{"id":41717,"date":"2021-01-12T21:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T21:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/12\/swo-boss-many-challenges-remain-in-fixing-surface-fleets-manning-problems\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:40:28","slug":"swo-boss-many-challenges-remain-in-fixing-surface-fleets-manning-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/01\/12\/swo-boss-many-challenges-remain-in-fixing-surface-fleets-manning-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"SWO boss: \u2018Many challenges remain\u2019 in fixing surface fleet\u2019s manning problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chronic manning shortfalls aboard U.S. Navy warships were found to have contributed to the fatal 2017 collisions of the Fitzgerald and John S. McCain, disasters that killed 17 sailors and scarred many more of their shipmates for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the surface fleet has made improvements in manning its ships in recent years, more remains to be done, the head of Naval Surface Forces said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are making progress with our manning issues, but many challenges remain,\u201d SWO Boss Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener said during the Surface Navy Association\u2019s annual symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Funding for more guided-missile destroyer billets is coming, but getting those sailors to the fleet will take time, Kitchener said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, the Navy had to cross-deck 1,760 sailors from one ship to another in order to fill out deploying units in the last fiscal year, a move that Kitchener said cannot be a long-term solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt adds stress on our sailors and thereby the force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/01\/24\/report-lack-of-a-senior-quartermaster-contributed-to-fitz-disaster\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fitz.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Report: lack of a senior quartermaster contributed to Fitz disaster<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A secret Navy report into the 2017 disaster that killed seven sailors found the warship had been without the vital watchstander since 2015.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ships need to be properly manned throughout the readiness cycle, not just when a ship is getting ready to deploy, Kitchener said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kitchener said Tuesday that a new system is being stood up that will aim to better ensure sailors are placed in ship billets for which they are qualified and proficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Surface Manning Experience, or SURFMEX, will more closely track sailors and get them detailed to locations best suited to their skill levels at a given point in their career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kitchener said the new system will go beyond \u201cFit and Fill,\u201d and will seek to better differentiate between sailors who might look identical on paper but have different experience and proficiency levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program will initially apply to sailors in the sonar technician, AEGIS fire controlman, gas turbine systems technician, engineman and quartermaster ratings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those ratings were chosen because leadership sees \u201ca disparity in experience levels across the waterfront\u201d for those jobs, Kitchener said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/01\/14\/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read\/\" target=_blank>An internal investigation<\/a> into the Fitzgerald collision revealed how manning shortfalls can play out on the deckplates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the mishap, the Fitzgerald had gone without a chief quartermaster since early 2015, more than two years. before a cargo ship rammed the destroyer off Japan in June 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An internal investigation later obtained by Navy Times determined that this gap contributed to the collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Quartermasters serve several roles on a ship\u2019s bridge, assisting navigators and officers of the deck, steering the ship and performing other watchstander duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/01\/14\/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read\/\" target=_blank>internal Navy investigation<\/a> into the disaster found that the Fitz\u2019s superiors had been sounding the alarm about the vacant billet for at least a year before the collision, and that the destroyer wasn\u2019t the only U.S. 7th Fleet warship that needed a chief quartermaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/01\/11\/readying-for-the-worst-pandemics-long-deployments-take-a-hard-toll-on-crews-families-and-ships\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/tr-dub-pump-3.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Readying for the worst: Pandemic\u2019s long deployments take a hard toll on crews, families and ships<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The pace of operations and Big Navy\u2019s COVID suppression measures are placing added stress and strain upon sailors and raising questions in some circles about retention and the material readiness of Navy ships, compounding issues that existed well before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Destroyer Squadron 15 officials warned in a 2016 communication with Navy Personnel Command that the shortage of senior quartermasters was endemic across the squadron and was unsustainable, the investigation states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lack of quartermasters forced the squadron into \u201ccross-decking\u201d personnel, essentially moving qualified sailors from ship to ship as needed, \u201cbasically shuffling the GAP inside (Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Japan),\u201d the 2016 message warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a quartermaster first class qualified as assistant navigator aboard the Fitz, but the internal investigation states that the unnamed sailor\u2019s \u201clevel of knowledge is poor,\u201d particularly with certain navigational arrays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the squadron\u2019s request to NPC, officials noted that the QM1 slot on the Fitzgerald \u201chas not been filled by an active duty QM1 in over three years,\u201d according to the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kitchener also acknowledged Tuesday the strain on sailors in 2020, including long deployments and restrictive steps taken to prevent COVID-19 infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been working our sailors hard over the past year,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of stress on the force and a lot of time away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ve got to make sure we continue keeping the faith with them, so we can keep them around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The effect of such manning shortages became apparent following two ship collisions that killed 17 sailors in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":76868,"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":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"10":{"categories":["surface-navy-association","digital-show-dailies","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","digital-show-daily","naval"],"primary_category":"surface-navy-association"}}},"categories":[101,23,88,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3355],"class_list":["post-41717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FCY526J7ANEZTF4IRXAYMLQHR4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/01\/12\/swo-boss-many-challenges-remain-in-fixing-surface-fleets-manning-problems\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SWO boss: \u2018Many challenges remain\u2019 in fixing surface fleet\u2019s manning problems - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The effect of such manning shortages became apparent following two ship collisions that killed 17 sailors in 2017.\" \/>\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=\"SWO boss: \u2018Many challenges remain\u2019 in fixing surface fleet\u2019s manning problems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The effect of such manning shortages became apparent following two ship collisions that killed 17 sailors in 2017.\" \/>\n<meta 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