Lasting
impression --- Outgoing CNO rocked Navy’s boat, put sailors first
Since 07-17-05
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Subject: Lasting impression --- Outgoing CNO rocked Navy’s boat, put sailors
first
Lasting
impression
Outgoing CNO rocked Navy’s boat, put sailors first
By
Andrew Scutro
NavyTimes staff writer
18 July 2005
Pretty soon Adm. Vern Clark will be living next to a golf course in the Arizona
desert with two urgent priorities: his next tee time and keeping the ice in his
Diet Dr Pepper from melting. At age 60, with 37 years of Navy service behind
him, the heavy lifting for Clark is done. He retires July 22 at the Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he will turn over command of America’s fleet to
the incoming chief of naval operations, Adm. Mike Mullen.
The world has certainly changed since Clark became the 27th CNO on July 21,
2000. And he’s changed the Navy along the way, leaving plenty of fingerprints on
many institutional plans, policies and programs. From the Fleet Response Plan
and Sea Swap to Human Capital Strategy and Sea Warrior, the corporate-conscious
Clark has forced the Navy to challenge assumptions and find ways to adapt to
fiscal and wartime challenges.
With less than three weeks until his final detachment, Clark sat down with Navy
Times editors and reporters for a parting interview July 5. He was quick to note
that his successor may not be wedded to many of the ideas he championed, but he
said the two are of like minds on most major initiatives. “Mike Mullen is going
to change some things. He’s going to try to make them better,” Clark said.
During a discussion that lasted nearly an hour and a half, Clark was serious,
thoughtful, proud and self-effacing. And at the end, when it came to the Navy
and the shipmates he will soon be leaving, he slowed his pace, his voice choked
up a bit, and his eyes got misty. Clark said he thought of his last interview
with Navy Times as a chance to talk to the fleet, and he had some bits of wisdom
and other gouge to share.
Career advice
As a junior officer, Clark quit the Navy in 1972 when his initial obligation
was complete. After a year on the outside, he was back in. Now he tells sailors
to be good at what they do now and doors will open. “Don’t spend all your time
trying to preprogram every move in your career; don’t do it.”
Role in Iraq
Clark was asked what the Navy can do to support the mission on the ground in
Iraq. He said he expects the Navy mission there to grow. There are some 4,000
sailors “on the ground” in the Iraq theater now, from Seabees to cargo handlers
to SEALs. “I believe that we will continue to provide this kind of support
in every way that we can, that we can effectively contribute to the war-fighting
effort that the nation has. … We’re going to do everything we can.”
Jointness
At a recent forum in Washington, D.C., Clark described himself as being the
“most joint” CNO the Navy has ever had. He’s got five separate joint-duty
assignments, and it’s made for an attitude that puts service wide goals over
Navy-centric interests. He’s been criticized for it, but he stands behind this
attitude, even when it comes to jointness within the Navy communities. “If you
don’t have any critics, you’re not reaching far enough. … I don’t do shares.
That means this is not a Navy where one-third goes to aviators, one-third goes
to surface guys, one third goes to [subs]. ... That’s not the way I do
business.”
JFK’s future
Clark said the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy is deployable but that he stands
by the requirement for 11 carriers, not 12. The carrier now sits pierside in
legislative limbo as Congress hashes out its fate. Asked about the crew also
held in limbo, he said the answers will come clear in a few months. “We live in
a democracy, and it’s one of the beauties of our system. And so we’re having
this discussion ... and we are subject to the congressional judgments and the
way they put forth bills, and if they decide that we’re going in a different
direction, obviously we’re going to have to go.”
The need for DD(X)
Clark urged a close examination of the facts that have led to a ship now
approaching $3 billion a copy. He said the Navy “desperately” needs the ship and
blamed the cost of the future destroyer on delays in the program. “DD(X) is a
technology driver for the whole Navy, and I think fundamentally that’s been
missed in all this. I’m the senior official here who wears the uniform; it’s
been laid at my feet. Maybe we haven’t characterized this as effectively as we
need to.”
‘Sea warrior’ vs. ‘sailor’
The Navy has initiated the multifaceted Sea Warrior program, part of which
redefines the sailor as a “sea warrior.” Some feel it indicates an identity
crisis in a service without the visible, viable enemy it had most recently in
the Soviet Union. Clark did not offer to define a difference between the terms.
“The terminology like ‘sea warrior’ was trying to paint a word picture of who we
are and who we are going to become. … “I have been given the chance to pick up
the paintbrush and paint a picture of who we’re going to be and who we are
today, and I want to tell you, this has been the thrill of a lifetime.”
Focus
Finally, Clark urged the fleet to remember the commitment sailors have made to
each other, the country and the Navy. “I would say this: Focus on the mission. …
What is the mission?
The
mission is to serve and, in the process, serve well.”
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)