No more shenanigans.
That was the bottom line of Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens' controversial chief training overhaul two years ago, which ended decades of initiation rites.
Stevens said these age-old traditions needed to come in line with today's professional chief's mess — or be jettisoned.
Induction, along with its gross-out pranks more akin to rush week at a frat house, was discontinued in favor of strenuous and professionally relevant training meant to push chief selects to the limit.
"You can have tough, realistic and effective training and still keep it professional and totally in line with our core values," Stevens told Navy Times Sept. 23.
Still, each year, some chiefs aren't getting the word.
This year's chief season has seen four incidents of exactly the type of shenanigans MCPON has been trying to stamp out, where his rules and quite possibly Navy regulations have been bent, if not broken.
Two incidents occurred on board the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which the command has ruled as not misconduct. Two others elsewhere are under investigation.
Stevens says these incidents also show that more chiefs — not just selectees — are coming forward to report their concerns.
"It's unfortunate that any of these incidents occurred," Stevens said. "But what I have been impressed with during this year's CPO-365 Phase II season is, in each case, it was genuine chief petty officers who came forward and took appropriate action either as an individual or collective mess. In the past, this hasn't always been the case."
Inappropriate touching
The Vinson's first serious incident during chiefs season occurred Aug. 25 in the chief's mess, nearly a month into Phase II training, which commences after the chief list was released in early August.
It was around 9:30 p.m. that night, one of the ship's first days of deployment. The chief selects were working in the mess and it was hot.
A master chief aviation ordnanceman went into the unisex head. While he splashed water on his face, a female chief select entered the head's open door, according to an official report.
"There was no paper towel there and I said, 'Oh my, you are as sweaty as we are,' and I ran my hands down her face on the side, from her hairline to her chin," the AOCM said in a Sept. 10 witness statement.
The chief select, a culinary specialist 1st class whose name officials removed from the command report, was upset. Her master chief culinary specialist quickly spotted a change in her demeanor.
"I asked her what was going on and she said she was touched on the face by another master chief ... after he came out of the head," he wrote in a statement.
She told the ship's top enlisted, Command Master Chief (AW/SW) Marty Barnholtz, what happened and he confronted the AOCM from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 15 the next morning.
"I explained to him that it was not acceptable or appropriate to touch another selectee," Barnholtz reported to a force master chief in an email. "I also told him that he was done for the season."
Afterwards, the AOCM apologized to the chief select, who said she was satisfied.
" I don't feel there was any ill intent," she said. "It was just the grossness factor that bothered me. I was surprised that it went to the force master chief so fast. I am glad they took the incident seriously."
The report says the AOCM apologized on his own volition. However, he felt treated unfairly.
"I was appalled that I was removed from the process for something so trivial as a touch to remove sweat from the side of her head/face," the AOCM said in his statement, comparing his questioning to "the Spanish Inquisition."
Barnholtz, with the OK from then-commanding officer, Capt. Kent Whalen, ordered a 24-hour chiefs season standdown to reiterate the rules to his mess. Barnholtz also ordered everyone to re-read MCPON's guidance.
Many selectees and chiefs aboard Vinson weren't even aware of the incident that led to this standdown, sources told Navy Times.
Barnholtz wrapped up his comments to the mess by saying, "We are here to train, guide and lead our selectees and our sailors, and we are not here to belittle, demean or touch them — other than a handshake."
The command ruled that this touching did not constitute misconduct or hazing.
"I believe that the incident on 25 August 2014 demonstrated poor taste and was not appropriate," concluded Capt. Karl Thomas, who took command of the Vinson from Whalen on Sept. 2.
AOCM was banned from further chief season training and the command ruled the case closed. But it was not to be the last incident.
Feeding the master chief
Standdown over, CPO-365 Phase II on the Vinson got back underway with the selectees acting as mess cooks in the chief's mess. The idea, sources say, is the selectees get a lesson in service. On the Vinson, that went a step further.
Machinery Repairman 1st Class Vincent Yaich was one of those selects serving the genuine chiefs in the mess during a Aug. 31 lunch.
Yaich — or someone else — decided it might be fun to poke fun at Master Chief Sonar Technician (SW) John Nowak, the mess' longest-serving master chief.
Yaich followed Nowak around the mess as the master chief filled his tray with food.
"I told him he was the old man in the chief's mess and that he needed help to eat," Yaich recalled to an investigator. These names were removed from the report, but sources on Vinson confirmed the identities of Nowak and Yaich.
"Someone else in the mess told MRC (Sel) to feed me a shrimp. I said 'No,' but someone else said, 'No, it is OK,' " Nowak recalled in a Sept. 10 statement made three days after Navy Times inquired about chief select incidents on the Vinson.
Nowak gave in and a spectacle ensued.
"I fed him a shrimp on a fork and he said he needed help washing it down, so I gave him a drink of water from a cup," Yaich said in his statement. "I did not feed him by hand or put any food in my mouth."
