 Well my first time to SNA. I got to tell you it's exciting I've been to tailhook three years in a row and this is far more fun really is So I don't see Tom rodin in here. It's time. Are you here if he is he isn't My thanks to Tom for the invitation SNA for the invitation Secretary Garcia great to see you here. He's he is my Pseudo boss in the in the ASN world needs a fantastic teammate in trying to push things in a direction It's different and and hopefully you you get that message today when we talk about some things I Do appreciate the fact that when I showed up here this morning There was a membership card SNA waiting for me because I understand Emerald Davidson Bought everybody every J. Oh out there. It wasn't a member offered him a free for once So I took him up on that. Thank you Emerald Davidson So I my my primary goal here today is to put myself out of a job And hopefully at the end of the day you'll see why that is unless you want to see more uniform changes Especially a new swoter in the future I'm gonna you got to keep me on the on the job for a little while longer But after that I I hope what you see here is that we can put the bureau out of out of work And there's some detailers in here going How soon is that gonna happen? It's not gonna happen anytime soon, but that's the path. We're on I hope so This this little opening slide is kind of What we hear from a lot of junior officers and and enlisted folks in the fleet And I want to spend a lot of time talking about Maybe a little different view than the one we're all used to you all know that we we developed the personnel system that we all work under and operate under Both legally and policy-wise in 1947 And over 60 years later. We're still operating on that thing and it's been good to us It fair to say we've had our ups and downs, but overall We've been pretty successful in this But when you look at it and what we hear Rather, you know 1947 after World War two Prior to that it was as we like to say you'll wait it for dead men to Or dead men shoes before you could move up in the Navy so we shifted to something where it was up or out and we had lots of Milestones where it was an opportunity to be selected out or you reached a certain point in your retirement And it was time to go and we replaced it with this And you when you look at that go back to slide. I'm sorry when you look at that you go So So you got to you join as a group we call them your groups screen groups What everyone call and you'll wait your turn you stand in line you take a number And eventually your number comes up and you move on so it's an industrial age industrial model of managing people And like I said, it's it's served as well now. It's It's fair to say that we also have developed a training program years ago on how to do this How to be a detail or how to be a program manager how to be a Officer community manager enlisted community manager. We built this training program built a video way back when and actually I remember seeing it And the detailers in the room here. This is their life right now. And why don't you go ahead and enroll the training video for us? So, you know The the detailers in millington understand this concept really well I mean I was one I remember it quite well And I remember my constituents were always which piece of chocolate am I am I the chocolate that gets picked up and moved on or Eating as it were Or you just fall off a conveyor belt and your career is over right Barry. Yeah So, I mean it happens to all of us at some point in our lives and it's but all humorous side This is kind of a reflection of the system. We have in place. You'll wait your turn And if they conveyor belts moving and sometimes it moves slow and sometimes it picks up the pace and in the end You wonder if you're gonna be picked up And how it's that gonna be is your is your talent is your your skill sets or your education Do they matter in this kind of style or do we or do we need to change that style? So even with this kind of system, we're doing all right We're doing really well. Here's your obligatory aviator slide Okay, lots of dials metrics. I just wish I could fly with it instead. I'd sit on my desk, but the overall Tenants of what we do an MP MP T&E are all Showing that the overall tone is really good and it's getting better I'm a rodent talk to it yesterday. I understand the vectors are up in a lot of areas gaps and see your way down Many many years ago 2010 we had 17,000 gaps at sea today. We're under 2,500 a lot of work's gone into that a lot of Resourceings got into that by folks in in Washington, DC Your C&O has been incredibly supportive of buying back the people to start filling up the gaps at sea So we're on a good trajectory on gaps at sea. We're on a better trajectory with health of our enlisted ratings We're on a better trajectory with officer community health, although there are warning signs and we'll talk about that a little bit Recruiting is at an all-time high in terms of quality high school degree Graduates and also the testing to enter boot camp all of those things are at historic highs Retention is very good across the force There are some pockets that we have concerned there always are But in general in the aggregate recruiting retention gaps at sea all of those things are in great shape So you you could argue why would we want to change? Why not just keep going the way we're going? Well, there are things out there that have us concerned There are things out there like the global economy, which makes us less in control of our own national economy and our own national future than it has in the past you've got a Navy and an armed force that have been at war for 13 years and keeps on going that Changes the dynamics sometimes in the attitude about people who look forward and say where's it gonna end? When's it gonna end? Do I want to continue at this pace? Long deployments rapid turnarounds all the things that were addressed by Admiral Davidson yesterday and Albert Rodin Resetting our how we operate in the future is going to be really important. So these things are On the horizon if you go to the next slide we can we can talk