holed as we are in the EN rating,” said Santos in a June 14 interview. “The only place we can go to sea now are amphibs, unless we want to be stuck in a carrier reactor department. There just isn’t enough opportunity in the Navy to expand.”

Navy enginemen, he continued, aren’t allowed to do related engineering jobs like electrical work or air conditioning and refrigeration repair. Santos says he's planning to get out in August and work for a tug company as a civilian marine engineer to do more engineering work and earn Coast Guard certifications.
Losing sailors because they feel limited isn’t something that sits well with Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens, who is proposing radical changes to enlisted advancement and careers. The proposal would breakdown the historic rigidity of the Navy's roughly 90 ratings in favor of broadening sailors' skills and rewarding the best with coveted qualifications and immediate promotion.

“I’m convinced, with the sailors we have today, that these people have a lot more capacity than we’re using” Stevens told hundreds of sailors at a June 14 all hands call at Naval Station Norfolk. “Most of you in here can do more than one thing — some of you have the skills to go do more things, but it’s in reach of all of you if we provide you the right training at the right time and at the right level."
His push takes a page from the small crews of littoral combat ships, where cross-training is essential and sailors are paid for any special pays they qualify for, whether or not they're in that rating. This new direction has emerged out of the controversial gender-neutral review that Stevens has led into job titles.

Stevens detailed the radical new plan for an hour at the all hands call, with many excited about the possibilities. His radical vision:


•New advancement system. Scrap the semi-annual advancement exam, replace it with one that ranks sailors on their accomplishments and job performance.
•Build your skills. Expand beyond your rating to gain skills and specialties that belong to other communities.
•More choices. Sailors qualified in multiple ratings will be allowed to take orders in any occupation they qualify in — exponentially increasing the number of jobs and duty stations they're eligible for.


•Better credentials. Re-align occupations so separating sailors are better prepared for civilian jobs.

The Navy's personnel boss said the recommendations of the second review, ordered in June, are likely to be far reaching.

"As the Navy implements several personnel policy changes as part of our Sailor 2025 program, we expect the results of this review to go well beyond 'new names' for existing rates, and ultimately allow more flexibility in detailing Sailors, provide greater training and credentialing opportunities, and help Sailors become more marketable to civilian employers once they leave the service," Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke said in a statement.

"We envision a point where some combinations of today's rates, with similar training and experience, can quickly and easily cross into the occupations of other similar rates with a limited amount of additional training or experience," Burke continued. "This has the potential to enhance career flexibility and detailing options for our Sailors, while also improving 'fit' — our ability to get the right Sailors with the right skills into the right billets across the Fleet."

'The hardest road'

The idea of this total rework grew out of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' mandate to the Navy and Marine Corps in January: Review all the job titles and make them gender neutral wherever possible.

Stevens volunteered to lead the effort, saying it was an enlisted issue and his responsibility.

He quickly put together a working group of force master chiefs, community experts encompassing every Navy career field.

Stevens brought these leaders to Washington D.C. and told them that this would be a wide-ranging review of the Navy’s enlisted occupational structure. He wanted ideas to improve the tradition-clad system — not just suggestions on removing the word "man" from job titles and rating names. As many as 21 job titles and specialties use the word "man," a holdover that some like Mabus say makes the service less appealing and friendly to women. The review is considering axing newer titles like aircrew survival equipmentman, as well as timeless ones such as corpsman and yeoman — even seaman.

“For a week, they worked at that and gave us a whole list of recommendations,” Stevens said, who explained Mabus had opened the door to ideas, no matter how far-reaching they seemed.

“I decided if he was going to open up the door a bit, let’s kick it off the hinges,” Stevens said. “This is an opportunity to listen to your sailors and to go out and maybe do something that will eventually put us in a much better place.“

In June, Stevens briefed Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Burke on these radical ideas. They liked the proposals, Stevens said. A second review is looking at ways to implement these personnel reforms and then to adjust job titles accordingly, a process likely to take a few months.

“The chief of naval personnel ... will soon assemble a working group and by early fall, they’re going to deliver a product that’s going to tell us how we get to the place I just described to you," Stevens said.

If the Navy opts for the changes still taking shape, then it will be months and years to implement them. Stevens said sailors stood to gain a lot. .

“Arguably leadership picked the hardest road to start to go down,” Stevens said. “But at the end, it’s the option that potentially gives the Navy and its sailors the most benefit.”