The Good Ones Really Care

The Good Ones Really Care!

(Spoiler Alert: Please use the NHA Mentorship Link!)

By CAPT Andy “Big Tuna” Berner, USN XO, Office of Naval Research Global

A leader once told me “there is one thing that separates the good ones from the rest…the good ones always give a crap!” Translated for the editorial staff, I think what he really meant was “the good ones really care!”

It took me a while to fully appreciate this statement, but after some time in the Navy, it continued to resonate with me. The fact is that good leaders are good mentors, and a good mentor is someone who really cares about another person’s future, even more than their own. Mentorship enables us to pay forward the things that we have learned, so that the future is brighter, and easier, for the next generation. Mentorship is what takes an incredible organization like the U.S. Navy to the next level. The “good ones” understand this. The “good ones” are mentors.

Throughout my career, I have been blessed with some of the best mentors in the Navy. At the risk of leaving many of them out, I’ll quickly highlight just a few here. Early on, I was blessed to have some excellent Commanding Officers. Sure, these leaders taught me how to fly helicopters and they showed me how to take care of Sailors. But they also took a special interest in my career and in my personal development. One of my first COs often went out of his way to walk me back to the hangar after FOD walkdown, or to pull me into his office. He took a lot of extra time to really listen to me and to help me decide what to do when I left the squadron. I knew that he really cared and that to him, I wasn’t just another junior officer.

An Admiral became one of my favorite mentors when he took a special interest in my graduate education and my family life. He exposed me to as many of his meetings as he could, showed me how to make faster decisions, and taught me how to prioritize the stuff that really matters. He really cared, and I’ll never forget how he went out of his way to give a box lunch to a Sailor who we noticed as we raced through an airport.

Several other mentors helped me navigate my decisionmaking process after the Major Command Screen Board. In fact, two of them changed my life entirely after I made the difficult decision to turn down my initial assignment. These mentors suggested that I seek out the Command job at the National Reconnaissance Office (NAVWAR Space Field Activity). They opened my eyes to a highly classified world and a new future in the Space Community. They truly cared about what I did next, and through their mentorship, I was exposed to one of the most incredible and broadening jobs in the Navy. I set off on an exciting new career path that still involved leadership, but also space, science, and technology. It was the perfect path for me. Interesting side note: one of these mentors was a Flag Officer and the other was a Captain – and I’m pretty sure that the retired Captain continues to be one of the Flag’s mentors.

But mentors don’t always have to be seniors. I’ll never forget the AWCM who took a special interest in me. There was the time he pulled me aside to correct my uniform - or the time during a high pressure TORPEX, that he calmly taught me how to gain contact despite our degraded mission system. I’ll also always be close to my Command Master Chief from my O-5 Command Tour. An incredible friend and mentor, he was always there when I needed him – and I needed him a LOT. He never let the command down. He truly cared about me and the squadron. So, the good ones really care!

One of the best ways to be a good mentor, much like the people I’ve mentioned above, is to be widely accessible to potential mentees. Thanks to CDR Mike “Bus” Short, NHA now has a tool that makes mentorship much more accessible to anyone in our rotary wing community. This tool enables anyone in NHA to find other mentors based on any career path they might be interested in exploring.

The tool is called the NHA Mentorship Search Engine. This search engine helps mentors and mentees within NHA connect based on their experience. It simply offers up the contact information for those pilots and aircrewman who really care and are ready and willing to offer mentorship to others – even if that mentorship is just sharing some quick lessons learned about a previous job, career choice, or duty location.

As a potential mentor, here’s all you need to do to let people find you:

1. Make sure that your member profile information is up to date after you log in to your account on the NHA Website at: https://nhea.memberclicks.net/login#/login

2. Just input your info and check off your past areas of experience. These areas will then be “searchable” by future mentees. It’s that easy! Oh, and don’t forget to save any changes you make to your profile!

As a mentee, here’s all you need to do to search for any potential mentors based on their experience: 1. Log in to your NHA Account at: https://nhea.memberclicks.net/login#/login

2. Click on the “Mentorship Search Engine” at: https://nhea.memberclicks.net/mentorship-searchengine#/

3. Use the search engine to find mentors. You can search by multiple areas of experience or by someone’s name. Then, you can reach out to any potential mentor through the listed contact information. It’s that easy!

I’d like to personally thank all of those people who have cared enough to mentor me. Mentorship is one of the single most important things that we can do to ensure our Navy’s continued success. My hope is that as many of us as possible will also show that we really care by updating our information on NHA’s Website so that we can make this type of mentorship as accessible as possible for our NHA Members and the future of our rotary force/tilt rotor community!