Advice to Junior Officers: Social Media

Back when I was an Ensign (peanut gallery says, "Ooooooh, boy, here he goes..."), I had some great officers and chiefs teach me a lot about life in the Navy.

One nugget I remember was the warning about fraternization.  Now, I'm not talking about male-female fraternization since women aren't yet serving on submarines.  I'm talking about unduly familiar relationships between officers and enlisted Sailors.

It can be tempting as a 23 year old Ensign to become friends with the 23 year old E-4s because you're part of the same generation.  You grew up listening to the same music.  You watched the same movies.  You played the same video games.  You had the same posters on your bedroom walls in high school, worshiping the same teen idols - be it rock stars or sports stars or super models.  You remember the same critical events in history (like where you were on 9-11 or when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded and how it affected you).  You may be fans of the same sports teams and watched the same World Series or Super Bowl or NBA finals.  You probably have a lot in common except for the fact that one decided to go to college and one decided to enlist in the Navy (which are BOTH honorable choices).  Even so, you can't be friends.  That would be "prejudicial to the good order and discipline" of the command.

Fast forward umpteen years later and enter the world of social media. 

During my tour as XO on the Mighty MSP, social media was still pretty new.  The Navy had not yet embraced social media as the important communication tool that it is, and there were no rules or guidance on whether it was okay or forbidden.  It was just sort of out there.  Sailors were using it.  Most of my wardroom (including me) and our wives got assimilated by the Borg sucked into Facebook.

But nobody ever sat me down and said, "Shipmate, if you're going to be active on social media sites like Facebook, then here are some guidelines and things to consider..."

This ALNAV message (ALNAV 057-10) provides a very broad-brush-stroke, overarching guidance for the use of the social media by Navy personnel, but it is more concerned with not speaking on behalf of the Navy, not violating operational security and/or giving out classified information.   

Aside:  In the process of searching for information on this topic, I discovered that CHINFO has a very useful web page of social media references. 

This topic of discussion came up during at a leadership school I attended last week.  We asked a lot of questions like:  As an officer in the Navy, is it okay to use Facebook?  Is it okay to "friend" one of your Sailors?  Those are tough questions with no clear right or wrong answer.

Some people will NOT use Facebook (or any other social media site) AT ALL to simply eliminate any risk to their privacy or security or implication of impropriety, and that's okay.  In my case, I find Facebook is a very useful tool for staying in touch with family and friends scattered across the globe.  Plus, as a leader, social media can provide some awareness into what's on your Sailors' minds.  In several instances, it has brought to my attention when a friend or shipmate has been in need of advice or assistance.

While it is a useful tool, it should go without saying that you need to be cautious about how you use social media sites like Facebook.  Keep the privacy settings on lock-down, and follow the good advice in the ALNAV message to minimize the risks of computer security and operational security.  However, I think that's all "Social Media and Internet Safety 101" and doesn't address the questions I mentioned above.  Is it okay for an officer to use social media and not jeopardize the good order and discipline of the command through fraternization or unduly familiar relationships?


For what it's worth, here's my unsolicited advice of the day.

Blunoz's Ground Rules as an O-Ganger on Facebook

Rule #1:  I don't send friend requests to my subordinates.  Consider it respecting their privacy.  If they don't want me seeing into their personal lives and communications with their friends, then that's fine by me (even if it's because they're complaining about that a-hole XO they work for).  If I did send them a friend request, then they might feel pressured or obligated to accept because of my position of seniority / authority in their chain of command.   

Rule #2:  I accept ALL friend requests from my subordinates.  If you accept one, then you have to accept them all.  To accept some and not others would give appearances of favoritism.

If one was concerned about fraternization through Facebook, I suppose one could impose a criteria such as, "I will not accept friend requests from enlisted Sailors."  In my personal experience, I am Facebook friends with many of my enlisted shipmates, and I haven't had any problems with it.  I generally don't post many comments on their pages except to say congratulations for promotions, weddings, births, etc.

