XBradTC

So, last night, a NAVADMIN message started making the rounds on Facebook. And soon, CNO Richardson confirmed that it was genuine.

From USNI News:

 

The Navy is performing a brisk about-face on a controversial plan that shelved ratings titles for enlisted sailors, according to a message Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson that was set for release on Wednesday morning but was leaked on social media on Tuesday night.

The NAVADMIN message cancels a late September decision in which service leadership announced it would no longer address sailors by their rating – a more than 200-year-old tradition in which enlisted were known by their job title – and instead refer to enlisted sailors with the generic titles of Seaman (E-1 to E-3) or Petty Officer (E-4 to E-6).

That Richardson and the senior leadership at the Navy even considered this shows a stunning disconnect from the sailors actually on the deckplates. Instead, they spent far too much time worrying about SecNav Mabus’ insane social engineering priorities, and trying to eliminate “man” from all the various ratings and job descriptions, even as there was literally no on in the fleet, male or female, calling for such.

I’m no fan of Donald Trump, but this reversal is surely a concession that the Obama era is over, and that presumptive future SecDef James Mattis will have priorities other than tossing out over 200 years of tradition.

Does the Navy’s enlisted personnel management system need improvement? I’ll leave that for you squids in the audience to argue. I suspect there actually are some good ideas in the plan. But this whole mess could have been avoided easily. And wasn’t.