about the things that are very popular here at SNI all Day long and my apologies to the contractors here, but this isn't all about the stuff I'm here to talk about the people and it's a bit of a cliche when we say our people are our most important asset Yet when we get together in order in events like this and tail hook and everywhere else around every major community The booths are filled with valves and engines and sensors and weapons We rarely talk about our people And that's what we're hopefully going to be able to highlight today that in the future We got a we got to consider not what the Navy of 2025 is We already know we're building that you what's on the floor and what's in the fleet today is what's going to be in The fleet in 2025. What about the people? What about the sailor of 2025? When do we spend time? Thinking about who that person ought to be what that person ought to have in his repertoire his training his background experience So that's what we're going to talk about If we if we do nothing as a big bureaucracies and all big bureaucracies have a tendency to steer by their way because it's very safe I know where I've been That they're less likely to want to take risks to somewhere. They don't know where they're going To look on the horizon say we're where's the bad weather ahead? Where's the clear air ahead for the institution and should we drive in that direction never forgetting what's in our wake? But focusing more on the future and like I said, I'm a little uncertain about the future Historic highs and retention historic highs and recruiting quality Means that will come down at some point and are we ready for that? Do we have the tools for it? Do we have the personnel system that's flexible and agile enough to deal? With what could be a rapidly declining retention rate and a much harder job for our recruiters to get their high quality We've enjoyed for the last ten years so we're going to move on and and talk about The things that are important to us as I look to the horizon as the organization does and I'd love for you to Especially the junior officers in the crowd and the mid-grade Officers in the crowd any enlisted in the crowd to think about the questions You want to ask me or have a conversation about what's on the horizon? And I'll tee up a little bit of that in the next few slides next slide So who are the folks that we're bringing into the Navy today? They don't like being called millennials by the way, and we we tend to categorize Anybody from about 18 to almost 40 is a millennial They they are very talented. They're certainly smarter than I was and many of us in the audience were when we came in the Navy They're aggressive They want to be successful They're they have high expectations for the the company or the organization in our case the service that they work for And their expectations are in many cases They want to be part of a team even more than we want to be part of a team They want to be valued as an individual and they wanted opportunities in choice More so than I remember being at the same point in my life as a junior officer So when we get them and we bring them into the Navy, what do they expect? Well, what would they go ahead next slide when they when when they come in the Navy we we got to understand How do they learn? What's the best way for them to learn What opportunities do we give them about their career choices their career options? How do we give them an opportunity to grow? That's their expectations. That's how we have to think As opposed to looking in our wake and saying this is the way it's always been done It's the way you're going to live with it if you don't like it get out And there are pockets of our Navy that do that on a daily basis And we're not dealing with Some of the more complex issues that come along in a career if you jump to the next slide How do you know I'm going to have to raise a family at some point? I want to raise a family at some point. I want to go to grad school I want other opportunities. I want maybe an off ramp and an on ramp to service There are lots of demands that corporate americas dealing with the same generation that they didn't have to deal with And they are making adjustments They are our competition for talent So the question for us is are we making the same adjustment? Are we going to be able to react and respond to keep the great talent we need in the Navy into the future? That's a real big question question mark for us And what i'm going to lay out here for you are some Basic tenants some pillars of how we're thinking about Changing the personnel system and the way we respond to the demands that are coming from these folks I've been them in three things because that's all I can remember We got to modernize and have a more innovative personnel system We'll talk about break that out here to a large extent in a minute Learning and training If there's one area that we have very Strong feedback from the fleet especially an enlisted force Is is the inefficient and in many cases an effective way we train and learn And then on the officer side Sending people to grad school at the right time for them Is also important there are communities that do it real well the surface community is doing a fabulous job of getting Their young officers to grad school I was just up in new ports both to 180 department head pre department head folks Every hand in the room went up when I asked him who'd been to grad school Shock me if that had been 180 pre department head aviators two hands would have gone up Submarine community. I'm not sure But uh, you there are you could argue that we don't as an institution value graduate education the way we should When you think about a road scholar coming on the naval academy or ratsi program They go away for two years and they come back to the navy If they're a jet pilot, they got another two and a half years of training four and a half years into their career With no fitness reports. They're competing against everybody else. Is that right? Why is it well because they're in that year group We're going to track you by your group not by skill set talent ability Milestones