Petty Officer's Guide

By Paul Kingsbury and Daniel Richard

The Petty Officer's Guide is written and edited by petty officers for petty officers. It is designed to ensure Navy Petty Officers are ready to fight and win wars at sea, under the sea, in the air, on land, and in outer space and cyberspace by exposing junior Petty Officers to innovative and modern leadership methodologies. Serving as the premiere leadership guide to junior Navy Petty Officers, it enhances development processes and tools such as the Navy Leader Development Framework, Education for Sea Power, Sailor 360, and Enlisted Leader Development courses. Furthermore, it reinforces modern lines of effort identified in the Chief of Naval Operations’ Design for Maritime Superiority and promotes the development of innovative leaders and strategic thinkers. This guide provides unique insights into the values, beliefs, attitudes, and skills that enable the success of naval leaders, how Petty Officers can use power bases, influence tactics, and managerial skills to achieve objectives, and how to influence their peers in support of organizational objectives to achieve the mission accomplishment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781682475195

Book preview

Introduction

Petty /adjective/: of little importance; trivial; of secondary importance, rank, or scale.

Officer / noun /: a person holding a position of command or authority in the armed services.

When put in the context of serving as a U.S. Navy petty officer, being of secondary importance could not be further from the truth. Considering that our Navy employs over 200,000 of them, ranging from petty officers third class serving as leading deck seaman and team leaders to master chief petty officers (MCPOs) serving as advisors to the most senior flag officers, petty officers have significant importance in making our Navy ready to fight and win wars at sea, on land, in the air, and in cyberspace. Over our careers, we have served as and with many petty officers, and we have been privileged to personally observe thousands of them managing and leading team activities while maintaining and operating our Navy’s warfighting platforms to professional standards.

You may think of U.S. Navy chief petty officers (CPOs) as the most influential deckplate leaders, but today there are tens of thousands of strong petty officers second and third class fulfilling the true deckplate leadership and management roles and responsibilities of the Navy. Their work and experience shapes and strengthens their capability to be strong CPOs, so it is important for these junior petty officers to learn to manage and lead with the highest level of competence.

Unfortunately, many undervalue themselves or their roles. Some new petty officers may feel that things probably will not change for them now that they have been frocked. The rank brings increased authority, responsibility, and accountability, so a new petty officer’s ability to influence is largely limited by their own beliefs and attitudes regarding their roles.

Navy leadership has tremendous appreciation and respect for the role petty officers play, and have played, in shaping our naval history and warfighting success. There are many examples of petty officers who have overcome and led through challenging situations in peace and war, serving as role models for us all to follow. Your formative years as a young Sailor have been shaped by them, and they will continue to positively contribute to your success—and ultimately the lives of thousands of other Sailors.

Many petty officers like you have a deep thirst to gain more insight on how to best think, manage, and lead. You want to make a positive difference in the lives of your Sailors and for the Navy. The frustration many Sailors have with their superiors can be traced back to inadequate leadership and management skills. Examples include poor communication, unreasonable or unchallenging work assignments, lack of performance feedback, insufficient or ineffective training, crisis management and micromanagement, lack of advancement opportunity, not feeling that efforts are connected to mission or goals, and lack of rewards being linked to performance. This guide will cover these topics and offer you how-to advice and resources to help you alleviate these concerns and prepare for the challenges you will face. This guide aims to improve not only your leadership abilities but also communication, interpersonal, and team-building skills to help you develop into a competent and decisive leader. Because you aspire to be a CPO or a commissioned officer, it will help you understand how to leverage organizational networks so you can contribute to the mess or wardroom more effectively when you are selected.

The content of this guide is designed to align with and reinforce the content of enlisted leadership courses described in Laying the Keel— Developing the Backbone of Our Navy, including the Foundational and Intermediate Leader Development Courses, and is intended to fill the leadership and management guide gap that currently exists between The Bluejacket’s Manual and Chief Petty Officer’s Guide; these sources and others have been included in the Recommended Reading section. Consider this book your companion to the leadership and management courses you will attend during your career in the Navy. It will contribute to your self-growth and build upon and complement the foundation provided by your formal and informal leadership education, life experiences, and coaching and mentorship.

