Photo By Sgt. Andrew Hillegass | Joint Task Force Guantanamo and U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's newest chief petty...... read more read more
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Sixteen chief petty officer selectees from Joint Task Force Guantanamo and U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay concluded one chapter of their Navy careers and entered another when they gathered for an anchor-pinning ceremony and full-fledged induction into the Chief's Mess, known around the Navy as the "Goat Locker," Sept. 16.
The annual CPO induction process, which began Aug. 1, is a six-week, intensive training cycle geared toward developing the selectees' advanced leadership and teamwork skills. This process prepares them to become subject-matter experts in their particular trade as they assume the mantle of leaders and mentors for their junior sailors and officers.
"The [induction process] is about the transition into the chief petty officer ranks," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Anthony Williams, the leading chief at the public works center and senior enlisted leader of Navy Facilities Engineering Command Southeast, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla. "This [induction process] involves more responsibility to your junior troops and more responsibilities to your [junior] officers."
The CPO grade was created on April 1, 1893, formalizing a tradition that consisted of the senior, most experienced, rated sailor as the "chief" sailor, who was designated by the commanding officer as the one in charge of his peers.
When a sailor is promoted to the rank of chief petty officer, he or she incurs greater responsibilities and expectations. They will spend more time leading junior sailors to accomplish the Navy's mission than they will ever have done before.
Williams said these 16 Sailors, while enduring fatigue and long nights, were mentally preparing for the moment when they transformed from "bluejackets" to CPOs, with an increase in responsibilities and an assumption of a higher level of leadership. "Bluejacket" refers to sailors in rank from seaman recruits to petty officers first class.
"They are going through a very stressful time, in regards to the fact that they still have to [perform] their jobs for [Joint Task Force Guantanamo] and for the naval station, plus their overall responsibilities will increase," Williams said. "The [induction] process helps [CPO selectees] to understand what [the Navy] expects of them once that rank is achieved," Williams said.
The induction process began with 17 Sailors last month but was reduced by one when a selectee transferred out of JTF Guantanamo for an assignment in the U.S. That sailor continued the process of ascending to the CPO ranks alongside selectees at the new command.
The JTF Guantanamo and naval station chief selectees are just a few of the hundreds Navy-wide who were pinned with the coveted fouled anchor during a ceremony that signifies their status as "backbones of the Navy fleet."
According to Williams, first class petty officers — the Navy rank below chief petty officer - who aspire to join the CPO Mess should keep a few things in mind as they prepare for that next phase of their Navy careers.
"Mission first, people always," Williams said. "That's pretty much the greatest thing that [first class petty officers] need to understand. In order to get that increased responsibility, they should remember that it's about the mission; that it's about the people."
For more information about Joint Task Force Guantanamo, visit the Web site at www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil.
| Date Taken: | 09.16.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 09.21.2009 15:13 |
| Story ID: | 39108 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 101 |
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