that's the shift that has to occur So when you add in a different way of looking at how we learn how we train how we educate And then you throw in the hardest part about all this which is Is the culture that we have and I'll talk about that here in a minute. So the first one is What are we thinking about a new personnel system? There's a lot to think about here You could argue that we don't have a lot of choice in the navy today if you're a junior officer You know what your golden path to command is if that's what you choose And you better get on that path and not veer too far away from it or you're going to lose your place in line And on that conveyor belt, you'll be the chocolate that gets eaten or falling off So we've got to open up more opportunities for choice more flexible personnel system Officer side enlisted side to deal with personal and professional challenges to people who would otherwise Be enormously valuable to our institution The goal here is to keep the best quality of folks that we have not just the right number of folks we have It may shock you to know that on the enlisted force We keep on average 12 of the folks that walk through great lakes on an annual basis to 20 year career 12 percent But by golly when you meet with that 12 percent or that entire enlisted force At a very young age and you talk about pays and compensation and benefits They'll they'll just rip your head off If you talk about don't you screw with my retirement? I go which among you are going to make who among you you're going to make 20 year career But it's really really important to them Yet it's only that 12 percent the question is is it the right 12 percent and how do we know? Who knows best? Who knows best what the best quality is in the fleet? Is it us in n1 mptna? On a psr or a spreadsheet that we look for 15 seconds to decide whether they're up or down Or is it a commanding officer of the ship the squadron the unit? I believe it's the triad on that ship squadron unit That knows best who the talent is and we need to give them tools at that level To be able to deal with managing talent And keeping the best quality in the navy So every policy we're looking at is focused on driving Greater authority to the commanding officer and removing authority from the bureaucracy that governs it right now Okay, really risky thing to do But I think it's time So expanded choice and flexibility and then we talked about officer and enlisted detailing a little bit You know the enlisted force I asked this question the other day the department heads up a new port How many six and seven year chief petty officers do we see in the fleet? Are they are they a unicorn or are they real? The answer is they're real How many seven year o fours do we have in the united states navy? zero Why is that? Why do we allow ourselves To have an enlisted force that can perform and test and demonstrate ability and we promote them in advancement and move them along Because we want that talent right We want it. We want to reward the best talent. We can we move them. We don't do that in the officer community We go back to the stand in line Wait your turn And we'll get to you when we get to you. Good luck Okay, it's not a good not a good model talk about training This kind of intersection or I should say learning this kind of intersection of training education and experience Is where we have to focus our energy. We have to understand what's at the intersection person by person And then and then customize that training as best we can To the for the bet the the benefit of the individual This generation wants feedback They want it on a daily basis a weekly basis They don't want it every six months at our required mentoring session Or at the lockstep point in time That we do a performance evaluation or a fitness report Now we do these things because we're a big organization And we need to have structure to make sure we get all the things done We need to do but my belief is over time over 60 plus years That has taken the responsibility of mentors and leaders To really have the authority and the accountability and the responsibility To bring our best talent forward all the time They training think about training and enlisted for so i'm jumping around here, but you'll get my point here in a minute Today we bring in out of the depth Which is the delayed entry program pool Where many of our young high school grads and others who sign up and say I want to enlist in the navy They go to the depth for about six months and we pull Those folks out depending on what they sign up for in the demand signal as best we can determine Which is which is nascent at best at times So they come in to the boot in the boot camp we get them through eight weeks of salarization Throw them into a school depending on their rate They go from a school for some length of time then they go to c-school from anywhere from No time to two years before they show up the waterfront And they get all that training for that rate when they're 18 and 19 20 years old Now i don't know about you But when i was 18 or 19 i didn't pay attention very much And if if somebody gave me all the training in the world at 18 or 19 years old It wouldn't be long before it timed out by the time i got to the fleet Okay But once we're done with that training in most cases in the vast majority of our rates We're done Good luck shipmate. I hope you make chief someday Over to you now they go to c-duty and they start knocking out of the park and Hopefully they got a great chief petty officer out there who's mentoring and guiding them and showing them the way And then they go off to shore duty and they're thinking i'm gonna stay Maybe they go from e4 maybe to e5 on shore duty Maybe if they're really good they they test well and they go to e6 And then we give them orders back to sea and oh by the way when they're at shore They may not be even in a in a job that's relative to their rate And so now they come back to a ship and they have Two years to three years of time in between out of rate and potentially no school On their way back to the fleet as an e6 to go into a leadership position to now Train