Vice Adm. Bob Burke, the Navy’s top personnel officer, has picked Command Master Chief Wes Koshoffer to be his enlisted adviser.

Koshoffer, 48, will fill the spot vacated on Aug. 29 by Russ Smith when he became the 15th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.

Burke called Koshoffer a “proven leader who understands the importance of communicating with both junior sailors and senior leaders alike, and brings a wealth of experience to the Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education enterprise."

“He has been a vocal advocate and staunch supporter of our enterprise’s many efforts on Sailor 2025 initiatives as well as our transformation efforts and is a great add to our team,” said Burke.

The command master chief of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, since February, Koshoffer previously served as the senior enlisted sailor at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center.

Also located in Newport, he led a team of experts tasked with crafting an enlisted leadership program that helped personnel develop and retain skills throughout their careers.

“He was the architect of what we’re rolling out in the fleet, now,” MCPON Smith told Navy Times in a July interview. “As the leader of an incredible team, he was the mastermind who took all the pieces and parts of existing programs and rolled it into a coherent framework that we have started to execute in the fleet.”

A native of Newport, Koshoffer enlisted in the Navy on March 22, 1989. He trained in submarine communications as a radioman and became an electronic’s technician when the rating was renamed.

A career submariner pinned with the enlisted submarine warfare qualification badge, Koshoffer has served in five fast-attack submarine crews, rising to become the chief of the boat aboard the Alexandria in 2005.

His tours ashore have included posts at several East Coast submarine squadrons and support units, plus Submarine Force Atlantic, where we served as the senior communications evaluator on the command’s Tactical Readiness Evaluation Team.

One of the Navy’s four fleet master chiefs, Koshoffer becomes the fifth sailor to carry the standard for Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education — what’s shortened in the service to “N1.”

Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.

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