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CO of Hal relieved

Unfortunately, we are about to lose one of the best ways to disseminate operational info to the ship's company .... because they are terminating the stewards.
The smoke hole is still the best way to disseminate info though. It doesn't even smell like smoke anymore with all the vape flavours floating around.
 
Wait! There are still smokers in the Navy! I would have thought that would have been driven out of sailors by now with all the obstacles to smoking that were put in their way.
 
Wait! There are still smokers in the Navy! I would have thought that would have been driven out of sailors by now with all the obstacles to smoking that were put in their way.
It's all vaping nowadays. Smoking is ''cringe''.

The practice is startlingly rampant actually.
 
Half the Ship's Company generally has no idea where we are or what we are doing WRT operations.
As the Assistant Marine Systems Engineering Officer I once found myself in the Machinery Control Room at 2:00 am and not much was going on (operationally) and the ship was just steaming along (enroute to Bermuda from Halifax, as I recall). I was chatting with the on-watch engineering crew and they started asking me where the ship was going, where we were, etc.

I picked up the phone and called the OOW (who was also my cabin mate). He said he had a few minutes so I hosted a sort of 'ask me anything' where the on-watch engineering crew could ask the OOW anything they wanted to know. Normally this is WAY outside of bounds and outside the normal scope of procedures. So for about 20 minutes the OOW answered questions about where the ship was, if we were in the Bermuda Triangle, when we would arrive, weather, other ships nearby,.... basically just a view to what was going on 'outside'. I realized at that time how poorly informed these guys were. They got on the ship in Halifax. They did their job. They got off the boat in whatever port they found themselves.
 
As the Assistant Marine Systems Engineering Officer I once found myself in the Machinery Control Room at 2:00 am and not much was going on (operationally) and the ship was just steaming along (enroute to Bermuda from Halifax, as I recall). I was chatting with the on-watch engineering crew and they started asking me where the ship was going, where we were, etc.

I picked up the phone and called the OOW (who was also my cabin mate). He said he had a few minutes so I hosted a sort of 'ask me anything' where the on-watch engineering crew could ask the OOW anything they wanted to know. Normally this is WAY outside of bounds and outside the normal scope of procedures. So for about 20 minutes the OOW answered questions about where the ship was, if we were in the Bermuda Triangle, when we would arrive, weather, other ships nearby,.... basically just a view to what was going on 'outside'. I realized at that time how poorly informed these guys were. They got on the ship in Halifax. They did their job. They got off the boat in whatever port they found themselves.
I always made a point of stopping in the MCR for 10 minutes prior to taking my watch so I could chat with the fellows and let them know what was up and what we planned on doing.

There are a lot of the rank and file that do a very good job but have no idea where the Ship generally is or what we are doing. I would personally hate that, but that's just me.
 
As the Assistant Marine Systems Engineering Officer I once found myself in the Machinery Control Room at 2:00 am and not much was going on (operationally) and the ship was just steaming along (enroute to Bermuda from Halifax, as I recall). I was chatting with the on-watch engineering crew and they started asking me where the ship was going, where we were, etc.

I picked up the phone and called the OOW (who was also my cabin mate). He said he had a few minutes so I hosted a sort of 'ask me anything' where the on-watch engineering crew could ask the OOW anything they wanted to know. Normally this is WAY outside of bounds and outside the normal scope of procedures. So for about 20 minutes the OOW answered questions about where the ship was, if we were in the Bermuda Triangle, when we would arrive, weather, other ships nearby,.... basically just a view to what was going on 'outside'. I realized at that time how poorly informed these guys were. They got on the ship in Halifax. They did their job. They got off the boat in whatever port they found themselves.

So, like just about every one of my O Groups as a platoon commander then? ;)
 
I always made a point of stopping in the MCR for 10 minutes prior to taking my watch so I could chat with the fellows and let them know what was up and what we planned on doing.