and mentor young guys and gals coming out of boot camp hell of a model Hell of a model what's frustrating to co's out there today when we say and we beat our chest proudly We're at 98 fill and 92 fit the navy Everybody goes so that's great. We got more people But you're not necessarily given me the guy or gal with the experience And the training the all the nc's etc etc etc And oh by the way, it's a second or first class petty officer who showed up hadn't been doing this for a while Now if you're an officer in the United States Navy and you go on shore duty after your first sea duty And it's out of rate If you will you come to washington dc where everything's at a rate You have to completely change your mind when you come to washington dc But when we send you back to the fleet, what do we do? You go to the schoolhouse You get refreshed training you get reblued You show up in the on the ship in the squadron ready to go ready to lead ready to a warfight Why aren't we doing that with our enlisted force? Could it account for 12 retention to 20 years? And not 15 of our best could it account for 12 of mediocre talent and not extraordinary talent Questions for us we've got to answer But I do believe and when I talk to enlisted the enlisted force out there about a training concept It looks much different than the one we have today. They get pretty excited about it And so the goal here the overarching goal for enlisted side is to shorten street to the fleet training Give them only the training they need to go to that first job and then hit them Over and over again at the waterfront in the best way we can And this is where we need industry to talk about technology improvements It the ability to track the data source the data management all of those things are in great need in our business But if we do that well, then we're able to hit the enlisted sellers at the right time with the right training To make them the best that they can be imagine how motivated they'll be to stay on the team Next slide and then lastly You know 239 239 years of rich culture and history and traditions Are important to us It's what made most of us stay in the business we're in And it's the people that that go along with that culture That's important and there's aspects of our culture. We all know it that we we love We don't want to see disappear And there are other there have been other aspects of our culture that we needed to get rid of and change And we do change and we're going to continue to change We're we're going to continue to enrich the culture we have Through thoughtful processes and approach to doing it Central among all of that Is empowering our co's to give them more authority in command There are co's in this room and there are a lot of co's in the fleet who when we have Personal conversations and small group settings will tell you That I feel less and less Like I have the authority I thought I was going to have in command today because we The big guys up here in washington Tend to drive requirements that take their time away to warfight to train to operate and to mentor So our policy reviews when they come through ought to be focused on that in solving that That will enrich our culture in a way we can't even imagine and the intangible benefits to doing that are what we're really after Okay Last slide I think that's it. So it is all about the people it is not a cliche every one of us That has served is serving or wants to serve Knows that it's all about our people. So we've got to look forward. We've got to look past where we've been In front of us and decide do we change is it time for that change? And the answer is yes There are other people out there thinking about it for us And there's nothing worse than somebody else giving us a bill There's nothing worse than somebody else telling us how to do our business But if we don't act if we don't take bold action Much like the shift from the from the conscription force in the 60s and 70s to the all volunteer force in 1974 Which all of us in uniform fought thought it was a bad idea. Who would trade it today? Nobody Goldwater nickels 1986 we needed a little bit of jointness in our world, didn't we? Well, we're as joint as wherever we're going to be today Is it now time to think about a different personnel system to manage To have the ability to manage The quality and the talent we need for the future of all the stuff that we're we're doing a magnificent job of putting together Over to you questions comments Here we go That's that's either a sign that you're grateful. I'm done and it's time to go or you're just Filling in the void. Thank you. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Good morning. So the tenant gains lcs run My question is actually I have two questions first lcs is a you know, new animal the Navy's playing with and I know that at lcs run and in millington there's a lot of talk and a lot of Handholding and trying to get the right people into lcs The lcs screen that they all have to do A couple of times we've had sailors come into lcs run and that screening form has either been incomplete or they've completely nearly failed This screening form my question would be who do we hold responsible for people when they fail those screens? Is it the losing command or do we punish the sailor for not completing the form? We're not being physically fit ready to come and do this thing that they already knew about um, so i'm all about punishing people so, uh Here's what i'll tell you that that is how we would how we have to respond in the system we have today We got to hold somebody accountable for not keeping the conveyor belt moving and in the right quality chocolate coming off that conveyor belt If we change the system So that it's not just about lcs or f35 or the next new thing that we purposefully Sit down and handpick The best talent that we can to go to those new systems so they don't fail If that applied across the force, how much better would we be? We wouldn't be having to deal with people who can't maintain the standards Or can't meet the standards or don't qualify or don't screen i'll leave it to Dave steinle and his team down