Regardless of your personal preference or social media philosophy, it goes without saying that you have to be careful about what you post.  Anything you write on any blog or Facebook post can go viral and end up on the front of the Navy Times.  If you're hanging out at the same places the enlisted crew hangs out, and pictures get posted to Facebook showing you there with them, then it could create the perception of an unduly familiar relationship and/or favoritism with one or more of your crewmembers.  I'm not saying don't go out on the town for fear of running into crewmembers.  I'm also not saying don't take pictures with your shipmates.  I'm just advising you to be aware of the possible perception and be cautious.

What do you think?  

I don't claim to be an expert on this topic.  I'm just sharing my personal philosophy about it.  Do my ground rules make sense, or am I overlooking some other potential pitfall?  Do you have other rules or guidelines for using social media?  I appreciate any feedback you have to offer on this topic in general or on my ground rules above.

Update 10/29/2010: I found an excellent blog post on the topic of Navy leadership and the use of Facebook here: http://seanheritage.blogspot.com/2010/02/wasting-time-for-good-of-team.html.

Nice Try

There I was, catching up on the posts of my friends on Facebook.

Then the chat window popped up.

A friend of mine from church said hi. I thought it was odd since I don't normally chat with him on the computer. I figured something must be going on for him to initiate chat with me out of the blue. So I responded hi and asked him if everything was okay.

He wrote that he was having a really bad day, and proceeded to tell me he was stranded in London. He was mugged at gunpoint and had all his money and credit cards stolen.

At this point, my very wise wife sitting next to me said, "It's a scam."

So I picked up the phone and dialed my friend's home number here in Virginia.

He answered.

I said, "So you're NOT stranded in London and you have NOT been mugged at gunpoint and lost all your money and credit cards?"

He said no.

I said, "Okay, good. In that case, someone has hacked your Facebook account and is now using it to try and get me to give them money."

I didn't divulge to the thief that the gig was up and continued chatting in an attempt to get him to divulge some information about where he was. I didn't get very far before my friend logged on and reported it to Facebook and changed his password.

Anyway, I thought I should share the story in case anyone else out there gets a chat message from a "friend" claiming they need money. Don't fall for it.

Reminiscing of Puerto Rico

Reminiscing about my first sea tour on USS PROVIDENCE (SSN-719).

Facebook is pretty cool for the way it's putting me back in touch with old shipmates. I uploaded a bunch of photos from my second and third boats, and whenever I reconnect with someone on Facebook, then I'll go through my pictures and tag them in the pictures.

Aside for those who aren't familiar with Facebook: You can "tag" photos you upload to Facebook so that as you roll the cursor over people in the picture, it will pop up the name of that person. You can click on their name, and it'll take you to their Facebook profile. Also, on a given person's Facebook profile, you can click on "Photos of [name]" and it'll show you all the photos that person has been tagged in on Facebook.

It's taken me a while, but I finally reconnected with one of my fellow junior officers from my first boat. It occurred to me that I don't have any photos to upload or tag from my first boat because it was before the days of digital cameras. Everything I have from that tour is on film and in photo albums or boxes in the closet.

So today I pulled some of those old photos out and scanned them to build a 719 photo album on Facebook. It sure brought back memories.

Back in late 1997 and early 1998, we were doing our deployment workups with the JOHN C STENNIS carrier battle group (before they started calling them "carrier strike groups"). That was back in the days before they closed the bombing ranges on Vieques Island, so we did a LOT of operations out of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I actually had more experience driving the boat in and out of "Rosey Roads" than I did out of our homeport of Groton. I lost count after 12 or so maneuvering watches.

USS PROVIDENCE (SSN 719)
Pierside in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico
Circa 1997

Rosey Roads was a fairly nice place for a port call - not my absolute favorite, but certainly not at the bottom of the list either. Shore power wasn't all that reliable there, and I had my worst duty day in my entire career during a port call there.

