 Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us for a special edition of Conversations with a Shipmate. Today I'm here with the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert in Joint Region Marianas Naval Base Guam. How are you doing this morning? Doing great, half a day as they say, right? That's right, half a day. And you're here with this beautiful weather. We had the cold front coming in, so now it's 75 degrees and you came just in time. We should make it clear, a cold front is good in Guam. It is, very good. Not like what's happening in the rest of the state. Everybody's under snow. Today we'd like to discuss a pressing topic in the Navy and that's ethics and integrity. This week before you left Washington we all saw you discuss the recent allegations surrounding cheating at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion School. What's the significance of these allegations to you? Well the significance is if we're talking about cheating, we're talking about trust. The foundation, the very foundation of what we do in the Navy and really in the military but certainly in the Navy is trust. Trust in each other. The fact that we can trust what you say to me. The fact that you can trust that I will do what I say I'm going to do and what I'm responsible to do. So try and imagine you're on an aircraft carrier waiting to launch and go from 0 to 165 miles an hour in a few seconds and you have a wonder of trust. Imagine submerging a submarine and you're not sure you can trust that all of the rig for a dive was done. You see where this is going. Trust is the foundation and so this is very serious that we trust each other. If there's cheating there can't be trust and so we've got to sustain and retain that. So when things like this happen and it damages the trust that we've been working so hard to build and all the different services seem to also be having their own issues with this. Where do we go from here? How do we come back this? Well what we do is we remember what is the very core and the very fiber of our foundation. What did we say when we raised our right hand and took that original oath? What is in the sailors creed? What is in the Navy ethos and what are our core values? Honor that is I will not lie, cheat or steal. Courage, the courage to come forward in case somebody does. And commitment to that institution and to your shipmates. That's the essence. We need to remember that to bring that back together and say hey look we can't tolerate this we won't do this. From incidents like this like what's going to be the fallout for the average sailor out there? I mean what are we going to see coming down the pipe later on? Are we going to get more training? What's going to happen with all of this? We are trained in this from the very beginning. We talk about this with all sailors at boot camp. We talk about it at a school at all of the continuing education that we get. And it's sailors, it's officers enlisted, all of us. We have to remember what the very foundation and what the core is. So we don't need to pound a bunch of training people. We need to step back and say wait a minute as I said before I have to trust everything. Imagine a guy getting ready to jump out an aircraft and they can't wonder if the parachute was rigged. It just goes on and on and on. This is a very dangerous and unforgiving. Not so much dangerous as unforgiving professions that we have. And we go out to sea on vessels and that very thing can be dangerous if we aren't done right. We need to depend on each other. Absolutely must trust it. In a recent conversation with the shipmate program before you discussed leadership and how leadership is displayed regardless of rank. Can you touch back on that and tell us more about that? Sure. Let's talk with a junior sailor, a seamen to a junior petty officer. Integrity and the display and surrounding if you will are grasping integrity is leadership at that level. And there is leadership at every level. So let's say you have in the case of what happened in Charleston we had a petty officer who said this is wrong. We're not supposed to be cheating and had the courage to come forward. And that's displaying leadership where others failed in this regard. That understanding in that sense that the very foundation of what we're about is integrity. And I will have integrity and I will never give it up because you only an individual can give up their integrity. You can never be taken away. And to make sure that they don't tolerate a lack of integrity, that's leadership. And that's at the E1 level, that's at the E9 level, that's at the O1 level, that's at the O10 level. And the world we live in and the fact that we are human, this will be tested. But we can never give that up. It's about trust. For our junior guys and gals who might find themselves in that kind of situation, what would you tell them to encourage them? Because it's a hard thing to do to point to your superiors and say you're doing wrong. It is a hard thing to do. And I recognize and acknowledge it. I would tell them deep in your heart, in your conscience, you know what is right. That's kind of one. Two, you took an oath. And that oath was to nobody else but to you and the Constitution of the United States and the United States of America. And I'm not trying to give you a bunch of drama. But as you said, it's hard and we all, all of us, myself, you know, there are temptations. You can't give up. You cannot give up your integrity. It's not just about, it's so important in the Navy, but it's beyond the Navy, it's your life. You know, are you a person of integrity? So again, I'm not trying to give you, perhaps if she landed a bunch of drama. I'm trying to say in the business that we're in, it's the very foundation of how our Navy, through decades, through centuries, has operated, the ability to trust one another. And that trust is founded on having integrity. Integrity and ethics, for someone