NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. — To all the sailors angry or dejected by the stripping of their historic rating titles, the leader who ordered the unpopular change urged patience and highlighted the heightened career flexibility the service is promising in coming years.
"I know that some people are complaining about it, a lot of them are retired — and I understand that," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the roughly 600 sailors here. "I think there's a lot of goodness there. It's reasonable to have a lot of questions now, but as the information gets out they will understand and like what's going on."
Mabus' move overnight stripped sailors of time-honored titles that defined their jobs and even their Navy lives. Boatswain's mate. Fire control technician. Engineman. Hospital corpsman. And more than 80 more. Sailors have launched a White House petition to restore these titles.
Mabus says the move -- which also removed the word "man" from all job titles except "seaman" -- will prevent the use of force-out panels like enlisted retention boards and any return to tough re-enlistment approval policies. The ERB forced out 2,947 sailors in 2012.
"ERB, Perform-to-Serve were terrible. We only did those because we had ratings that were way overstaffed, some were way understaffed and we've got that back into balance — there are absolutely no plans to ever do that again," Mabus said in answer top a sailor's question about those programs, asking what was being done to make sure they aren't used again.
"One of the way we're going to keep from doing that is by making ratings more flexible so you can move between them and get qualified in more than one specialty."
Mabus has served as the leader of the Navy and Marine Corps for over seven years, the longest tenure in nearly a century. His two-day visit to Norfolk is expected to be one of several visits he'll make around the fleet on his unofficial "farewell tour." Mabus' influence extends far beyond rating titles. He has directed the services to adopt similar styled uniforms for men and women. He's instituted more breath tests to screen for alcohol abuse. And he's been a champion of renewable energy and more career flexibility for enlisted and officers.
He stayed on message when he discussed the controversial dumping of ratings, and outlined in detail what the Navy was promising sailors — and why modernizing ratings was necessary, but offered no discussion of why it was necessary to eliminate rating titles up front.
"Right now, some ratings are so narrow that it's really hard to promote — we get a bottleneck and you stay a first class for a long time, or the rating was so narrow that you don't have the opportunity to get the duty station you want," he said. .
"You are still going to be in the rating you qualified in — you will still have that Navy Occupational Specialty — but while you are doing that you can qualify two or three or four more in the larger rating group so if you can't promote in your rating, you can promote in one of the others or you can't get to the next duty station you want, you might make it in another."
The sailor who asked Mabus about ERB called him a "former operations specialist" and 17-year veteran who's nonetheless willing to see how the changes play out.
"Sure, it sucks to see what you have previously upheld as your Navy identity go away," Petty Officer 1st Class (SW) Rod Thompson said afterwards. "But at the end of the day, change is constant in the Navy and this doesn’t change the missions and what we do, it’s just words.
"I’m not saying that I like it, I don’t have to like it, but on the other hand I am looking forward to seeing these changes come and how this all plays out — I’m willing to give it a chance."
Other than Thompson's ERB question, only one other sailor asked a question about the move, wondering if these new career fields would make sailors "jacks of all trades and masters of none."
"The short answer is no," Mabus replied. "You're still going to have to qualify, there will be exactly the same standards."
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mabus again acknowledged rating removal isn't easy, but that he expected the pushback — and is showing now signs of backing away from the policy.
"Anytime you change and particularly something like this, you are going to have a big reaction," Mabus said. "But if you are doing it for the right reasons and you explain it well enough and if you give people a chance for input — because this is going to take a couple of years to do. We're not there, yet, there's still a ways to go."
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.
