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Coast Guard adopts Navy CPO principles

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe R. Campa’s year-old policies are so popular, they’re being adopted by other services.

The Navy Chief Petty Officer Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles, put out by Campa last year as marching orders for the Navy’s collective chiefs’ mess, will be adopted by the Coast Guard.

Read the Coast Guard Guidance here

“I don’t see a difference in what a chief petty officer is supposed to do, whether it’s in the Navy or the Coast Guard,” Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles “Skip” Bowen said.

“When I read the Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles, it really struck me that this was the perfect document — and all I have to do is change a few words.”

Those changes amounted to switching the word “sailor” to “Coast Guardsman,” he said, “and that’s about it.”

Bowen made it official Aug. 25 via a standing order to all Coast Guard chiefs. He is now eyeing other items he could adapt from his sister sea service, such as a physical training uniform.

“The Navy and the Coast Guard each have unique missions and competencies, and that fact defines our value as separate military services,” Bowen wrote in his guidance. “But I believe our chiefs share the same purpose and goals within our respective organizations: to develop our Coast Guardsmen and sailors and to lead them in a manner that prepares them to conduct our missions and defend this nation.”

The two master chiefs have forged a close working relationship, traveling together twice in the last six months, visiting sailors and Coast Guardsmen in California last winter and visiting Navy and Coast Guard units operating in the Persian Gulf this summer.

But it’s not just the Coast Guard that’s learning from the Navy, Campa said.

“It struck me when I’ve visited chiefs’ messes on Coast Guard ships just how much it’s like ours in the Navy,” he said. “I was struck by the flatness of their organization and [how] everybody has a voice.”

But what has impressed Campa the most reinforced something he’s been pounding away at during his time as MCPON: Chiefs need to be chiefs first, even when filling roles traditionally held by officers.

“I’m really impressed by what I’ve seen of Coast Guard OICs,” Campa said of the smaller sea service’s officer-in-charge program, where chiefs run small boat stations and buoy tenders.

“These are chiefs; [they] aren’t trying to be Coast Guard officers,” Campa said. “Though they are operating as officers in charge, they don’t in any way subordinate their role as chief petty officers to that title — it is quite impressive.”

Bowen was impressed, too, on his visits to Navy ships, which helped cement in his mind that Campa’s edicts didn’t apply just to the Navy. Apparently, there were others in his ranks who felt the same.

“I received many e-mails from my chiefs who thought what Master Chief Campa had put out was right on, and that’s what we should be doing — ‘when are you going to do this?’ was what I heard the most,” Bowen said.

Though both master chiefs stopped short of advocating even closer ties — such as chief petty officer exchange billets — beyond what’s already in place, Bowen did say he’s now eyeing other things the Navy’s doing for his service.

“I really like what the Navy’s doing with adopting a servicewide [physical training] uniform,” Bowen said. “Our service has yet to adopt one, and it only make sense to piggyback on what the Navy’s doing here and adopt something similar as the Coast Guard PT uniform as well.”