An analysis of exit surveys completed by sailors departing the service has surfaced one clear finding: the fleet is burnt out.
That’s according to Rear Adm. Jennifer Couture, the Navy’s director of Military Personnel Plans and Policy. In an interview with Military Times this month, Couture said the Navy is considering significant changes — including cutting down the length of sailors’ second sea tours — to make service more sustainable and keep troops in uniform for longer.
Couture said Navy personnel officials had undertaken an exit survey analysis about a year ago, seeking to take advantage of data the service routinely collected to find out why sailors were leaving, particularly at the mid-career level.
“The number one reason sailors [gave] was op tempo,” Couture said, referring to the rhythm of deployments and operational requirements. While tempo is influenced by world conflicts and crises and presidential decision making, Couture said leaders zoomed in on sea-shore flow.
“How long is your sea tour versus how long is your shore tour, and what are the flow points through your career trajectory,” she noted. “We realized that probably three-quarters of our rates are sea-intensive, which means that [a sailor’s] first and second sea tours are probably 50 to 60 months — that’s a long time.”
With second sea tours currently ranging from 50-60 months, Couture said, leaders are considering a reduction to 36 to 48 months, which could mean shortening time away from home and family by almost one-third for some sailors.
“As you’re thinking about making that critical decision, ‘Do I stay in the Navy at the end of my minimum service obligation, or do I leave the Navy?’” the goal, Couture said, is that “this is not the determining factor for you.”
Other quality-of-life initiatives that take into account sailors’ families are also in progress. Couture cited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mandate to cut permanent change of station costs in half by Fiscal Year 2030 by moving troops less often. For the Navy, that comes with a chance to give sailors more agency and choice in how and where they develop their career. For those who wish to remain in a single location for multiple tours, officials envision having detailers present a broader list of options for them to consider with their families.
A model that presents sailors with a take-it-or-leave-it path for career progression can be “really degrading” to quality of service, Couture said.
“The expectation here is that when we get to a place where we have higher quality of service that includes more sailor choice in their orders and assignments, that would approve our retention ability,” she said. “That people will say, ‘Yeah, this is a place I’m going to stay.’”
En route to a process that offers more options, Couture said enlisted community managers are developing career paths for sailors that achieve all necessary career milestones and provide the experience for technical job field mastery while also taking into account their preferences and the needs of their family.
In some cases, she said, doing more to accommodate sailors’ preferences may come with additional costs. But, she added, planners are “looking for efficiency” in billet structure to meet flexibility objectives and the Navy’s needs.
She cited recent comments by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle about detailing more sailors to intermediate maintenance facilities — a shore duty with intensive technical experience built in. Instructor duty roles, too, offer technical proficiency and currency ashore.
“These are opportunities for gas turbine technicians or gunner’s mates or fire controlmen to go to shore and continue to learn their trade, to teach others to continue to get better at their job,” Couture said of maintenance facility positions.
Like the other military services, the Navy saw historic recruiting numbers in Fiscal 2025, a turnaround top officials credited to removing red tape that hindered recruiters and developing a more effective marketing strategy. While retention also remains high, with the service hitting more than 99% of its re-up goals last year, the Navy is still battling gaps in key billets, particularly in the most senior enlisted roles.
The Navy’s introduction of a “senior enlisted marketplace” in 2023 for master chief petty officers that offered more career control and flexibility has been a dramatic success, increasing the fill rate for fleet master chief and master chief jobs from a historic average of 40% to 92% in just three years. That experience is helping steer the Navy as leaders seek to expand flexibility in other areas.
A newly begun project for personnel officials, Couture said, is a “retention demand planning tool” that will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to give planners precise at-a-glance information on how many sailors at each level and rating the Navy needs.
“The future vision is we send that link to every commanding officer. And, for example, on Monday morning, the captain goes to their desk, and they click on the link, and it tells them, ‘Huh, DC2 Smith is in the window for reenlistment. We should figure out how to talk to him at our career development board process to understand what we can do to keep him in the Navy,’” Couture said.
“And so it really engages the command to rally around the sailor to make sure that the sailor is getting a good fit,” she continued. “And this will be to the benefit of both the sailor and the investment that we’ve made in them, as well as to the organization.”
