Force-wide morale is "quite low" and sailors don't trust senior leaders to handle the problems facing the Navy, from long and unpredictable deployments to tight budgets and proposed pay changes.

Those are the key findings of an alarming new independent survey, launched and bankrolled by a career fighter pilot on a mission to alert Navy leaders to what he and colleagues see as a coming retention crisis, where fed-up sailors vote with their feet.

The unofficial survey, taken by 5,536 Navy personnel, reported that nearly half the enlisted force said they distrust senior leaders, and 40 percent of officers said they shared similar distrust.

Even more alarming, only 27 percent of survey takers said the morale in the Navy was either good or excellent.

"Overall, morale is assessed to be quite low across the force," according to the full survey report, which stands in contrast to the Navy's periodic surveys.

The effort was the brainchild of Cmdr. Guy "Bus" Snodgrass, an F/A-18 pilot and the executive officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 195, whose survey asked sailors about hot button issues like long deployments and a proposed overhaul of the 20-year retirement scheme.

The survey found widespread angst with the proposed changes to the vested retirement system, even though Pentagon leaders have said the changes would not affect current service members. The survey also claims that these proposed changes created the perception that the brass are not on their side.

"This has resulted in an imbalance where senior leadership is viewed negatively, while Congress is perceived as coming to the rescue," the Sept. 1 report said. "Senior leaders should be unabashed champions for the sailors they lead. Otherwise, they should refrain from claiming 'People are our most important asset.' "

To be sure, the survey was unscientific. Officers, who make up 17 percent of the service, amounted to 57 percent of the respondents. These responses were not statistically weighted to represent the make-up of the Navy, unlike official Navy-wide personnel surveys, leaving officer views overrepresented. Officials are taking issue with some of the survey's findings, as a result.

Among respondents, the survey found a confidence gap. Sailors don't buy official talking points that the unpredictable deployment schedules are a thing of the past. According to the survey, "41.9 percent of sailors who responded report their last deployment was between 7 and 9 months in length, and 47.4 percent expect their next deployment to last between 8-10 months, with a plurality believing deployments will be 9 months in length."

Sliding numbers

The survey, taken in May, offers a snapshot of a force smarting from uncertain deployments and unease about the budget. The responses show an increased pessimism when compared to the official 2008 Navy-wide personnel survey, published in 2009 and the latest publicly available.

For example, in the 2008 NPS, about 45 percent of Navy members responded that they had trouble balancing family and their personal lives. In the recent survey, nearly 63 percent responded that they were dissatisfied with their work-life balance.

As for morale, the 2008 survey showed about 30 percent of respondents rated their morale as "low." In the recent survey, about 42 percent said their morale was marginal or low.

Trust in Big Navy has also slid since 2008 among enlisted personnel, though it didn't score high marks in either survey.

In 2008, 32 percent of enlisted sailors agreed with the statement "I trust the Navy to look out for my best interests," with only 27 percent of officers agreeing. In the latest survey, the trust deficit seems to be greater among enlisted, possibly due to fallout from the 2011 enlisted retention boards.

Navy response

The independent survey — led by Snodgrass with the aid of 16 officers, enlisted and professors — has Navy leadership taking notice.

The Navy's top uniformed personnel officer reviewed the findings and said that many of the responses track with feedback that the Navy's personnel bureaucracy collects.

"Frankly, it reinforces a lot of the efforts we already have underway," Vice Adm. Bill Moran said in a Sept. 3 interview, citing programs to pay sailors for longer deployments, increases in career sea pay and strengthening commanding officers' authority as steps to build morale.

Still, the chief of naval personnel took issue with some of the independent survey's findings. For example, he said the morale numbers may not give a complete picture of the force.

"If you look at the folks on the [carrier] Bush … their morale is probably pretty high," he said, referring to the carrier currently involved in operations over Iraq. "But if you go to a ship that's been in the yards for three years, it's probably not so good."

Moran said this is why it's "important to have multiple surveys."

One finding that has Moran thinking is the widespread distrust in the system of performance evaluations (enlisted) and fitness reports (officers).

Officers and enlisted overwhelmingly believe the primary factor in deciding an eval's ranking is not merit, but timing — for example, when a sailor arrives at a command, when an evaluation is done or the impact of a reporting senior's (i.e., boss) arrival to, or departure from, a command, the survey reported. Among officers, only 5 percent said ranking is based on merit.

Moran said he is considering altering the eval and officer fitrep system from once a year to once every six months, a recommendation from the unofficial report.

"Now, this would be at a time when everyone is talking about reducing administrative distractions; this would be another administrative duty," Moran said. "But if this is something that's important to sailors, then it's something we'll consider."

Moran said the trust deficit between the fleet and its leadership is inherent in the Navy's bureaucracy.

"The [enlisted retention board], for example, was impersonal, though it touched people in a very personal way," Moran said. "So I can see how sailors would connect some of those feelings with senior leadership."

To Moran, morale is best measured on a unit-by-unit basis. He believes the best way to raise morale is to empower COs with more responsibilities, giving them more flexibility to spot-advance sailors or determine whether the command should allow ball caps with the Navy working uniform, to cite two recent changes.

'Zero-defect' Navy

Among the recommendations called for by Snodgrass' group: to "measurably reduce operational tempo" to decrease the strain on sailors and their families; to drop the mandatory training requirements, and to maintain the 20-year pension system.

"While changes to the current retirement system may be inevitable, senior leaders should retain a defined benefits program due to its strong influence on a sailor's decision-making calculus," the report said.

The survey touches on perceptions of a "zero-defect mentality," where those with mistakes or captain's masts in their records are drummed out of the service or barred from advancing. The respondents were split, with three out of four officers believing a zero-defect culture had taken hold, compared to 42 percent for enlisted.

The report concludes the Navy should stop publicizing the missteps of COs, command master chiefs and other senior leaders.

"Several recent high-profile firings have demonstrated the negative impact of a rush to inform the press, as a plurality of sailors remarked that once the Navy has gone public, there is no chance for the sailor to recover, regardless of the ultimate disposition of the case," the report said.

The report argues that Navy disclosures of senior officer misconduct appear to "throw them to the wolves."

Moran, however, said the Navy expects exemplary conduct from its skippers and will continue to publicly disclose instances when those officers fall short, as is expected of public officials.

"If a CO does something that is illegal or caused their superior to lose confidence, they are going to be held accountable," he said.

About David B. Larter

David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.

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