SecNAV: Navy wants to cut strain on Sailors, Marines

Published Sept. 24, 2015
By John Parker
Staff Writer

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The Navy is embarking on a wave of changes designed to lessen the strain on Sailors and Marines worn down with heavy deployment demands, the Secretary of the Navy said recently at Tinker Air Force Base.

"We ask a whole lot of you," Secretary Ray Mabus told about 400 Sailors inside Strategic Communication Wing ONE's Hangar 2. "Our deployments at sea and for the air crews and for maintainers are getting longer and longer, and they're getting more uncertain than they've ever been before. We're trying to do some things to mitigate that."

Secretary Mabus visited the Wing, aka Task Force 124, Sept. 15. Earlier in the day, he visited Tulsa to announce that a littoral combat ship under construction will be named the USS Tulsa.

Secretary Mabus said senior leaders are trying to make ship deployments and in-port maintenance work more certain to ease the strain on Sailors and Marines. Air Wings such as TACAMO, the Take Charge and Move Out nickname for the Wing that flies E-6B Mercury's that communicate with nuclear forces, including submarines, should also see more consistency.

"Now the world gets a vote," Secretary Mabus said. "We may not be able to stick through it all the time, but we've been wearing down our people and we've been wearing out equipment. We've got to be more regular about that."

The Secretary said the Navy and Marine Corps provide America with a presence "around the globe, around the clock," and "no place exemplifies that better than TACAMO."

"Thank you TACAMO for what you do in this incredibly important mission," Secretary Mabus said. "More than that, thank you for your willingness to put on the uniform, for your willingness to do what has to be done and how good you are."

The Secretary said the number of Navy ships is growing, with 70 ships put under contract in his first five years in office. The Navy will have 306 ships by the end of the decade, he said. The fleet currently has 273 battle force vessels.

Other improvements for service members include the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative, a one-stop readiness, resilience and wellness program focused on resources for active duty members and their families, the Secretary said.

Other recent changes include more maternity leave time for female members, an up to three-year "career intermission" program and a revamped promotion process focused more on merit.

"We're trying to make it so that if you want to do something like have a family, or if you want to go get an experience elsewhere, you can. The Pentagon's trying to put more on-ramps and off-ramps in terms of moving between active and Reserve, so we can keep the Sailors that we've got so much invested in and have so much invested in the Navy."

The Secretary presided over the re-enlistment of four wing members: Petty Officers 1st Class Jeffery Gagin and John Lewis; Petty Officer 2nd Class Vuth Rim; and Petty Officer 3rd Class Asia Murray.

Additionally, two Sailors received Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals: Petty Officers 2nd Class Sean Petesch and Chad Smith; and Seaman Shawna Anderson, and Airmen Benjamin Sergent and Anthony Thomas received their Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist insignia.