Makes What aGOOD CO ?
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orce readiness depends fundamentally on the superb judgment of our submarine Commanding Officers, and consequently, CO decision-making is one of the primary product lines of the Undersea Enterprise. Our PCO Instructors are charged with developing submarine COs who are both bold and confident. They refine their decisiveness, teach them the art of effective execution and follow-through, and challenge their capacity to decide the best course of action in the face of uncertainty and ambiguity. In that spirit, I am happy to reprint a recent U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings article, “Qualities of Successful Commanding Officers” in our Undersea Warfare magazine. It is an excellent summary of some of the most important characteristics we need in our COs. For many of you, it may provide insight for your own character development, and most importantly, for the development of these qualities for those preparting for command. There is another aspect of the article I want to point out: the collaborative way it was written. “Qualities of Successful Commanding Officers” was the product of close work between our Submarine Force PCOIs and the Perisher Teachers from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Norway, as well as submarine training officers from Canada and Australia. It represents the collective wisdom of many years of expert instruction. Great things result when we pool our resources and talent. Vice Adm. Chuck Munns COMNAVSUBFOR 12
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by: Captain Emil Casciano, U.S. Navy, Commander Marc Elsensohn, Royal Netherlands Navy, Commander Øistein Jensen, Royal Norwegian Navy, Commander Dermot Mulholland, Royal Canadian Navy, Captain John Richardson, U.S. Navy, Commander Ian Salter, Royal Australian Navy, Captain Ron Steed, U.S. Navy, and Commander Mike Walliker, Royal Navy Recently, submarine command course instructors from the United States, Great Britain, The Netherlands, and Norway, as well as senior submarine training officers from Australia and Canada (who have submarine forces but currently have no independent submarine command course) met for three days in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. While there has been a lot of beneficial engagement between the courses’ students and teachers in the past, this landmark opportunity brought all the teachers together to compare and contrast their courses, and to discuss the benefits and nature of future collaboration. The following questions were discussed: Based on the accumulated assessment of the students you taught during your assignments, what are the common threads and characteristics that distinguish the best prospective commanding officers from the worst? What is different about those who ‘get it’ from those who don’t? Submarine command courses prepare officers for submarine command through a process of both teaching and assessment. The price of failure can be high, and while success allows assignment to command, it does not guarantee a successful command. The Submarine Command Course is neither a warfare course nor an academic exercise. It tests leadership,