Just as doctors practice medicine and lawyers practice law, naval leaders must practice leadership. There is no point of arrival; you must constantly learn new approaches and understand the values and beliefs of an always-changing target audience. This guide strives to stimulate you to learn about topics such as power and influence, management skills, small-team leadership, coaching and mentoring, and expectations that Sailors have for you but that you may not have considered. It offers tips and guidance from a variety of perspectives and is intended to serve as a handy resource to help you think about your roles while offering you advice on how to better lead and manage our Navy. Petty Officer’s Guide will present you proven leadership and management techniques so that you can take a fix on them, acknowledge where you are strong, and improve areas in which you may be weak as you mature in your role as a naval leader.

Editorial help and insights from several former and currently serving petty officers have been used to ensure this guide is relevant and captures the needs and wants of your generation of young, informed, and influential petty officers. The relatively limited literature highlighting the influence of U.S. Navy petty officers consists of a handful of books, formally published articles, anecdotal stories, and biographies. These are useful, but this guide will work to fill gaps and to offer perspectives from former and current petty officers. It should help give or renew your sense of purpose, provide you with an increased sense of control, and increase your level of self-confidence. You need to be successful as a leader in the Navy.

Since the 1800s, our Navy has successfully completed the missions tasked to it because of the strong leadership and managerial skill of Sailors like you. Naval leadership has always had lofty expectations for petty officers, so to maintain and protect this reputation, you must maintain the highest levels of professionalism, integrity, and technical and institutional expertise and develop those qualities within the Sailors who will eventually be your relief. Our hope is that you leverage the wisdom and guidance in this book to improve upon yourself, your Sailors, and the Navy. On behalf of all the petty officers who have influenced each of us and our Navy with their unique insights, experiences, personalities, and perspectives, thank you for your service, and we offer you this guide.

1

Growing Into Your New Role

Petty officers are men rated for their superior knowledge, and for their ability in handling men. They are selected for the purpose of assisting the officers of the ship to promote its efficiency in every way. They should, in the virtue of their position and experience, instruct and direct those below them, in their duties, in the customs of the service, in its established routine, and in naval discipline generally.

— Ridley McLean, Hints for Petty Officers

For many decades, petty officers have held a well-respected position of authority. They can trace their early heritage and functions to the British navy, in which petty officers were assistants to the officers on board ship. Their title wasn’t permanent, and these men served at the captain’s pleasure, losing their rank when the crew was paid off at the end of a voyage. Petty officers have not always been categorized as first, second, or third class. Prior to the Civil War, U.S. Navy Sailors were divided into two broad categories, petty officers and seamen. In 1866, petty officers were divided into two groups, line and staff, and each group wore a distinctive specialty mark on the lower sleeve. On 8 January 1885, the Navy classified all enlisted personnel as petty officers first, second, or third class or seaman first, second, or third class. Chevrons were introduced to represent the new rates, and all petty officers first class were directed to wear blue jackets and caps with visors to distinguish them from other petty officers and seamen.

Masters-at-arms were considered the most important of the petty officers first class. In the late nineteenth century, they were senior enlisted leaders and, in some ways, could be compared to today’s command master chief petty officers (CMDCMs). Having the most authority, masters-at-arms were the highest-paid petty officers in the Navy. In fact, they were the most senior and highest-paid petty officers until the 1850s, when machinists began to be recruited from civilian life. At that time, machinists were paid seventy dollars a month, while masters-at-arms, who tended to be some of the older Sailors compared to the younger machinists, were paid sixty-five dollars.

Photo 1-1. The first mention of marks of distinction for petty officers appeared in the book of U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations, 1833, Article 600. The mark was an embroidered anchor, not more than three, nor less than two inches in length, placed halfway between the elbow and shoulder, upon the front of the sleeve: it shall be worn on a blue garment, and blue when worn on a white garment. A new mark of distinction device for petty officers was authorized in 1841 Navy Uniform Regulations. This petty officer device consisted of an eagle on an anchor no more than three inches in length. Chevron of Petty Officer First Class showing three stripes and a lozenge with Boatswain Specialist insignia superimposed over it. U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations, 1886. Naval History and Heritage Command

Photo 1-2. Hats and Caps for Petty Officers First Class. U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations, 1886. Naval History and Heritage Command

Petty officers were later organized under several different branches. For example, senior boatswain’s mates, quartermasters, and gunner’s mates were petty officers positioned at first-class level within the Seaman class. Masters-at-arms, apothecaries, yeomen (equipment, paymasters, and engineers), ship’s writers, schoolmasters, and band masters were also petty officers first class but came under the Special Branch. Finally, machinists were carried at the top grade within the Artificer Branch. This arrangement remained in effect until 1968, when a single system for military and nonmilitary matters based on paygrade and time in grade was established.

