{"id":36844,"date":"2016-05-29T14:39:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T14:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/05\/29\/earning-your-chief-s-anchors-why-sailors-should-never-give-up\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:45:12","slug":"earning-your-chief-s-anchors-why-sailors-should-never-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/05\/29\/earning-your-chief-s-anchors-why-sailors-should-never-give-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Earning your chief’s anchors: Why sailors should never give up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year <\/span>At the end of July every year,\u00a0the Navy releases the list of it\u2019s newest chief petty officers. For the past six years, that’s almost seemed like Christmas to Damian Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s because it almost didn’t happen for Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since 2009, it’s always seemed like Christmas to Damian Kelly, now a dual warfare qualified master chief machinist’s mate onboard the command ship Blue Ridge in Yokosuka, Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Honestly, it truly does feel a lot like Christmas as this is what most of us dream of when we enter the Navy,” Kelly said in a recent interview. “To be the chief\u00a0is that dream for many of us and a big reason why we stayed in \u2014 and for it to come true is really special.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

It almost didn\u2019t happen for <\/span>Kelly, who<\/span> spent years over <\/span>eight years as a\u00a0machinist’s mate\u00a0first class and his career clock was ticking. He was just over a year from hitting his high-year tenure limit.\u00a0was nearing the high-year tenure limit of 20 years. who saw the looming specter of high-year tenure at 20 years looming in his future.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Kelly had 18 and a half years of service. <\/span>He\u2019d made first class off the <\/span>in September\u00a02001 fall petty officer cycle <\/span>and by the time 2009 rolled around, he\u2019d been up for chief five times already<\/span>. His sixth shot wasn’t looking good. And he knew he had only one shot left.On his sixth shot opportunity still wasn\u2019t looking good and he knew he had only one shot left and he was out of the Navy as a first.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was time to get He decided to be <\/span>proactive. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

“It wasn\u2019t looking good for me,” Kelly recalled. “MM had seen tough advancement for years so, I bought a house in Wisconsin in 2008 because I was preparing to retire as a 1st class \u2014 the numbers were just not there for MM‘<\/span>s at the time and I was preparing for my second career after the Navy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Christmas <\/span>came on <\/span>July 31, 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly was the 10th selectee on a list of 114 MM\u2019<\/span>s selected for chief petty officer during fiscal year 2010 E-7 selection board<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It really is an exciting time \u2014 I remember when I found out, I actually checked [BUPERS Online] three\u00a0times, as I thought that there may have been a mistake,” Kelly recalled of said about <\/span>checking his online records to be sure he was now actually <\/span>a selectee.\u00a0“After that I had a smile from ear to ear as it was such a relief to be finally selected and to let my wife and grandfather \u2014 who had been in the Navy \u2014 know that I\u00a0finally did it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Sticking with it’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, he\u2019s now made senior chief and master chief, each on the first time up \u2014 <\/span>first try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s amazing how important timing is in a career,” said Kelly, who is now a master chief assigned to amphibious command ship Blue Ridge. “But you cannot downplay the importance of sticking with it and trying your hardest while you still have a shot \u2014 look at me \u2014 you just never know what can happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, he\u2019s more sensitive than many <\/span>He’s sensitive to the plight of those <\/span>first classes who didn\u2019t make the cut each year because he knows how tough it is to take.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It brings back a lot of memories, good and bad, because it is such a long, mentally exhausting process,” he said. “You take the exam in January, find out if you are board eligible in the April,\u00a0May time frame and then find out if you were selected\u00a0or not selected around first week of August.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly says the key is to treat each cycle as if it were the\u00a0last chance.\u00a0\u2019s glad he never gave up and hit each cycle as if it was his first and his last.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And lately,<\/span> there\u2019s more and <\/span>more stories emerging of sailors not only putting on chief just before hitting high-year tenure, but also right after.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone knows that the Navy\u2019s high-year tenure rules allow sailors to compete for chief if they\u2019re on an approved waiver allowing them to stay on active-duty a year at a time <\/span>past their retirement deadline. Many sailors are making good use of those waivers, according to advancement data provided to Navy Times <\/span>by the <\/span>Naval\u00a0Education and Training Command.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In four out of the past <\/span>five years, at\u00a0there have beneath <\/span>least one rating has advanced a sailor to chief with where sailors advanced to chief with <\/span>over 21 years of service<\/span>. This past year, Chief\u00a0Electrician’s Mate (SW) Jose Delgado on the forward deployed minesweeper Chief earned his put on his <\/span>anchors after 21 and a half years in the Navy<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, two sailors accomplished this feat. And as well as\u00a0<\/span>in 2011, an EOD tech was advanced to chief with 22.17<\/span> years of service. For the past five years, about two dozen of the\u00a0During each of the last five years an average of 23 of the <\/span>90 ratings at the E-7 level each year <\/span>\u00a0have advanced at least one sailor to chief who had more than\u00a020 years at the time they were moved up.\u00a0and 21 years of service at the time of that advancement. <\/span>That number is on the rise, with nine\u00a0ratings in 2012 and 31 in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers are larger for those with between 19 and 20 years of service as annually over the past five years, an average of 32 ratings have advanced someone to chief with between 19 and 20 years of service<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what <\/span>The data shows that <\/span>many sailors advance to chief late, for whatever reason, advance to chief late, <\/span>but like Kelly <\/span>once they do they often excel on the back end of their careers.\u00a0A chief petty officer can serve until 24 years of service and an E-8 until 26 years of service<\/span>. A master chief gets to stay until 30 \u2014 and now that\u2019s Kelly\u2019s reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All because he did not give up \u2014 and that\u2019s a message he tries to <\/span>passes along\u00a0to any non-select who will listen to him<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I use my experiences and advancement history almost on a daily basis, especially when the CPO results come out,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I tell them that I\u2019m living proof that you may not make chief the first, second, third, 2nd,3rd<\/span> time up, but if you stay determined, work hard, take care of your sailors and family, maintain the faith, and not be scared to tackle those challenging billets and jobs \u2014\u00a0good things come to those who wait.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A career sailor who nearly didn’t make it to E-7 shares his secrets of success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3087],"class_list":["post-36844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HKWF37EREJGTLC7N537CFPMLAU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/05\/29\/earning-your-chief-s-anchors-why-sailors-should-never-give-up\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nEarning your chief's anchors: Why sailors should never give up - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A career sailor who nearly didn't make it to E-7 shares his secrets of success.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Earning your chief's anchors: Why sailors should never give up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A career sailor who nearly didn't make it to E-7 shares his secrets of success.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/05\/29\/earning-your-chief-s-anchors-why-sailors-should-never-give-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-29T14:39:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T19:45:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. 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