who may not have always had that trait, how do you build upon it? I mean, how do you practice it in everyday, practically everyday life? How do you do it? In terms, you don't lie or cheat or steal. You come forward when you see such a thing, you ask your mentor, ask your leading petty officer, have discussions. Commanding officers should be discussing this on the bridge with junior officers. You know, I charge them with it when they are trained, when they go to school. Chief petty officers should be discussing it within, and leading petty officers within their division. Command master chief should be discussing it with the chief's quarters. Petters or Sheelander, I discuss it with my four stars. I discuss it with all my flag officers when we meet every six months. We take the time to remember that we are all tempted to do such a thing. So let me say, I realize it's not easy, but we all also have to realize it is the foundation. It's about the trust. Can you shed light on the internal reviews ordered by the Secretary? Sure. There are sort of two categories here, and they tend to get globbed together. So let me, I'll try to clarify. The Secretary of Defense charged all of the services to do an internal review, excuse me, at our nuclear weapons enterprise. Now, that involves the people that handle or operate systems that involve nuclear weapons. So if you move them around, if you move the systems, you do the communications, the command and control, or you do the exercises therein, and maybe one day be called upon to operate a nuclear weapon. So we'll look at how we train people, how do we certify people, how do we remain proficient. Are those systems and processes solid and intact? A system called the Personnel Reliability Program that ensures that those that are going to operate are fully reliable. And it looks at your background, it's a rather comprehensive process. So we'll look at that. So step one, we've done this review not long ago in a report called the Schlesinger Report. It was about four or five years ago. We've said we were going to take some action based on that, how are we doing? Admiral Donald also did a report about four years ago, similarly, how are we doing on those actions? And then look at, are we satisfied with how that goes? Bring those together in a report and report to the Secretary of Defense. He is also having an external look, and that's always good, people who are not embedded in it. And he asked retired general Welch to do it and also retired Admiral Harvey from the Navy to look at that externally. So that's the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise. But also we just got started on a look at our ethics, at our values, at integrity, something we just talked about. How are we doing in our service? And so I'll be talking about it in venues like this with you, perhaps a She-Langor and other people. But also ask our folks out there, remember, we've got to train on this. What are our processes? Admiral Richardson will take the results of not just the JAG manual investigation at Charleston, but a broader view of the Nuclear Propulsion Enterprise, clearly very important. We'll pull all those together and see what are the lessons learned, where do we want to go from there? And you said that this is something that's been started over the past five years, correct? In essence, yes. What I mean by that is about four or five years ago, we had a look at our Nuclear Weapons Enterprise and we did an exhaustive study then by a number of folks. What were the outcome of that? What did we do with the outcome? And are we still on track from that? Because this was looked at before. Check that out first before you do a new look at the Enterprise. And this type of study, it's going to take part in more than just the nuclear community. You're going to do more? When I speak to the integrity piece, when I speak to the ethical piece, that'll go beyond the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise. Then there's the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise, sort of a second, but all the personnel-related programs, which will include the integrity of the ethical approach therein. But it's broader than that. And then across all the Navy, we'll look at the ethics and all that. So it's two separate items. I can understand we could get a little bit confusing, but I think the simple thing to remember is Nuclear Weapons Enterprise, all aspects of personnel relations in there, ethics and integrity, all elements of the Navy beyond Nuclear Weapons, beyond Nuclear Power. Does that make sense? Yeah. So what you're saying is even though we're focusing on the Nuclear Enterprise, it's still just as important everywhere else. Absolutely. Well put. Sino, I know you're very busy and you have to move on. Is there anything else you'd like to add? I'd like to thank you, to you, Petta Sushi-Lander, for serving and for being with me today. But I'd also like to thank our sailors, civilians, and the families that support all of them, for serving their country, for serving our Navy, making it what it is today. Look, we've had challenges before and we'll meet this challenge. And getting it together and understanding what our core is is very important. There are hundreds of thousands of sailors out there every day with showing integrity, showing commitment, and trusting one another. So that's important. We're dealing with the challenge here, but that doesn't mean that we have this broad crisis across the entire Navy. Our Navy is the best Navy in the world. It will be in the future. Well, thank you very much, sir. You're welcome. It's a pleasure. We want to thank you for joining us for another edition of Conversations with a Shipmate. Be sure to stay on top of the entire series on the CNO's leadership page on navy.mil. and the Navy's official YouTube channel. Thanks for tuning in. I'm MC1 Brandon Schielander. We'll see you next time on Conversations with a Shipmate.