Some petty officers have been presented the opportunity to lead in challenging situations in peace and war and serve as role models for all to follow. One such example is Ck3 Doris Dorie Miller. He was born in Waco, Texas, on 12 October 1919 and worked on his father’s farm before enlisting in the Navy in 1939. In July 1940 he was assigned temporary duty onboard USS Nevada (BB 36) and was on board when Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Miller was collecting laundry when the alarm for general quarters sounded. He headed for his battle station, the antiaircraft battery magazine amidships, only to discover that torpedo damage had wrecked it, so he went on deck instead. Because of his physical prowess, he was assigned to carry wounded Sailors to places of greater safety. Then an officer ordered him to the bridge to aid the mortally wounded ship’s captain, and Miller subsequently manned a .50-caliber Browning antiaircraft machine gun until it ran out of ammunition and he was ordered to abandon ship. For these efforts, Miller received the Navy Cross, presented personally by Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, ADM Chester Nimitz. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was promoted to cook third class. Later that month Miller reported to USS Indianapolis (CA 35). He was subsequently returned to the West Coast in November 1942 and assigned to the newly commissioned USS Liscome Bay (CVE 56). Petty Officer Miller was on board that escort carrier when a single torpedo from a Japanese submarine struck the ship, sinking it within minutes. Listed as missing following the loss, Dorie Miller was officially presumed dead November 1944, at which time he was awarded the Purple Heart. USS Miller (FF 1091), a Knox-class frigate, and the USS Doris Miller (CVN 81), a Gerald R. Ford–class aircraft carrier, were named in his honor.

Photo 1-3. Sailors practice loading of one of the cruiser’s midships 8/35 guns, circa 1898. The original photograph was published on a stereograph card by the Keystone View Co. circa 1918. Naval History and Heritage Command

TM2 Henry Breault enlisted in the Royal Navy at sixteen years of age and joined the U.S. Navy four years later. On the morning of 28 October 1923, his submarine, the O-5 (SS 66), collided with the steamship Abangarez and sank in less than a minute. When the collision occurred, Breault was in the Torpedo Room. Upon reaching the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking, and instead of jumping overboard to save his own life, he returned to the Torpedo Room to the rescue of CEM Lawrence T. Brown, whom he knew was trapped, and closed the hatch, locking himself inside the compartment with Brown. They remained sealed there until rescued by a salvage party thirty-one hours later. For his actions, TM2 Breault was awarded the Medal of Honor; not only was he the first Submariner to receive the decoration, but he has also been the only enlisted Submariner to receive it to date.

BM1 James E. Willy Williams provides another example, one of enlisted leadership in combat. Williams enlisted in the Navy in 1947 at the age of sixteen. He performed many heroic actions while serving as a boat captain assigned to River Squadron 5 in South Vietnam before his retirement in 1966 after twenty years of service; he began a career in the U.S. Marshals Service afterward. On 14 May 1968, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson presented Williams with the Medal of Honor. Prior to this, he had received numerous sea-service awards for heroism, including the Legion of Merit with V, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, and three Purple Hearts, a list of awards unmatched by any enlisted person in Navy history. Following his death on 13 October 1999, the USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) was named in his honor.

Another hero from the Vietnam War was CM3 Marvin Shields, assigned to Seabee Team 1104 and stationed in South Vietnam. In June 1965, while supporting the 5th Special Forces Group, eleven Army Green Berets and eleven Sailors came under attack. Early in the battle, Shields was wounded but continued to supply his team with ammunition for the next three hours. Following another massive enemy attack at close range, Shields, wounded a second time, ignored mortal danger and helped a critically injured Sailor to safety while under intense fire. For four more hours, the team kept the enemy at bay. When the compound commander asked for a volunteer to eliminate an enemy machine-gun emplacement, Shields came forward. Although he and another man succeeded in neutralizing the machine-gun nest, Shields was wounded a third time and succumbed to his wounds. For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The fifteenth Knox-class destroyer escort, USS Marvin Shields (FF 1066), was named in his honor.

