{"id":84216,"date":"2018-02-16T19:06:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T19:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/16\/surface-navy-wants-to-slash-shore-time-for-its-officers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:15:10","slug":"surface-navy-wants-to-slash-shore-time-for-its-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/02\/16\/surface-navy-wants-to-slash-shore-time-for-its-officers\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface Navy wants to slash shore time for its officers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Navy is looking to slash the time surface warfare officers spend on shore in a bid to boost seamanship skills and prevent them from atrophying during rear echelon assignments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort spearheaded by new Surface Warfare boss <\/a>Vice Adm. Rich Brown aims to address concerns arising from a pair of reviews <\/a>following last summer\u2019s fatal collisions in Asia, which concluded that SWOs were getting insufficient ship-handling experience and that their skills degrade during long shore assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan currently in development will be to ensure that SWOs do their division officer and department head tours on ships, instead of staff or squadrons billets that spend much of their time on shore, Brown told an audience Feb. 14 at the Center For Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Destroyer Squadron and Amphibious Squadron billets will all be post-DIVO and Department Head tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\t