in millington to talk about How they go through that process and then what they do But in my view until you empower co's to make those decisions to give them the authority to To do the things they need to do to give them the opportunity to send people to training when they think they need to As opposed to when the system is able to Then you're never going to fix this problem So more authority down low to give them more options and tom rodin is all over this in surface community I really admire where the surface community has invested Time and energy and money into updating their training system And their training systems you lcs is a model for this that we need to spread across the force It's going to take money. It's going to take imagination We got to break down the the walls we've built up around a schools and c schools and all of those structures Because that's the way we've always done it and shift to a different model Otherwise we'll we'll have these problems no matter what the platform is So i'm not going to answer the clearly i'm dancing all over your your question Because i don't think it's fair to try to To try to hold those people accountable right now when the system Puts up all kinds of barriers to allow a commanding officer and his chain of command to deal with folks that want to go do that Whether it's lcs or f-30 for whatever it is What was part two of your question? I had to do with the retirement proposed retirement changes coming up, sir I know that we owe the uh The upper chain of no response later on in may sir, but with the proposed changes coming up I know that a lot of people are wondering are they going to be grandfathered in Are the people who you know two years from now when they enter if this System has not been fully implemented. Are they going to be forced to pay into it? Are they also going to be added in? I guess my question really is that that grandfather and where would that Line be drawn. Yeah, um all great questions first of all We're all going to know at the same time On february 1st or 2nd. I think mr. Secretary they're coming out Yeah, so we're getting close and and We have some insight into what we think they're going to announce But we don't have the full insight and even if I did It'd be I would be telling you half truths and not the full amount So we're going to find out together and then you're right We're going to have 60 days to put a response together Before it goes to the white house from dod. So on I think it's april 1st We have to send the dod has to send its response to whatever the commission puts out Some core tenants that were Both I think approved or at least considered by the commission and and made very strong Direction from and recommendations from the chairman of the joint chiefs and the department of defense was Whatever you come up with the provision for grandfathering must be in place Because we have a contract with you all you join under an expectation for a retirement program that had x to it And so we have to live up to that. I think I don't think congress frankly is going to take that one on I think more importantly is if the system they propose is better than the one we have There needs to be an opt-in clause So that people on both sides don't feel like one's getting a better shake than the other So, uh, we'll find out but I'm um, I I would I would venture to guess and it's a guess That grandfathering for anybody who's wearing a uniform today who are assigned a contract to To serve in the united states navy today will have the retirement program you know today Okay, thank you sir. Thanks for question. Yes, sir. Morning. I'm bill mckinley, uh center for surface combat systems Really appreciate your remarks. Uh, we're developing we're aligned And developing a plan to systemically and analyt analytically look at all our rates to try and enact Your vision, um, many of us in this room bear the scars of the last revolution training And uh, are interested in how we're going to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past as we go through this next Innovative look at the way we do a training business. Yeah, great bill. Great question Uh, we do hear that a lot from uh, especially some of the senior enlisted and folks who had been around for a while and Bore the brunt of us Basically carving out the instructor bill And turning it over to cbt training. That's what you're referring to Uh fleet beldo and I'm sorry fleet. Come on up here. Jeez I I made the biggest mistake of my career not introducing fleet april belda Who's been with me for the entire tour and terrific lady. She could answer a lot of these questions, too So she she was on a panel yesterday I'm not sure if this came up or not this issue training did so um We so this is this is a classic case of a great idea It demonstrated an asset And in people with the money said I like that asset. I'll take that asset before we were ready And the technology wasn't ready. We hadn't thought about the full continuum of training I don't think well enough and so after a few years of Not so good results and a lot of feedback from the fleet especially senior enlisted and instructors at every level that hey This cbt thing ain't working out real well. We need to get instructors back in the classroom Need a mix of it. Uh, we spent a lot of time over the last several years buying back those instructors So now we got to get the framework right and then decide what technology supports that framework And we're not going to get rid of an instructor until we understand the full impact to what that technology can do So if you move away a significant amount of training out of the school houses For the length of time that they are in school houses today And you modularize it and you bring it to the waterfront You're still going to need people to instruct that it ought not to be a bill to the ship to the unit So we're going to have to protect those instructors as we build the training systems that are able to come to the waterfront So that those sailors can get that just in time training Otherwise we'll pay a huge tdy bill by the ship To send sailors back to the school house, which