There are examples of recent petty-officer heroes who served silently and may be less well known. While serving as a Navy explosive-ordnance-disposal team member for Task Group 56 supporting Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve from March through July 2017, EOD2 Brandon Wightman personally rendered safe and disposed of dozens of complex improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance items. During security and stability operations, he cleared seven mortar firing positions to enable the engagement of Islamic State forces through indirect fire, resulting in twenty-one enemy fighters killed in action and the destruction of five enemy fighting positions. For his efforts, Wightman was awarded the Bronze Star. DC3 William Merchen, HM3 Tayinikia Campbell, and DC1 Ernesto Garcia were on board USS Cole (DDG 67) when the ship was attacked in Yemen on 12 October 2000. All performed gallantly and, in their own unique ways, were instrumental in saving the ship. Additionally, CTT1 Steven P. Daugherty served in Iraq in 2002 with a special-operations team assigned to gather critical intelligence to help determine future enemy intentions. He was returning from a mission when the vehicle he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device that killed him and two other members of his unit.

Photo 1-4. Doris Miller, Mess Attendant 2nd Class, USN, receives the Navy Cross from ADM Chester W. Nimitz at an awards ceremony held on the flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV 6) at Pearl Harbor, 27 May 1942. Naval History and Heritage Command

Photo 1-5. Torpedoman’s Mate 2nd Class Henry Breault receives the Medal of Honor from Pres. Calvin Coolidge. Naval History and Heritage Command

When facing imminent danger, it takes courage to respond to a crisis, but leading on a daily basis requires a great deal of commitment and focus to maintain good order and discipline. Petty officers on ships, submarines, and bases around the world are serving bravely and using their talents to execute and support the large variety of missions and operations of the Navy. There are books, websites, and displays in command headquarters that provide many of these stories. Perhaps one day you will be tested like these Sailors. Some of the stories described above are presented in greater detail in A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy (Cutler 2005). They are just a small sample of the petty officers past and present who have deployed, fought, and sacrificed in support of U.S. Navy mission objectives, each one of them a part of our enlisted heritage. You should feel proud of this legacy and your shared history and take opportunities to learn about their stories and weave them into your actions daily.

Photos 1-6 and 1-7. You are now a part of and must work to protect the legacy of hundreds of years of petty officer leadership. U.S. Naval Institute photo archive

Taking a Fix

How well do you connect with the Navy’s heritage and legacy? How can you better use that connection to instill the Navy’s core values and to enhance the pride in service to country in your Sailors?

Responsibility, Authority, and Accountability

Once frocked, the crow on your sleeve and collars symbolizes the responsibility and the authority that goes with your paygrade and comes with a significant amount of influence and respect. Additionally, your ribbons, medals, chevrons, and service stripes signal your depth of experience and character. Understand that these symbols or authority and the associated privileges—your uniform, your title, and your place at the front of your team—are not the job; they are your reward for doing your job well and tools that can help you accomplish the unit’s mission as safely, efficiently, and effectively as possible.

By pursuing or accepting advancement in rate, you have expressed a willingness to accept and carry out the associated duties and responsibilities of your new position. The process for selecting petty officers is outlined in the Navy’s Advancement Manual. A petty officer’s development starts in boot camp, and as you’ll learn later, they are selected not only due to their demonstrated competence and character in prior leadership positions but also because of identified potential to lead in the next paygrade. Leaders recognize young Sailors with potential, assign them to positions of responsibility, and document their performance on evaluations. From there, it is up to the candidate to study and score well on their advancement exam. Once selected, they are given a new rating badge as their scope of influence in the Navy increases.

As standard frocking letters explain: Your appointment carries with it the obligation that you exercise increased authority and willingly accept greater responsibility. Occupying now a position of greater authority, you must strive with a renewed dedication toward the valued ideal of service with honor. Petty officers are vested with the responsibility, authority, and accountability to fulfill the requirements of the position they are assigned to fill. Although this topic may appear mundane and you may think you get it, we will explore the concept of and relationship between these components.

