The Navy’s top officer said Tuesday that training for the Navy’s technical rates takes too long.
“We bring a kid into the Navy and in two years we have them ready to be an AEGIS tech,” said Adm. Jon Greenert, chief of naval operations. “Well, you can get a master’s degree in two years, certainly most of a college degree, and we’re not even close to that. So what is it that we can do to be faster in that regard?”
Greenert, speaking to a packed room at the Brookings Institution, said he was working with Vice Adm. Bill Moran, the chief of naval personnel, to make the initial training faster for rates such as fire controlman, and also to move up the timeline for getting those sailors to “C” school.
“It’s at least six years until we send them to a major upgrade in their education,” he said. “That’s too long because their equipment is rapidly changing. So how do we keep up with that in a manner that’s sensible? We’re trying to build this airplane as it’s flying, in a manner of speaking.”
Greenert also called for a push to get more technology in the hands of sailors quicker to teach them how their personal communications fit into the larger picture of cyber security.
“We are putting tablets and smart phones … into our basic training,” he said. “This way you can send an email to your mother, or a text, and by the way this is how you need to use this. These are the basics of password protection, of virus protection. Don’t charge this thing up on a computer on your ship because we don’t want to share viruses. Cyber hygiene, you’ve gotta get that down.”