is inefficient in every measure. So the framework has to work It has to be well thought out and we've got to get all the resource sponsors lined up and agree and march down this path together That's the only way it's going to work Mandating it from us demonstrating an asset only to see the asset disappear to buy something else is a recipe for disaster Good morning, sir. Emily Bassett XO of USS Arlington. Emily. How are you? Good to see you again. Yes, sir question for you, sir How receptive is the civilian leadership on the hill? To changing some of the discussion about changing some of the statutory requirements that drive a lot of Our timing requirements. Yeah, they're receptive to listening to ideas new ideas And I'll only speak for the members of the the staff the professional staff that I've met with They're receptive. They listen. They're good listeners on this I think they are There's a good reason to wait on the commission's report to find out What's in there that may Provide some ideas and solutions for the future I I think the commission's report is really about paying compensation not the personnel system And if we don't do these together We'll we'll get out of alignment, especially if if some of those recommendations Are approved eventually by congress We need to have a more flexible personnel system to deal with what's in that recommendation from the mcrmc so Their conversation back to me and rightfully is hey, I understand that you're thinking of changes to the law to Datma to other policies in law that's out there But fully understand what your policy Limits are before you ask for that help And so that's the path we're on right now to try to do all of this All of that that I talked about inside our own policy levers And I got to tell you after looking at it now for a few months We we do not take a lot of risk in in interpreting policy the way we could And so I think what you'll see from us what you'll hear from us Is trying to stretch that trying to do things within our own lifelines because the other the other challenge here is The the navy and the marine corps and the air force and the army all have different challenges All have different aspirations for the youthfulness of their force the technical aspirations of the force And and so it one size doesn't fit all And so policies that we own we off we have to go get And so that's that's the path we're on and if and then if we need help from congress Then we go through the normal process and try to try to see if they are willing to help us and I think they are Thank you sir. Thanks Yes, sir, go ahead. Sorry max scooper pms 339 surface training systems A question involves the requirements now for commissioning through rotc programs I was commissioned through rotc and I double majored in history and religion which uh And now I understand there is now you're an engineer No, sir, not even close My understanding now is that they've changed the requirements for rotc and that the numbers the percentages must Be are higher For engineering and the stem type backgrounds and that if you want to major in liberal arts A liberal arts field you're less likely to receive a Scholarship and then subsequent commission and it seems from my perspective sir that that's limiting a potential pool of applicants and Going to create in the future a very specific set of a specific mindset within our officer community Where basically I think the numbers are 75 percent are going to basically be trained to think like engineers And that doesn't seem like the sort of broad It's a spectrum of thinking that we've tend to encouraged in the past and you could just offer some of your thoughts There on why those the why the requirements put in place. Yeah, uh, there is no requirement in place We had a debate last budget cycle We're all looking to save money rotsy that program's got a lot of money in it And we if you look at our rotsy program scholarship program And compare it against the the other services ours is a much richer or rewarding Better program to attract young men and women in our service There was a there is always there's a constant debate. I probably is probably the best way to frame it Between the requirements of nr and that high tech skill set that we need to bring in great Young engineering minds into that field. We cannot take risk in having the right Numbers of folks to grow that force So there is always a debate and tension between Between the high tech requirements of the navy and the more rounded Discussion that you that you had so we had this debate. We made some proposals We were looking to find cash to do other things with inside our own domain And it was moving along pretty good until it got to senior leadership included the secretary of the navy who said no Go back To start and come up with a different idea So he's not willing to take that risk right now. And so we are not doing what you read about it was discussed It was debated, but we have not taken the steps to change the requirement So the rotsy program is where it was a year ago two years ago And it'll continue to be debated about what's the right balance. I will tell you as an english major And it you as a history major Admiral Gortney is a history major from the great school of elon north carolina We'll tell you, you know, I I studied observed admired and respected guys like jim stockdale who are Not engineering majors and it got him through Almost eight years of extraordinary hell It gets you have to have a balance in our in our leadership Continuum we have to have a balance in our word room. It can't be all one side or the other So i'm with you on your your the premise of your question And my answer to you is we have not changed rotsy and we'll continue to debate this My guess is every year as we go forward the secretary. You want to add anything to that? Okay, so he's he's my he's my huckleberry on this he keeps me honest And uh, we're not we're we're on a good path for rotsy. Thanks, sir. Yeah. Yes, sir Good morning. Admiral. Uh, john freeman cubic defense systems or lando Great article navy times about the overhauling Of course one of the notions that you