Responsibility

You have often heard of "responsibility," but have you stopped to think about what it means to you? Let us consider it as the obligation you have regarding your personal and professional behavior and in the performance of your duties. Article 130.5 of the Standard Organization and Regulation of the U.S. Navy (Department of the Navy 2012b) states that responsibility is the obligation to carry forward an assigned task to a successful conclusion and the obligation for the proper custody, care, and safekeeping of property or funds entrusted to the possession of the supervisor of an individual. There are other resources you can read to get a sense of expectations, such as Hints for Petty Officers (McLean 1902), included as appendix A.

As you may already know, these responsibilities are many and are not always easy to carry out. You are responsible for both your behavior and performance and that of others. You are responsible for the warfighting readiness of your equipment and your Sailors, and you must make decisions, plan jobs, and be willing to be held accountable if plans go wrong. You must lead your people, teach them, and correct them, and you will also have to give orders, which can often be harder than following them.

The higher you advance, the greater your responsibilities, so you may be wondering whether your advancement is worth the responsibilities you have gained. Of course they are! A strong petty officer is willing to shoulder and embrace the opportunity it provides to make the Navy a better and more efficient force. Your responsibilities will extend up and down the chain of command, you will have the additional responsibility of working in coordination with others, and you will have the increased responsibility of keeping up with new developments.

As you think more deeply about responsibility, consider the words of ADM Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program: It [responsibility] can only reside and inhere in a single individual. You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. You may disdain it, but you cannot divest yourself of it. Even if you do not recognize it or admit its presence, you cannot escape it. If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance, no passing the blame, can shift the burden to someone else.

Authority

To help you fulfill your increased and added responsibilities, you are provided the authority you need. Chapter 10 of United States Navy Regulations (Department of the Navy 1990), Precedence, Authority, and Command, provides information regarding the scope and use of naval authority. You have general authority that stems from Article 1037, Authority of Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Petty Officers, which gives you the right to exercise that control over all persons subordinate to you: Chief warrant officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and petty officers shall have, under their superiors, all necessary authority for the proper performance of their duties, and they shall be obeyed accordingly. You also have organizational authority that comes from the billet you are holding within your command and has been delegated down to you through policy, regulations, or your commanding officer (CO) or officer in charge (OIC). Although the Standard Organization and Regulation of the U.S. Navy (SORN) provides regulations and guidance governing the conduct of all members of the Navy, it also specifies the individual duties and responsibilities of personnel filling specific positions within a unit organization, from your CO down to the messenger of the watch.

Authority is tied directly to your duties and responsibilities, and its exercise links to your acceptance of responsibility. Your authority is granted to support you in carrying out your assigned duties and responsibilities, and it affords you several leadership and management tools. First, it provides you decision-making power. Second, it provides you the power to give orders. Third, it provides you the right to enforce obedience. Your position will also offer you direct access to your leadership, which can help you better accomplish tasks and goals.

Your authority is what makes you legit in the eyes of your Sailors, but even though authority is a key leadership tool, it can never take the place of strong, positive leadership. You will achieve better results using your knowledge and character to generate buy-in and commitment rather than simply using your rank. When you advance in rate as a petty officer, you often will need to consider your authority and the effect your use of it will have on the Sailors for whom you are responsible.

Your authority is supported by regulations, policies, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and the wardroom and CPO Mess. Your CO or OIC, who has the ultimate authority, responsibility, and accountability for everything that happens in your command, has signed standing orders and policies that govern decisions regarding the mission. You should read and familiarize yourself with these articles and position descriptions to reinforce your understanding of your authority so that you are properly equipped to make time-critical decisions when higher authority may not be present or accessible. When assuming a new position, make time to discuss various scopes of authority with your supervisor to ensure expectations are aligned.

Positional power also entails ceremonial roles, including performing traditional and symbolic activities for the department or command. Petty officers encounter situations that deal with precedence, the relative importance of something over something else. For our purposes, precedence matters when determining how to order people of different rank or seniority within a rank or how to deal with emergency situations. Precedence is not about privileges or bragging rights; it’s about identifying who can decide, represent, or judge in the absence of appropriate authority. For example, when several PO2s are taken as prisoners of war, precedence will help determine who should take on the leadership responsibility for code of conduct requirements. Article 1427-010 of the Military Personnel Manual helps guide who is the person in charge. Key points you should understand are:

For enlisted members presently and regularly assigned to the same activity, or