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New retirement board convenes Sept. 21

As many as 6,000 chief petty officers and up will face a new retirement board for enlisted sailors next month — and Navy officials are kicking over every rock to make sure every eligible sailor is considered.

How many chiefs will get the boot is unclear. Manpower officials are repeatedly emphasizing that this is a quality cut with no quotas — a topic that is causing angst in the fleet.

The senior enlisted continuation board is the latest in a series of retention measures officials are taking as they continue to deal with a Navy that has more sailors than it needs. While the drawdown is over, sailors are trying to stay in the Navy rather than search for a job in the struggling private sector.

Every sailor who has been in the Navy for more than 20 years and has spent more than three years in his current paygrade — and doesn’t have an exemption — is eligible for the first board, which begins Sept. 21 and lasts for three weeks.

Ahead of the board, Navy Personnel Command officials have scrubbed the records of the nearly 14,000 retirement-eligible chiefs, senior chiefs and master chiefs. Of those, 11,000 have at least three years’ time in grade — but 5,000 of those were later set aside because they were exempt.

Still, officials say they are being deliberate in every detail for this board, knowing full well that there are still many in the fleet who don’t trust the process.

“In the eyes of the beholder, perception becomes truth — there may be some out there who think those things, and we’re sensitive to that,” said Capt. Leo Falardeau, head of career progression at NPC. “We need to make sure we do this right.”

Full at the top

Though officials say they don’t have a number of how many chiefs must go, rumors are still making the rounds that the objective is to cut a set number of bodies.

It doesn’t help that the manning picture in re-enlistment Zone E — those with more than 20 years of service — isn’t pretty.

Officials were unable to provide current manning statistics for the zone. However, as of last February, 60 out of 82 ratings were at or above 110 percent capacity.

Officials say those statistics can be misleading, because they don’t account for pending retirements.

The process is being watched closely by the Navy’s top enlisted sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick West. He said the quota issue was discussed at length and the decision from highest levels was that no quotas would exist.

“I understand there are chiefs out there who are worried. I also understand that if you’re one of them, then you might want to look at how you’ve been doing business,” he said. “If you’re leading well, we’re not going to ask you to leave — it’s as simple as that.”

The board

Now that the list is down to 6,000 eligible, Falardeau’s staff is tossing it back to the fleet to make sure they got everyone before the board process begins.

“We want commands to look at who we have as eligible, but we also want them to make sure we haven’t missed anyone, either — we’ve never done this before and need to ensure everyone who should be considered by this board is,” Falardeau said. “That’s the only way it can be fair to all.”

Time is running short to submit a package to the board to fix any discrepancies — or to provide updated documentation. Those are due to NPC by Aug. 17.

Sitting on this board will be roughly 60 voting master chiefs and 14 others who will act as recorders. All are exempt from the board and underwent a thorough screening themselves. In addition, 11 officers — 10 captains and one flag officer — will be voting members.

Once in session, Falardeau said, the board will break into panels.

Unlike officer boards, there will be no pictures included in sailors’ records — something many senior enlisted think needs to change. But the board will see names.

The members will be looking for adverse information in the past five years, or since the sailor made chief petty officer.

“Specifically, they’ll be looking for anyone who has been detached for cause, has documented [non-judicial punishment], two or more alcohol rehab failures or any [physical fitness] problems as well,” he said.

Falardeau said each panel will produce two stacks of records — those with adverse information and those without. But, he insists, everyone will be voted on regardless of what’s in their records.

Once a panel has completed its review, it will take those records into the “tank,” a large room with a screen, where records are briefed and voted on.

“Those with no adverse information will be briefed as a group,” he said. “The board will then be asked to vote on this group as a whole and if 51 percent of the board agrees, they’ll be set aside as having been approved for continuation.”

Those with adverse information come next. Each record will be briefed to the group.

“I expect there to be a lively debate at this point in the process,” Falardeau said.

He said adverse information is not an automatic ticket home.

For example, a chief who had a physical fitness failure three years ago but who has recovered and not failed since — and has no other adverse information in his record — will most likely be approved for continuation, he said.

But it will be an entirely different case, Falardeau said, for someone who, for example, went to mast two years ago and whose performance has never recovered.

“But it’s all going to be based on what’s in the record — and commands need to make sure that everything is documented,” he said. “The board can only consider what they see in front of them.”

Each chief with adverse information will be voted on. A simple majority is required to either continue or retire the sailor.

Aftermath

Once the board has ended, names of those who must retire will be sent to each commanding officer.

Commanders will have a week to notify anyone who must retire. Those sailors must leave the Navy by June 30, which gives them nearly eight months to leave.

Falardeau said the process needs to be handled with dignity.

“The fact is these are all chief petty officers who have served honorably in our Navy and we need to treat this announcement with utmost care,” he said.

But even when the board ends, those selected for continuation aren’t out of the woods just yet.

“Again, as we do with any board, we will do a post-board scrub for things that might not necessarily show up in a service record,” Falardeau said.

Those include civilian offenses.

“If we find any adverse information after the board, we will take those individuals off the list for now and give them their day in court,” he said. “We will send them a letter outlining what we found and allow them to refute what we have — if they do that, we’ll reconsider.”

Still, each of those cases must ultimately be decided on by Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson, Falardeau said.

The plan for next year

Those continued will then be allowed to serve and will face another board next year — unless they advance in the meantime or become exempt.

Though no final decisions have been made, officials say these boards, or something like them, will continue into next year and beyond.

But just how these boards will be held is still on the table.

One option: Include the continuation process as part of the regular senior and master chief selection boards. This would mean that once the board decides who will move up, it will then decide who needs to leave.

Some also would like to see the process expand to all chiefs, not just those with more than 20 years. Officials say those discussions are not active, just ideas to consider in future years.

But key to any future board will be how commanders document their poorer performers. Marginal or poor performers sometimes stick around because commanders are reluctant to hurt someone’s career, Falardeau said.

“We won’t get the deadwood out if problems are not documented in their record,” he said. “That’s the tough part, because fundamentally people don’t want to look somebody in the eye and tell them the tough things. If we want to keep the best and send home the rest, that really needs to change.”

West said all chiefs’ messes must police their own while enforcing standards for the lower ranks.

“How many years have we talked about getting rid of poor performers — as long as I’ve been a chief petty officer,” he said. “Well, now we’re doing something about it and our mess is going to be stronger because of it.”

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