mentioned there i'm sure Is going to be quite a hurdle as you articulated and and that is the sort of the concept of pooling of resources And that sort of you know hits horizontally across all those cylinders of excellence across the pentagon Curious as to how those discussions are going and and where you might be anything you can share with us along those lines Yeah, the uh, so we're building towards a a brief to cno and the secretary on on the concept To try to get it starting to lay I call them pavers into the palm palm 17 So, uh, you can agree about words all day long the the real proof in the pudding is whether anybody puts money in the game So we have to get into the palm. So we're we've constructed the framework We are having the discussion. I would tell you that the resource sponsors individually as I talked to them Completely understand the training concept here and the framework they want in but now we've got to demonstrate how you do that So the issue and you rightfully pointed out is how do you govern this? Where's the integrator for the stove pipes of Technology development training system development training design training science. Where is that integrator? Where should it be and how should we govern ourselves inside that? So we have great examples of enterprises out there today that work really well when you put The resource sponsors the fleet and the folks that have to implement whatever it is Together in a room and agree that we're heading down the path that the framework is designed for That's that's the secret sauce in this that we have to get through And I think once once leadership buys into this Then we can start laying a foundation with the money to move in that direction And each one's going to have to be paced early on is going to have to be paced differently We're not going to just switch the light On in training overnight. It's going to take time We may need to do and there are some piloting efforts going on right now at net see Animal white is taking this on we're trying to understand how far we can go and how fast we can go And then we can start laying that in and show the cost to do it So that's that's all work to be done And I would tell you that we're we're fully committed to this Got a lot of support across the fleet and the Tycoms completely buy into it, but they don't have to write a check just yet It will come down to who writes the checks Thanks, sir. Thank you. You're wet. Yes, sir. Good morning Admiral Thank you for your remarks and your vision as you laid it out question As regards the active and reserve components Do you envision any changes in force structure mixes the balance between the two or mission assignments? Too early to tell on the force structure That's really not my lane, but I from a policy perspective When I talked earlier about developing things that allow us to have off-ramps and on-ramps of service whether you're officer or enlisted Now we don't we do not take advantage of policies that exist today To allow people to take a break from active service And go off and and stay in the reserve So they are immediately and easily recallable or if they want to come back on active duty on their own They can we have not institutionalized that yet. We've got about I don't know 300 day three or 400 enlisted folks that had come from rc to ac Very little of it on the officer front, but imagine if we had that free flow of opportunity through the right policies that does not Disadvantage officers that choose to go into the rc for two years to take care of a parent to Start a different job. Look if the grass is greener on the other side Get a higher education on there. Whatever they want to do, but they come back on active service If we just throw them right back in the year group they left with they're done Okay, so this goes back to that whole year group management thing is old School industrial style that we have to get our arms around and change the policy So I see the rc ac mix piece being much more about how you fully integrate rc into the active force It's going to be very hard and i'm sure you heard this from the resource sponsors yesterday Very hard to build out infrastructure for the reserves and every one of the new capabilities we have out there Far easier to take men and women And and integrate them inside the active force in a more meaningful way This is a discussion abrahman brawn and i are having and she uh She is very open to the ideas to make sure that the viability Of the reserve force is what the it fits in nicely to the needs of the active force because any at the end of the day We've got to be able to make sure that active force is whole and fully supported by the reserve force And they've done a magnificent job over the last 13 years in exactly that fashion But now as we come off of that footing What then how do how do we utilize the reserves and I think that's this is an opportunity to have those kinds of discussions Thanks. Yes, sir. Hey Captain eric weiss navy appropriations liaison sir when I try to mentor junior officers about continuing education It seems to me they're in the navy we have A lack or a lack of connection between our pursuit of continuing education and What I call education with a purpose I kind of backed it just using my own example as a nfo Kind of backed into a budget career We don't really counsel junior officers to get education, but then pursue that We we tend to pursue subspecialties like boy scouts pursue merit badges It'd be interesting, you know a subspecialty with a purpose I do acquisition when i'm not flying airplanes. I do budget when i'm not flying airplanes So can you share your vision of the future with well, I think that yeah, eric. Thank you It does fit nicely into the notion that you value people's experience their their proven ability And whether they've reached milestones within their community their warfighting community That's when you determine whether they're ready for the next step imagine a world where you promote into your proven ability and your Readiness based on milestone achievement to move to the next level Much like we do an enlisted force In the officer