États-Unis - The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Leadership

U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE

WHEEL BOOKS

In the U.S. Navy, Wheel Books were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments.

In that same tradition, U.S. Naval Institute Wheel Books provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institutes vast archives, the series combines articles from the Institutes flagship publication Proceedings, as well as selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books, to create unique guides on a wide array of fundamental professional subjects.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2015 by the U.S. Naval Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-6125-1890-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.481992

(Permanence of Paper).

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First printing

CONTENTS

Because this book is an anthology, containing documents from different time periods, the selections included here are subject to varying styles and conventions. Other variables are introduced by the evolving nature of the Naval Institutes publication practices. For those reasons, certain editorial decisions were required in order to avoid introducing confusion or inconsistencies and to expedite the process of assembling these sometimes disparate pieces.

Gender

Most jarring of the differences that readers will encounter are likely those associated with gender. Many of the included selections were written when the armed forces were primarily a male domain and so adhere to purely masculine references. I have chosen to leave the original language intact in these documents for the sake of authenticity and to avoid the complications that can arise when trying to make anachronistic adjustments. So readers are asked to translate (converting the ubiquitous he to he or she and his to her or his as required) and, while doing so, to celebrate the progress that we have made in these matters in more recent times.

Author Biographies

Another problem arises when considering biographical information of the various authors whose works make up this special collection. Some of the selections included in this anthology were originally accompanied by biographical information about their authors. Others were not. Those biographies that do exist vary a great deal in terms of length and depth, some amounting to a single sentence pertaining to the authors current duty station, others consisting of several paragraphs that cover the authors career. Varying degrees of researchsome quite time consuming and some yielding no resultsare required to find biographical information from other sources. Because of these uneven variables, and because as a general rule we are more interested in what these authors have to say more than who they are or were, I have chosen to even the playing field by foregoing accompanying biographies.

Readers will recognize some authors by their famous names (Arleigh Burke as an obvious example) and others will make their own connections. Some will likely recognize Lieutenant Tom Grassey as the future editor of the Naval War College Review. The Bowler brothers are the sons of Commander R. T. E. Bowler Jr., secretary-treasurer (CEO equivalent) of the Naval Institute for many years. Lieutenant Tom Marfiak later became a Naval Institute CEO after retiring from the Navy as a rear admiral, and many will recognize Senior Chief Jim Murphy as a current frequent contributor to Proceedings.

Ranks

I have retained the ranks of the authors at the time of their publication. As noted above, some of the authors wrote early in their careers. Although a sidelight to the intent of this volume, it is nonetheless interesting to see a piece written by Admiral Jim Stavridis when he was a lieutenant. It says much about the individuals, about the significance of the Naval Institutes forum, and about the importance of writing to the naval servicessomething that is sometimes underappreciated.

Other Anomalies

Readers may detect some inconsistencies in editorial style, reflecting staff changes at the Naval Institute, evolving practices in publishing itself, and various other factors not always identifiable. Some of the selections will include citational support, others will not. Authors sometimes coined their own words and occasionally violated traditional style conventions. Bottom line: with the exception of the removal of some extraneous materials (such as section numbers from book excerpts) and the conversion to a consistent font and overall design, these articles and excerpts appear as they originally did when first published.

In the plotting room far below, Ensign Merdinger got a call to send up some men to fill in for the killed and wounded. Many of the men obviously wanted to goit looked like a safer bet than suffocating in the plotting room. Others wanted to staythey preferred to keep a few decks between themselves and the bombs. Merdinger picked them at random, and he could see in some faces an almost pleading look to be included in the other group, whichever it happened to be. But no one murmured a word, and his orders were instantly obeyed. Now he understood more clearly the reasons for the system of discipline, the drills, the little rituals... all the things that made the Navy essentially autocratic but at the same time made it work. Walter Lord, Day of Infamy

The scene described here actually took place on board the battleship Nevada during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World War II. Besides its dramatic appeal, this glimpse of history illustrates one of the unique characteristics of military organizations. The Sailors in Nevadas plotting room did not carry out their orders because they wanted to, or because they were seeking a bonus in their paycheck. They did what Ensign Merdinger directed because their fears and sense of self-preservation were overruled by the system of discipline that is an essential component of any military organization.

That is as it should be, and no one who has faced the extreme challenges that sometimes come with naval servicewhether from the dangers of the sea or the violence of the enemywill deny that an extreme form of discipline is a necessary component of military service. There are times when a leader must rely on his or her authority to get subordinates to do what needs to be done, even at great peril.