The Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, MCPON (SG/SW/IW) Steven S. Giordano visited the U.S. military community in Singapore May 3-4.
During his visit, Giordano met with enlisted leadership from Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific and the Singapore Area Coordinator and with chief petty officers and leading petty officers. In addition to his visit with U.S. Naval personnel, Giordano met with senior enlisted leaders from the Republic of Singapore Navy at Changi Naval Base.
The two-day visit was part of the MCPON’s first Southeast Asia tour in which he assessed quality of life issues from Sailors while strengthening his understanding and appreciation for the operational environment in 7th Fleet and the challenges Sailors face. One of Giordano’s goal was to convey the importance of shaping the foundation of enlisted leadership. With his recent release of “Laying the Keel – Developing the Backbone of the Navy,” Giordano has been emphasizing the importance of enlisted leadership as the backbone of the U.S. Navy. Version 1.0, dated April 2018, outlines the course of enlisted leader development.
“I think there is a great opportunity here in the 7th Fleet area of operations to talk about how we’re going to develop our enlisted force as leaders,” Giordano said. “Sailors are truly paying attention to this document, which is something they had direct input into.”
Meanwhile, Giordano made a personal approach in soliciting feedback from Sailors about schooling, access to adequate medical care, and family support resources by meeting Sailors in small groups. This method was important for Giordano in helping him gain a clearer picture of quality of life issues in the region. With open ears and a mindset of listening first, Giordano is mindful of what Sailors and their families expect from senior leadership.
“It’s a complex area of operation with a lot of moving parts out here and I have a better profound appreciation of what we ask them to do every day,” Giordano said. “I’ll take the feedback on board and bring them back to identify what’s the right way forward.”
As Giordano met with the community, his personal interaction left a significant impression among several Sailors.
“I appreciated the MCPON not having a traditional all-hands call and instead touring our spaces and meeting departments and personnel on a smaller scale, seeing how we work and how our typical work day is laid out,” said LN1 (AW) Rebecca Duclayan, staff legalman, Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific. “It gave us time to actually communicate and get to know one of our bosses on a more personal level. He was interested in how we worked as a team and how we spent our time off, caring not only about how we were getting the job done, but making sure we were handling our work/life balance well.”
Aside from his trip to Singapore, Giordano made stops in Guam, South Korea, and Diego Garcia.