People, Mission, and Warfighting Effectiveness: Navy Captain Janice G. Smith Provides Insights into Her Journey to MSC’s COS

Photo By LaShawn Sykes | Navy Captain Janice G. Smith shares her journey to Military Sealift Command's Chief of Staff position, Oct. 7. Smith expresses her appreciation for the MSC team and pledges to collaborate with them throughout her tenure as COS. “I am profoundly grateful to join the MSC headquarters team, a team that works selflessly every day to complete the mission. Together, we will continue to focus on health and safety of the force, mission assurance, and warfighter effectiveness, a focus that will continue to guide our actions as we adapt to meeting the challenges that lay ahead.” MSC operates approximately 120 non-combatant civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized missions, and strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world while moving military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners.  

NORFOLK, VA, UNITED STATES

10.05.2021

Story by LaShawn Sykes 

USN Military Sealift Command

Hail to Military Sealift Command’s chief of staff. Navy Capt. Janice G. Smith continues to raise the bar for Jamaican immigrants, African Americans, and women in the military, as she replaces Navy Capt. Hans E. Lynch as MSC’s COS, Oct. 7, just 40 days after relinquishing Military Sealift Command Atlantic (MSCLANT) to Navy Capt. Daniel E. Broadhurst, during a change of command ceremony aboard USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) Aug. 27.

MSC Commander Rear Adm. Michael A. Wettlaufer named his former area commander to be his next chief of staff. During her 17-month tenure with MSCLANT, he said, Smith remained poised and fully engaged in executing his three priorities: Health and Safety of the Force, Mission Assurance, and Warfighting Effectiveness. “I am really looking forward to continue working with you and the enthusiasm and professionalism you bring to absolute everything.”

“I am humbled and honored to be chosen as MSC’s chief of staff,” Smith said. As a trusted partner and Wettlaufer’s right hand, her focus will be to continue moving forward his three priorities while keeping a steady eye on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 705,000 people in the United States to date. At the heart of MSC’s mission is its people. Keeping mariners, ships, and staff safe to maintain uninterrupted services to Navy warfighters is crucial, she said. “I look forward to improving upon MSC’s capabilities. While the mission will remain the same, we must look at new and efficient ways to get the job done. Because we work in a very dynamic, ever-changing, often contested environment, it is therefore paramount that we work together to find new ways to improve our competitive edge – the thing that makes the MSC Enterprise a cut above the rest.”

Throughout her military career, Smith is known for her innate ability to lead, making military history for the first time in 2016, when she became the first Jamaican immigrant to command a destroyer when she assumed command of the Arleigh-Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79). In the Navy’s 245-year history, Smith is one of only two active-duty African American women within the U.S. Navy Surface Warfare community screened chosen to lead a major command. Smith made military history a second time in 2020 when she assumed command of MSCLANT, serving as the primary point of contact for MSC customers and fleet commanders in the Atlantic. Before taking command, Smith said, she was familiar with the logistic support Military Sealift Command provided to the fleet, however it was only after working at MSCLANT that she truly understood the breath and significance of the capabilities that MSC brings to the fight. “Logistics” is the lifeblood of the force! Our ability to move people, equipment, and parts to any part of world to sustain critical operations is nothing short of remarkable. As, chief of staff, I am committed to strengthening relationships among the various staffs, the units we serve, internal stakeholders, and those outside the lifelines who enable us to get the job done. I look forward to assisting COMSC in accomplishing the mission of the command and carrying out the assigned responsibilities in the areas of operations and readiness.”

Smith also held other leadership positions when she served on the staff of Carrier Strike Group Five and embarked on the forward deployed USS Ronald Regan (CVN 76), conducting naval operations in U.S. 7th Fleet, to include two deployments to the Western Pacific.

Born in Jamaica West Indies in 1971, Smith spent her formative years living with and learning from her maternal grandmother, Iris Plummer, a religious farmer, who was an activist for the people in her community in Morris Hall, Saint Catherine. It was her grandmother who first taught Smith the importance of service to others. Her grandmother lived her life, Smith said, like American Activist Marian Wright Edelman who first said, “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life.” Understanding the significance of service at an early age, allowed her to grow up with a keen sense of self, knowing that her purpose in life was to serve and interact with others with care, empathy, and respect Smith said.

For her determination to reach new heights in life, Smith credits the wisdom of her grandmother for keeping the family together, and her mother Gloria Oikelome who left Jamaica, when Smith was a young girl, for America to create opportunities for the family’s future. Smith said she was fortunate to grow up around a loving family, but it was her mother who made the ultimate sacrifice, leaving behind her five children in search of a better life in America. Scripture tells us there is no greater expression of love than sacrificial love. As a mother today, proudly serving in the Navy for the last 32 years, Smith said she fully understands the sacrifice her mother made because she too has made the same sacrifice for her own family. “Today, I salute my mother and all the mothers and fathers who sacrifice themselves daily for the love of family and country.”

Smith expresses her appreciation for the MSC team and pledges to collaborate with them throughout her tenure as COS. “I am profoundly grateful to join the MSC headquarters team, a team that works selflessly every day to complete the mission. Together, we will continue to focus on health and safety of the force, mission assurance, and warfighter effectiveness, a focus that will continue to guide our actions as we adapt to meeting the challenges that lay ahead.”

• Date Taken: 10.05.2021
• Date Posted: 10.06.2021 07:45
• Story ID: 406773
• Location: NORFOLK, VA, US