Yaich said he didn't view the spoon-feeding as hazing, instead recalling that it was fun.
"During the initiation process, we are told to have fun and for that 4-5 minutes with STGCM Nowak, I had fun," Yaich wrote.
Nowak and Yaich said they felt the feeding was in keeping with chief season rules.
"I don't think I was hazed or MRC (Sel) was hazed," Nowak told the investigator. "I don't think any line was crossed of the MCPON's guidance or I would have stopped it."
Others witnesses disagreed, insisting that, hazing or not, it still ran against MCPON's guidance.
A chief who walked in during the spoon-feeding said he was offended and tried to stop it, but was ignored.
"I tried to voice my opinion but was disregard[ed] by my fellow chiefs," the chief, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his career, told Navy Times in an email afterwards. He said most witnesses felt it was "inappropriate and disrespectful" to the selectee.
"Keep in mind that the true principle of CPO-365 is a process to train, develop and challenge selectees to become Chief Petty Officer[s] in the same way we treat each other with dignity and respect," the chief wrote.
In the end, the command ruled that the spoon-feeding was in keeping with MCPON's guidance for CPO-365 and neither Yaich nor Nowak were disciplined or counseled.
Neither the spoon-feeding or the touching incident six days earlier crossed "the line into hazing or misconduct," Thomas wrote in his conclusion.
However, Thomas put the kibosh on further CPO-365 antics. "Due to the sensitivity surrounding the event, I have suspended all further CPO 365 Phase II activities."
Singled out
Officials are investigating two other incidents.
The first case centers on chief season at Naval Hospital Okinawa. One select missed a Saturday session washing cars and volunteering in the community so he could attend church, like every Saturday. He offered to work extra Sunday instead.
But that did not wash with the master chief who was overseeing the training, one witness said.
The acting CMC allegedly singled out this selectee in front of everyone.
"She made his attendance at church an issue and in front of the mess cursed at him and stated he would be in a world of hurt after the 16th [of August] because he went to church," said one chief present at the training, who asked to remain anonymous, adding that the acting CMC waved a finger in the select's face and cursed.
"I understand that we have selects that can be thick headed, but our MCPON guidance is very clear to respect one another and to not use excessive profanity."
Many others have been ridiculed by the acting CMC, the chief said, adding they were "for the first time, afraid of [their] own leadership."
Capt. Dora Lockwood, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said the investigation had completed and concluded that there was no hazing or misconduct in the case. Officials had not released the report as of Sept. 26.
The master chief, who turned over CMC duties Sept. 10, did not respond to a request for comment through Lockwood.
Final night
The capstone event on the last night went awry in Norfolk.
Chiefs with Naval Surface Force Atlantic and Afloat Training Group Atlantic held a final night Sept. 15 modeled off a prisoner of war scenario, where selects were told to evade, then were caught and told to resist.
But near the end, one chief unleashed a canister of pepper spray into a tent, one witness alleged. No one was inside the tent, but a chief nearby started to feel the spray's effects.
"The chiefs conducting the exercise immediately put a halt to the training and got to the bottom of who was behind the prank," said one source familiar with the incident. "The decision was made to halt training and send everyone home until pinning the next day."
SURFLANT has ordered an investigation, which had not been completed as of Sept. 26.
MCPON's take
Under pressure from lawmakers, the military has gotten tougher on hazing. The Navy established the Office of Hazing Prevention in early 2013 to track cases and set rules.
Hazing involves subjecting any service member to " any activity which is cruel, abusive, humiliating, oppressive, demeaning or harmful," according to the Navy. It can be verbal or psychological. Consenting to this treatment is still hazing, the Navy says.
MCPON Stevens has taken steps to professionalize chief season training. His guidance has a list of "do nots" — alcohol consumption, forced eating or drinking, physical abuse, degrading language or profanity, cross-dressing. But professionalism depends on the judgment of the chiefs and master chiefs who lead it, Stevens' guidance states.
In a Sept. 23 interview, Stevens said there are lessons to be heeded in the incidents, after examining the Vinson's report.
"After reviewing all the information, I don't believe there was any malice of intent and that neither member believed what was occurring was hazing," Stevens said. "However, if it's not professional and doesn't have a professional purpose, then it doesn't have a place in professional training — CPO 365 is professional training."
For example, he said, the spoon-feeding of the master chief "really can't be classified as professional development."
"What I'm not saying is that sailors can never have fun," Stevens said, "you just have to recognize where you are at, who you are with and what you are doing. And if the actions you are taking are not professional, you probably shouldn't be doing it."
As far as the AOCM touching the chief select's face, MCPON said the rules are cut and dry.
"Laying your hands on a sailor for any reason other than safety — to keep them from getting hurt or where there's not a genuine purpose such as in training — is inappropriate. We just don't do that," Stevens said.
MCPON said that in the Vinson cases, the command took the right actions.
"We have to trust leadership to take the appropriate action," Stevens said.
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.
