New Navy Program Seeks To Ease Transition For Sailors Deployed For Soldier Duties

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
January 27, 2008 By Louis Hansen, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--Chief Petty Officer Vernice Smith heard the rumors last January, soon after reporting to the destroyer McFaul.
Her resume matched several boxes on a Navy checklist for a job in Iraq – an experienced supply clerk, noncommissioned officer. In February, her boss confirmed the rumors. She was going.
A single mom, Smith had to find long-term care for her children, finish her ship duties and handle dozens of other predeployment chores. By June, she was marching formations and firing M-16s at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Navy leadership has recognized persistent problems with sending men and women to do soldier duties in the Middle East. It began a new program last month to stabilize the process for the emergency deployers, known as individual augmentees or IAs.
“We’re a department at war. We have skills that can help our brothers and sisters at war,” said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, who as head of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command is responsible for supplying combat-ready forces throughout the world. But Greenert acknowledged the system had practical and image problems that “we had to deal with.”
Major complaints from sailors include little advance notice for mobilizations, and disruptions in family life, Navy training and career.
“It’s outside of your comfort zone,” said Chief Petty Officer Jason Wistner, who left his ship and spent nearly a year as a prison guard in Iraq. “It has a huge impact on the sailors.”
At any time during the past four years, 9,000 to 10,000 sailors have been supporting the stressed Army and Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan. The average stay is nine months.
The Navy’s new program, the global war on terror support assignments system, or GSA, will help establish a process for predictable and stable rotations, Greenert said.
The Navy now understands which skills and jobs are regularly needed, Greenert said. Medics, security personnel, computer systems technicians, supply clerks and administrators top the most-wanted list, according to the Navy Personnel Command.
Greenert expects the demand to remain steady. The added responsibilities have not prevented the service from fulfilling its core mission, he said.
“There’s a threshold,” he said, “but we’re not at that point.”
Assignments will be posted online, allowing sailors to volunteer up to 10 months in advance.
The Navy hopes to end the days of sailors taking off for soldier boot camp without completing their regular duties and making family arrangements.
Sailors also will have the chance to lock in their next assignment before they go abroad.
That change came because sailors who were overseas sometimes had problems staying in touch with their detailers and ship leaders about their next job.
In late 2006, the Navy established the Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center and posted staff around the world to help sailors manage their careers and the military bureaucracy while away from their ships and commands.
Greenert said the goal is to help enlisted personnel and officers build the tours into their careers, while minimizing the disruption on families and training.
The tours may help sailors win promotions, according to Navy statistics. For example, the promotion rate to chief petty officer last year was 1 in 5 for sailors without an IA mission and nearly 1 in 3 for those who had deployed.
Wistner, an air traffic controller aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan, believes his experience clinched his promotion.
“To make chief these days, you do what you can,” he said.
Lt. Ronald Irwin, a 23-year veteran, said he thinks the new system would have smoothed out his 13-month tour training Iraqi soldiers.
He said he thought it was unfair, however, that his two-week leave from a dusty base in Iraq was deducted from his regular vacation time.
Vernice Smith’s deployment was difficult on her family. Her mother, Bernice, took care of her children Nychel, 8, and Quontel, 17. While Smith was in Iraq, her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Smith returned a few weeks ago to her mother and children. But later this year, she’ll deploy with her ship.
The past few assignments have been stressful. She wished she’d had more time to prepare, she said, “just to get your mind right.”
 
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