AUSN sponsors Sailors of the Year

July 2011 - Navy
By RADM Casey W. Coane, USN (Ret)

We begin this month with a Hail and Farewell. Master Chief Jerry Featherstone is now a full-time member of the team and our Director of Member Services/Membership. Welcome aboard, Jerry. Our Deputy Executive Director, CAPT Tom McAtee, has retired. Fair winds and following seas, Captain Mac. Fortunately, for all of us, Tom will be available part-time to share his knowledge with you as he has for these nine-and-a- half years and we will see him in New Orleans.

At the end of May, AUSN was extremely pleased to be once again a sponsor of the MCPON’s annual Sailor of the Year Barbeque. At this event, family and friends, including many Fleet and Force Command Master Chiefs, come together to honor the four Sailors of the Year. We presented athletic bags with our AUSN logo and $100 gift certificates. Our corporate partner, USAA, presents their own gifts but also were gracious enough to help us with our gift cards. AUSN also continues to sponsor the Sailor of the Year Kiosk at the Navy Memorial. The day following the barbeque, AUSN was present at the Navy Memorial for the beautiful outdoor ceremony where the SOYs were advanced to Chief Petty Officer. You can find their stories on page 20. On a personal note, you should know that MCPON Rick West is truly outstanding. To hear him speak about our Sailors is to be inspired. We have a wonderful individual and a dedicated leader as today’s Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and AUSN is pleased to be his partner.

Also, in this issue, we bring you what is likely to be our last interview with CNO Gary Roughead as he is due to be relieved at the end of the summer. The announcement of his replacement will follow the announcement about a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and that announcement is overdue as we are writing this. We met with the CNO in his office and touched on personal and programmatic issues.

Since this is essentially our enlisted issue for the year, I am very pleased that we have Master Chief Brian A. Hughes, Command Master Chief for Naval Service Training Command Great Lakes, as our guest columnist on page 7. FLTCM Stevens is our Senior Enlisted Voice this month and you can find him on page 12. Since we began that column, I have gotten to know these Fleet and Force Command Master Chiefs. The leadership they bring to our Sailors is so important and I always find their columns interesting. I know of no other association that brings the enlisted message to its members the way that AUSN does. We are, indeed, a voice for all Navy people.

As I am writing this column, the National Defense Authorization Act is being debated on the House floor. The Senate will take it up shortly. Every day, here in Washington, we hear more about the additional 400 billion that the President wants cut out of the Defense funding; and just yesterday, Secretary Gates addressed this in what many think will be his final policy statement before leaving office. He again warned against hollowing out the force as happened before during the post Cold War peace dividend. There are very difficult challenges ahead and we will keep you informed. You can help yourselves by using our system to contact your Congressman and Senators. Go to our home page and click on “contact congress.” It’s simple but effective. As we have said, TRICARE changes are a big part of the dialogue. If you would like to get better educated on what is happening with your health care, go to our Web site www.ausn.org and read the blog by our former Navy Surgeon General, VADM Harold Koenig (Ret). It’s on the home page.

As always, enjoy the read.