There are a lot of the rank and file that do a very good job but have no idea where the Ship generally is or what we are doing. I would personally hate that, but that's just me.
I thought the MCR was a mandatory stop on the way to the bridge for the oncoming OOW. Did that change recently?
 
My rounds as part of my role as an electronics tech on the ship took me pretty much everywhere. There's SONAR and NAV gear almost everywhere....so I'd get to see most of the ship in the run of a day. From the bridge to the MCR to OPS, tiller flats, FLYCO, etc. I knew where we were, what we were doing, and who was around us.

We had sailors (Stokers mostly) who were literally afraid of going outside. There was one guy in the 90's - I recall that his wife would drop him off at the brow, and he wouldn't leave the ship until we got back to Halifax. Like - he never went ashore.

It takes all kinds.

During the last week of our deployment to Libya, on the transit home - I saw the CO walking on 3 deck. I asked him if he was lost - it was the first time I'd seen him down that far inside the ship.
 
As the Assistant Marine Systems Engineering Officer I once found myself in the Machinery Control Room at 2:00 am and not much was going on (operationally) and the ship was just steaming along (enroute to Bermuda from Halifax, as I recall). I was chatting with the on-watch engineering crew and they started asking me where the ship was going, where we were, etc.

I picked up the phone and called the OOW (who was also my cabin mate). He said he had a few minutes so I hosted a sort of 'ask me anything' where the on-watch engineering crew could ask the OOW anything they wanted to know. Normally this is WAY outside of bounds and outside the normal scope of procedures. So for about 20 minutes the OOW answered questions about where the ship was, if we were in the Bermuda Triangle, when we would arrive, weather, other ships nearby,.... basically just a view to what was going on 'outside'. I realized at that time how poorly informed these guys were. They got on the ship in Halifax. They did their job. They got off the boat in whatever port they found themselves.

While underway with Sea Training, ST makes a point of stopping random sailors and asking if they know anything about what's going on, where we are and what were doing. Their findings are provided and improvments are to be made.

Also the IMO/IMD are constantly filling inboxes with updates and goings on ect ect.

Lastly, during HODs and CHODs information is supposed to be given for important 5 Ws. And that is supposed to be disseminated in follow on OGroups.

All this is to say we are trying. But we aren't great yet. It would be nice if the flex wouldn't change every half an hour.
 
During the last week of our deployment to Libya, on the transit home - I saw the CO walking on 3 deck. I asked him if he was lost - it was the first time I'd seen him down that far inside the ship.

A ships company also notices quickly when a CO doesn't visit 3 Deck often. It's an easy way to gain familiarity with a crew and help foster positive morale, I'm not sure why many don't do it more.
 
All this is to say we are trying. But we aren't great yet. It would be nice if the flex wouldn't change every half an hour.
If people don't care to know then they won't know. It takes 30 seconds in the chow line to ask an Ops type where we are and where we are going. Lots of folks just don't listen to that info even when you do pass it on. It has literally nothing to do with their job. So they don't care.
 
A ships company also notices quickly when a CO doesn't visit 3 Deck often. It's an easy way to gain familiarity with a crew and help foster positive morale, I'm not sure why many don't do it more.

Self-confidence issues, perhaps, as well as no formal training/ mentoring in, or corporate requirements to demonstrate, MBWA related competencies ;)

The management by wandering around (MBWA), also management by walking around,[1] refers to a style of business management which involves managers wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace(s), at random, to check with employees, equipment, or on the status of ongoing work.[1] The emphasis is on the word wandering as an unplanned movement within a workplace, rather than a plan where employees expect a visit from managers at more systematic, pre-approved or scheduled times.

The expected benefit is that a manager, by random sampling of events or employee discussions, is more likely to facilitate improvements to the morale, sense of organizational purpose, productivity and total quality management of the organization, as compared to remaining in a specific office area and waiting for employees, or the delivery of status reports, to arrive there, as events warrant in the workplace.

 
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