The Navy needs to put its oceanography community in place to lead the nation
Opinion by Rear Admiral (ret.) Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., opinion contributor - Yesterday 5:30 PM
When I was a newly minted captain serving in the Pentagon in 2009, the Navy joined four distinct officer communities (intelligence, cryptologic warfare, oceanography and information professional) to form what is now the Navy information warfare community. The argument for this change centered on the efficiencies and synergies that might result from combining the different Navy disciplines that collected and disseminated information. I personally did not agree with this merger because I believed it would dilute the expertise of the members of my oceanography profession. Nevertheless, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) directed the change, so I saluted like a good sailor and carried on.
My colleague in the Pentagon at that time, retired Captain Bill Bray, recently analyzed the state of the Navy’s information community and the picture he painted is anything but positive. The specialized expertise of information warfare officers has indeed been sacrificed for a more generalist skillset, caused largely by requiring all members of the community to commit precious time and resources to acquire proficiency in the other sub-disciplines. This has been particularly harmful for naval oceanography due to the extensive scientific and technical training that the field requires, including a minimum education level of a Master of Science degree. This shift from specialization may already be doing real damage as the Navy has recently seen an uptick in avoidable, weather-related mishaps.
Naval oceanography delivers meteorology, physical oceanography, hydrography, underwater acoustics, astrometry and precise time information to the entire Department of Defense (DOD). The community is essential to such diverse applications as ballistic missile defense, aircraft carrier-based strike operations, undersea warfare, as well as space and cyber operations. In view of the mandate in the new National Security Strategy to modernize and strengthen the U.S. military, the naval oceanography workforce who provides this information should be supported and not sub-optimized. This can be accomplished by restoring the community to its previous position as an independent specialty.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-navy-needs-to-put-its-oceanography-community-in-place-to-lead-the-nation/ar-AA137b17?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=2b98823e7fb74a68a770ca61e6863a70
