Photo By Spc. Leith Edgar | Crestview, Fla., native Chief Petty Officer Selectee Adam Bass, 32, a cryptologic...... read more read more
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By Spc. L.B. Edgar
7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
CAMP LIBERTY, Baghdad – The task was so simple: fill 1,000 backpacks with school supplies for Iraqi children. However, the conditions were to complete the task within 60 minutes.
After Master Chief Petty Officer Charles MacKenzie showed the makeshift assembly line workers what they had to work with he set them loose to work as a team accomplishing the mission.
The group, all Navy sailors of various rates, undertook the job. Each member of the team manning a station, backpacks filled with notepads, pencils and toys. A patriotic keychain was the finishing touch before the backpacks were neatly stacked inside shipping boxes.
More than trying to change the lives of schoolchildren studying in a war zone, the backpack packers are undergoing a transformation of their own. The sailors are all Chief Petty Officer Selects, meaning they are becoming senior petty officers in the Navy. But before they can be pinned with an anchor, they have to complete the induction process while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
After a full day of work for their individual units, the chief selects come together for induction activities. This evening's task is humanitarian assistance work.
As the soon-to-be senior petty officers started the project, MacKenzie, the military liaison for Humanitarian Assistance – Baghdad, asked the chief selects if they needed a drink, adding: "Chiefs always take care of chiefs."
The plan is for the Iraqi army soldiers from the 6th and 9th Iraqi Army Divisions to distribute the backpacks to Iraqi youths, thereby putting an Iraqi face on the project.
In the meantime, the selects quickly stacked the backpacks inside a large bin for shipping.
MacKenzie reminded the selects of the task's objective.
"The goal is to get all 1,000 packed. Let's see how you do," he said providing the selects some motivation.
Donated by People to People, a non-profit organization, the school supplies and backpacks were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of humanitarian assistance provided by the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion, which acts as a "Wal-Mart" for civil affairs companies in need. The battalion includes Army, Navy and Air Force members, who comprise seven companies throughout Multi-National Division-Baghdad (MND-B) and also distribute wheel chairs, clothing and medical supplies, MacKenzie said.
"This is not a union shop, so you can talk. There are no benefits and you cannot get a raise," joked MacKenzie.
The selects made adjustments to their makeshift assembly line by adjusting according to its ebb and flow. The whole time MacKenzie quizzed them on naval history, customs and courtesies.
"Who's the president of the Chief Petty Officer's Association of Baghdad?" he asked.
Silence ensued. None of the selects knew the answer and MacKenzie told them to tell him the following day.
The selects are considered the best of the best Navy petty officers. Three to five percent of those eligible attain the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Some rates, or specializations, are frozen for years due personnel excesses, making promotion to Chief quite an accomplishment, MacKenzie said.
Promotion to Chief is based on test scores, fitness reports and selection by an annual board, which convenes in Millington, Tenn., to decide who will make the cut. Throughout Iraq, there are only 46 selects in theater, 15 of whom serve on Victory Base Complex and nine serving in the Green Zone.
As the selects finished their first box full of backpacks, MacKenzie asked for the name of a recently located World War II battleship.
No one could guess it.
"You guys try to find out for me by next time," he said.
Since the 11 chief selects were all selected, all that remains before they attain the rank of Chief is the induction process. Before pinning anchors, they train, receive lectures, conduct physical fitness and give back to their community. All of which is administered by other chiefs, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Wydena Mosley, 40, an aviation machinist mate serving with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Unlike many initiation rituals or rites of passage, which include hazing, the chief induction process is mainly based on team building, physical fitness and leadership training, she said.
According to Mosley, the selects are similar to a flock of birds flying South in a V-shape. Each bird must help the whole flock to accomplish the objective by leading at the tip of the V from time to time. The selects are no different in that they take turns leading the group through various challenges, said the native of from Memphis, Tenn.
The point of the induction process is to build unity between the chiefs who are of various rates and are deployed between 6 to 12 months. Half of the selects volunteered for the deployment. On average the selects served ten years before earning the anchor. But all of them are joining a select group, the chief's club.
Traditionally, each class of selects chooses a symbol of their brotherhood. In the case of the Baghdad class of 2007, "the common bond is the floppy," MacKenzie said, referring to the boonie hat.
Many of the selects' activities are ongoing. Physical training is conducted three times per week, along with evening team building tasks.
The induction process culminates with an all-day and night affair leading up to Sept. 21, when the selects become chiefs in a pinning ceremony in which each select chooses someone to pin the anchor, Mosley said.
Induction "brings out the leaders in the blue," she said, adding that undergoing the induction process while deployed adds a degree of difficulty.
The whole induction process is overseen by senior chiefs, like Mosley and MacKenzie, who act as mentors to the selects.
"What movie star made the Seabees famous?" MacKenzie queried.
"John Wayne!" the selects roared in unison.
| Date Taken: | 09.17.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2007 13:06 |
| Story ID: | 12399 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 579 |
| Downloads: | 555 |
This work, Chief selects serve community as rite of passage, by SPC Leith Edgar, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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