The Signature | November 30, 2018

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November is Military Families Appreciation Month

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N A S SIG O N E L L A

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NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Vol. 35 No. 45

MCPON Smith Visits Sigonella for Thanksgiving

SIGONELLA, Sicily (November 21, 2018) Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Russell Smith speaks with service members at an all-hands call during a visit to Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Italy Nov. 21, 2018. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Jessica Vargas) By Janine Scianna NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

It’s not often that Sailors get to hear directly from the most senior enlisted member of the Navy. Especially when Sicily is a far cry from the Pentagon, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet at an all-hands call on Nov 21, the day before Thanksgiving, Sailors got to add one more item to their list of things to be thankful for—asking questions directly to their leader, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, . Smith offered some short opening remarks by discussing his primary focus on improving the Navy’s manpower issues. He also gave a nod to the OCONUS audience by suggesting that an overseas tour should be a requirement of all Sailors. Smith then reserved almost the entire time allotted for the all-hands call to answer questions, bringing the crowd closer to be more conversational. While a few of the questions were specific to individual commands, many of them were questions about larger Navy policy. One Naval Supply Systems Command Sailor voiced his frustrations with manpower at many duty stations, not just at Sigonella. Smith bluntly acknowledged that staffing billets adequately is a problem and one he is making a priority to fix. “Institutionally, we have never been honest about paying for manning,” said Smith. But Smith outlined in detail the plans that are going into place to address the manpower problem. In addition to increasing the Navy’s investment to fully fund its manpower accounts, work is now happening behind the scenes to actually fill those positions.

Policies are going into place to increase recruitment and retention rates. Navy-wide, the improved results are started to become evident—billet capacity has already increased from 87.9 to 90.6 percent, and it is on track to reach 96-97 percent by FY 2021. Yet, Smith explained, manning at shore installations like Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella will likely remain lower than the overall average because deployable billets are considered a higher priority to fill. Nonetheless, Smith urged Sailors to be patient as the manning situation is on the mend, and NAS Sigonella will eventually see results. “We will continue to talk about [manpower issues]. Keep asking the question, keep holding us accountable,” Smith advised. Another major issued that was address was initiated by NAS Sigonella’s commanding officer, Capt. Brent Trickel. He asked Russell to elaborate on the new personnel evaluation system that is being tested. “The current system is one that we know and understand,” said Smith. “But each ‘tribe’ works the system differently, and this makes it very subjective and frustrating.” The new evaluation system would measure a Sailor’s competency against a standard, not against each other as happens now. And evaluations would only occur after a Sailor has had one year to be observed in their current job. The new system also will greatly shorten the amount of time supervisors have to spend on generating evaluations. There will be nine “bins of goodness” which a supervisor can select from to mark their level of satisfaction with a Sailor’s performance, and the process should take 10 minutes or less.

In early 2019, the next phase of testing will expand from 10,000 to 100,000 personnel as a counseling tool and full implementation is expected by the end of the year. Feedback from users during the final pilot is encouraged and critical to evaluating the new system’s effectiveness, Smith noted. Dovetailing with personnel evaluation modernization, Smith also discussed the Navy’s response to last year’s problem with a selection board when a few board members intentionally colluded to promote a friend. “For all of you going in front of a board, that is your worst nightmare,” said Smith. “Now, we’ve changed the process to make it more like an officer’s board, where every record is screened by the entire panel, not just a few people.” There was also extensive discussion on the new Sailor 360 program. One chief asked how Smith envisioned the program being run. Smith responded by saying that unlike the Sailor 365 program, which was focused solely on first class petty officers, the Sailor 360 program is designed to also focus training and development on junior Sailors. As the program grows, the Navy will be deploying more training specialists to help commands implement it. Other questions spanned the spectrum of issues from beard regulations to cross-rating to expanding military training institutions overseas. Towards the end of the all-hands call, one Sailor lamented about how she has faced hostilities from other commands about the value of her type of work. Smith took the opportunity to comment on the supportive role each Sailor plays in the overall Navy mission, regardless of rate.

“MCPON” continued on Page 14


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