Feedback and Discussion

How would you describe the evolution of social media in the Navy?
Rear Adm. Dennis J. Moynihan, U.S. Navy Chief of Information

As part of a group of people from the US Naval Institute, I had an opportunity a few years ago to meet with the Admiral and his team at the Pentagon. It was a great meeting, and as I'm sure either never happens - or perhaps happens all the time - the pilots of the Blue Angels showed up and introduced themselves. While that was really cool, I'm a nerd - so for me the highlight was meeting CDR Charlie Brown, aka @flynavy who the Admiral mentioned in his article.

That meeting in the Pentagon was a conversation, and while I don't always take notes in meetings - I did wrote down a bunch of notes from that meeting on the train back to Annapolis that evening. Rear Adm. Moynihan had plans, there were a lot of ideas on that table being tossed around, and as I look around the Navy and see how social media isn't simply organized, but integrated into the public affairs of various commands today I see a lot of what was discussed that day is no longer simply an idea - rather a reality. All of the various topics I wrote down that day have today either manifested themselves in some way, or were discussed in much better definition in the article produced Monday by Rear Adm. Moynihan. Talk about having a plan and getting it done. I don't remember the date of that visit, but I do remember it was the day the US Navy agreed to work with the folks making the movie Battleship. You know, we should have developed that Facebook game...

In August Rear Adm. Dennis J. Moynihan will step down and Capt. John F. Kirby will become the next CHINFO. I'm positive Capt. John F. Kirby is a great officer, but sir - you have huge shoes to fill, and that won't be easy.

How can the concepts articulated in writing by transformers/innovators get translated to action?
Admiral James G. Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and Commander, United States European Command

If you were going to ask a question to the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe or the Commander of United States European Command, you can come up with a lot of questions. But if you are going to ask a question to the man Jim Stavridis, if you think about what question you want to ask - you are going to ask a completely different question. Admiral James Stavridis is the outlier of his generation that rose to the top despite not fitting the stereotype. The man is not the traditional Navy officer, but he represents every great tradition of a Navy officer - and that is often what is missed by those who focus on stereotypes. The question posed was suggested by my friend LCDR Claude Berube as we brainstormed the questions for all of the conference guests, and because it will likely end up the only question I ever ask Admiral Stavridis while he is EUCOM, I'm very proud of the one asked.

His answer is brilliant, and absolutely right. One of the things I started doing the last few years was recording modern history as it happens - as I see it, and I hope in about 10 years to write a book on events that have happened in this post Iraq/Afghanistan maritime pivot from my perspective. When people ask me what I do, I basically perform two functions: I network with people - with a strong focus on the people I believe are outliers in the Navy, and I communicate ideas - and frequently they are not original ideas, rather the ideas developed through my conversations and interactions within the network I am apart of. I see things that take place in the Navy - sometimes very big things - that are the product of a networked process that bubbles up from the surface but can be sourced to one idea, or a small group of people with ideas. The people who are part of the foundation of those ideas, and in many instances manipulating the process of those ideas along the way up the chain of command - unbeknowest to those surrounding the idea as it bubbles up - do not get credit today for those ideas. In the future, God willing, I hope to live long enough to pull a Paul Harvey and tell the rest of the story, and give credit to those people.

The hardest thing to do regarding the Navy is for an outsider to spot a negatively disruptive individual. The easiest thing to do regarding the Navy is for an outsider to spot an outlier - a positively disruptive individual who probably has a snowballs chance in hell of ever making Flag officer, but either already has or will influence the US Navy for the next 30 years. Some really smart people spotted Bob Work when he was a Major, spotted Jim Stavridis when he was a LCDR, and never had a doubt that LtCol Frank Hoffman would be the only LtCol to ever serve as part of the ColClub. Do you know who the people are who will be the Bob Work, Frank Hoffman, or Jim Stavridis 10-15 years from now? Seems pretty obvious to me.

If you consider yourself a young John Boyd, read what Admiral Stavridis wrote - he nailed it on how to moves ideas in the DoD today.

What is Air-Sea Battle?
Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations.

