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Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener spoke with an audience gathered at the Surface Navy Association East Waterfront Conference to highlight the importance of leadership and the integral role that Sailors play in building a strong culture that anchors the Surface Force.
During his remarks, Kitchener emphasized the impact of proficiency and ships that are led by confident yet humble leaders.
“Our Sailors are capable of surmounting any obstacle with the right leadership, training, and tools,” said Kitchener. “We demand proficiency and we only achieve it by training our Sailors into confident crews, tested and able to adapt as a team to the most trying situations.”
Kitchener noted two recent examples of USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) operating in support of NATO in the North Atlantic and USS Mustin (DDG 89) operating in the South China Sea, explaining how training and proficiency enabled these crews to perform well in difficult and austere environments.
“These Sailors demonstrated ingenuity, interoperability, and tactical expertise, but to them, it was little more than doing their job,” said Kitchener. “They knew what they were doing. These events, these decisions, these Sailors define the Surface Force. This is who we are, bold and professional warfighters.”
Kitchener emphasized the goal is to have every ship operating at a high level of proficiency. To this end, Kitchener said the Surface Force must reduce variance through standardization, trust, transparency, consistent learning, and a culture of safety.
“It takes leaders to do this,” said Kitchener. “To demand honest risk and readiness discussions, especially when it feels the most uncomfortable, and receive the information without adding undue stress or urgency.”
The objective, Kitchener noted, is improving warfighting readiness.
“Our task is to create that environment and those teams across the entire Surface Force developing and refining the character, competence, and connectedness critical for success and most importantly winning tomorrow’s fight.”
Kitchener said the Surface Force invested heavily in learning and the provision of competency tools since the collisions of 2017 and the major fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) in 2020. The Navy opened new Mariner Skills Training Centers; in San Diego and Norfolk, installed dozens of ship handling simulators, advanced damage control conversations, and provided new electronic classrooms across all fleet concentration areas. These initiatives are having a noticeable effect.
But Kitchener cautioned that programs are only as effective as the people who execute them.
“It’s our leaders, our mentors, our shipmates who imbue a thirst for learning and have the ability to recognize when tactics aren’t working and reassess,” said Kitchener. “They must utilize every challenge or mistake as an opportunity for development – personal and professional. No one is infallible and we must humble ourselves, throughout our careers, to continued learning.”
Kitchener ended his remarks highlighting the impact of Sailors.
“When Sailors are surrounded by peers and commanders who value their contributions, and assist them when they struggle, their growth is exponential,” said Kitchener. “We must also commit ourselves to improving ourselves, to reducing the variance we see in our force, to developing the character of our leaders and evolving our community’s culture of learning. Make no mistake, we progress because it is the right thing to do. More importantly, it improves our warfighting readiness. It enables us to produce more ready ships manned by teams of Sailors who will give pause to any adversary that contemplates testing us today, tomorrow or in the future.”
| Date Taken: | 05.09.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.09.2022 18:26 |
| Story ID: | 420308 |
| Location: | VA, US |
| Web Views: | 290 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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