community now everybody in here has been a detailer and I know the detailers are going man It's going to make my head hurt We have got to give them the tools to be able to do it and we don't today So that's a big part of of the vision is the it back bone the infrastructure the data mining the data Assessment that's at the hands of detailers But also to go to my original point at the start to put us out of business To make it a market-based approach and everybody in here is an old dog. It's going to go man. You're crazy That's that we're just going to you know go into chaotic Detailing if we do that. I don't think so I really don't We've seen pockets of where this has been done in the army very well And granted the army is not the navy. They don't have c-duty Challenges all that kind of stuff But there's there's a direction that we can take that goes to your point about You you bring skill sets experiences And those sorts of things to you and you're left at the whim of your again your timing and the availability of those jobs and the system Good detailers and we got a lot of them They they deliberately try to get you into that job because of your background experience And so we're doing more and more Sub-spec coding and a qd coding to try to get our arms around it, but we're fitting it inside of a system That's pretty old So we're trying to modern we need to modernize that along with the information systems that go with it To be better Yes, sir Either one I can't morning admiral Craig Turley from naval postgraduate school Could you briefly comment on your thoughts on flux ability for giving junior officers and all unrestricted? Line communities the flex ability to pursue graduate education just not at nps, but in their career Thank you. Yeah, correct. Thank you So Graduate education has to be for our best I think that's the fundamental shift that has to occur I think the aviators in the crowd Eric you just stood up It's if you are lucky enough to be not in a position to do what we want you to do that you go to grad ed I see the surface community much more deliberate about this and they've opened up windows of opportunity to Send their best those who have taken the bonus for example or have signed up for The next milestone and have demonstrated a commitment and have been selected by a board to go to the next milestone That's that's kind of the sifting of the quality Those folks are going to nps. So you're getting high quality of the surface community going to nps I don't think I can say with confidence that you're getting it from all the other communities So we have to do a better job of Of truly valuing that as a Something that every and you talk to any officer in the navy and they're going to tell you yeah, I'd want to go to grad school Yeah, I'd love to go to nps. Yeah, I'd like to go to harvard worton. You name it But I don't have time in my career to do it in many cases Or i'm going to get behind the rest of my peers And I don't want to take that risk because I want to make a career of this So the flexibility and option piece is open up policy that allows us to Reset your groups if we have to in the interim or do away with your groups Past the 10-year mark for example, and once you're in the control grade We're managing you by your milestone development and proven Ability to move to the next level and we could promote you into xo or or uh Or department head much earlier than we do today If you're ready and you want to go and it it allows you to sequence all of those other things you want to do start a family Break apart if you're a dual military couple break apart your c-duty and sure-duty rotations No detailers work that day in and day out and it and it's tough work But we're not giving them the policy or the freedom to do it more liberally And and that's that's that's the challenge in developing this new system as we go forward Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. You're welcome Sir bill burns institute for defense analysis. You mentioned that retention is good these days I wondered if you could speak specifically to surface warfare officer retention Numbers quality and and where you're needing to use incentives. Sure can i'm glad you You must have listened to my phone call this morning So 20 years ago surface junior officer retention was 28 today. It's just a hair under 40 That's a significant improvement now 20 years ago. Where were we end of the 90s? Everybody remember the end of 90s? Maybe it was not a great place to be We were downsizing We had significant force reductions Economy was booming. It's hard to keep people in hard to get people to come in So could we repeat that cycle? It's very possible and that's my worry So what's gotten us to 40 percent? Is it just great leadership? Is it just luck of timing in the economy? Or is it deliberate steps to try to improve the quality of service for our young men and women in the surface force? I think it's all of the above It's not one or the other But we need to know what were the key components that drove us to a better retention rate We still need to get higher than that because department head requirements aren't going away They're actually growing and if you're going to get to those numbers with the same population that's coming in You got to improve retention to get there So the and amal road knows this we've had several rich conversations about how to get there What he needs and much of what we've talked about And the feedback from the junior officers is where I most I get most of that positive response is if you go in that direction you give me more choice more options I'm more inclined to stay with the team Because it's my choice I get to make those decisions because I've got more options So we're at about 39. Some percent today. We've been hovering around 38 to 40 percent for the last five years So we're doing well I'd like to see us getting to 42 43 44 percent And then I think we'd be real healthy. So And that's under the industrial model If we have a more nimble approach to it, we might be able to do a lot better than that Thanks for the question. That sounds good. Thank you. Thanks everybody