This was a curve ball I threw in the last minute when VADM Myers was unable to meet the deadline. Legitimate reasons, and this stuff happens in physical conferences - why should a virtual conferences be immune? Before the conference started though I had a few articles picked out for each week that if for some reason someone was unable to make a deadline, I would run the prepared alternative article instead - and after seeing the transcript of the CNO's Brookings speech posted on the CNO's page, this quickly became my Week 3 backup plan. I didn't ask the CNO for permission, so we'll just add it to the list of things I'll one day ask him for forgiveness regarding.

AirSea Battle is confusing, but I think the CNO did a great job presenting the topic at Brookings. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend this AirSea Battle article in Armed Forces Journal from Captain Philip Dupree and Col Jordan Thomas. One of the best descriptions of AirSea Battle I have heard was at the Joint Warfighter Conference in Virginia Beach following a terrible presentation on the topic by a panal. In the hallway, following the last conference event, a breakdown of what AirSea Battle really is was given - and it went a little like this.

What makes AirSea Battle unique is that this particular group can walk into any office in the entire military and get information. They can walk into CENTCOM and say - I want everything you have on small boat swarms. Historically, someone does that and CENTCOM might give them a few tidbits of information, but when AirSea Battle office does that - they get everything. The AirSea Battle office basically has a level of access across the entire DoD that nobody - and I mean no one ever - has ever had. They are taking all this data from across the entire spectrum of the DoD, organizing it, mining it, and thinking about it. What AirSea Battle can do is take the COCOM phone call when the COCOM has a problem, and apply all this data towards a tailored solution for the COCOM problem. I've heard AirSea Battle described as something like a COCOM helpdesk. Yeah, it sort of is. People keep trying to claim it's specific to China - but they are wrong, because being specific to anyone would be a limitation of their potential and realized capabilities. In the future I believe we will look at the ASB office as something akin to a DoD think tank, but for now I think they are just starting to get their data collections organized and realizing how much potential they have. Yeah, it's a big deal, and one of the smarter things going on in the DoD.

What fundamental skills do today's midshipmen need to learn in order to lead the Navy three decades from now?
Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller, the 61st Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy

This was one of my favorite articles of the series so far, because to me the answer was unexpected, and yet obvious in hindsight. Honor, character, and leadership education are timeless, and the more things change the more important timeless qualities become towards insuring a successful future. I have read many of the criticisms regarding the military schools over the years, and it is noteworthy the criticisms are almost always related to the extra curricular activities - sports, band, etc, but rarely is that balanced with an inspection of the curriculum or the skillsets the military universities are trying to develop as a base for the culture of the services.

Over the last few years I have had the privilege to get to know several midshipman over email while they are at school in Annapolis, and on four occasions I have had the privilege to meet graduates who attend nuke school up in Saratoga and buy them some BBQ, hang out and talk about their University education, then their nuke school experiences, and their upcoming postings. My impression is the Navy is getting it right. I work with a lot of young folks, at age 36 I'm becoming the old man in my IT shop (how the hell did that happen!), and young people today do similar tasks a different way, look at similar problems with a different perspective, and in general have different priorities than my generation did at their age. And yet there does appear to be a process in place where the Navy adapts those folks differences to the Navy culture, and the Navy culture is starting to be more flexible towards the attributes the new generation of young people bring as part of their generational skillset.

These are interesting times. It is a legitimate possibility that Admiral Greenert will be the last CNO who graduated in the 1970s, and the next CNO will have graduated during the 1980s Reagan buildup. That means there really does appear to be a generational change at the top and the bottom of the Navy officer corps taking place at around the same time. Change is often ugly, change is usually hard, and change is usually a good thing - it's being static that organizations want to avoid, and right now the Navy appears to be very adaptive, and not static. In times of change for organizations that change, a solid foundation of timeless skills is the right way to educate towards an unknown future. What a great article by VADM Miller.

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I'd like to publicly thank Rear Adm. Moynihan, Vice Admiral Miller, and Admiral Stavridis for their contributions to this event. From a number of visitors perspective, this was the best week of the conference so far - and we have another week to go.

This weekend LT Rob McFall will complete our junior officer contributions for the virtual conference with an article that will bridge this past weeks contributions with next weeks contributions. I want to thank LT Jon Paris, LT Chad Hutchins, Nic Jenzen Jones, and Rob McFall for their weekend contributions - I think they have all been excellent.