Sea Story Tangent...

It all started with us having to snorkel and dead-stick berth shift (explanation: not start up the engine room, just have tugs pull you away from the pier, move you around and push you into your new berth) to make room for another boat that had to load some exercise weapons. After we finished the dead-stick berth shift and got the brow across, the Captain gave me (the Engineering Duty Officer) permission to bring on shore power and secure snorkeling. Then he, the XO, and the Eng all got in a rental car together and took off for San Juan. It was a liberty port call after all. Oh, and this was before the days of everyone having a cell phone, too, so once they left in that car, I had NO way of contacting them.

Aside: These are the types of horror stories that make junior officers dread their Ship's Duty Officer qualification boards. They always have some sort of question that puts them in the hot seat, forced to make a series of difficult decisions without being able to get in contact with the CO or the XO for guidance or permission.

I've always been a believer that you learn more by DOING than by reading books. You need to let junior guys DO things so they can learn. I had a young sailor working on his quals who needed to shift the electric plant to an aft shore power lineup, so I let him.

The pain and agony of this story is much better told in person with people who are properly cleared and nuclear trained so they understand all the gory details, but to make a long story short, the sailor tried to parallel the ship's power with shore power WAY out of phase and tripped the breakers in the shore power bunker at the foot of the pier.

...Yes, that would be the shore power bunker with the barbed wire fence around it and the big padlock on the gate.

...No, the people at Harbor Ops could NOT find the port electrician with the keys to the bunker.

...Yes, it was DARN hot and humid in Puerto Rico that Saturday.

...No, we don't run the air conditioning when we're snorkeling (running the diesel generator for emergency power) and have no shore power.

...and that was just the beginning of a very BAD day. It went downhill from there. I can't really get into the other engine-room details, but when the Captain, XO, and Eng eventually returned to the ship late that evening, it wasn't pretty. I had never seen the Captain so pissed. He was literally hopping mad and secured my liberty for the rest of the port call (that's called being put "in hack").

End of Tangent.

Anyway, I WISH I could say that was the ONLY port call we had in Rosey Roads that involved NOT having shore power.

The other downside was we almost never got BOQ rooms there. The aviators were always down there doing exercises with us, and they always had priority for the BOQ rooms. We had racks to sleep in on the boat - they didn't have racks in their airplanes, go figure.

In spite of the somewhat unreliable shore power and lack of BOQ rooms, Rosey Roads was an okay liberty port. It was fairly cheap. There was great scuba diving. There were the rain forest tours. There was El Morro Castle. There was the Bacardi factory tour with the free samples. We called trips to Puerto Rico back then "rum runs" because everyone would be allowed to bring back two bottles of rum. We would lock up all the rum in one of the torpedo tubes for the transit from PR back up to Groton.

Tangent about El Morro Castle.

The following year, my wonderful wife and I were married and left for our honeymoon in St. Lucia. Our trip took us first to a several-hour layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so I thought it woud be fun to hop in a taxi and go see El Morro.

The taxi driver didn't speak any English and had NO clue what I was talking about. Only, he didn't give me any indication he didn't know what I was talking about, he just smiled and shook his head yes to anything I said. He proceeded to drive down the strip of resort hotels along the beach, stopping at each hotel and pointing as if to ask "is this your hotel?" I kept saying, "No. EL MORRO."

I mean, common dude, it's ON YOUR FRIGGIN' LICENSE PLATE FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!

Note the image of the watch tower on El Morro.

Here's the real thing.

Luckily, I had been to El Morro enough times that I just pointed left and right to tell him which roads to take and got us there.

It's pretty amazing to walk through that old fortress and think about all the history there. Sir Francis Drake attacked the fort in 1595. It's been attacked by the British, the Dutch (in 1625), and the Americans (during the Spanish-American War in 1898). Later, I went to a 007 movie, and I laughed out loud when El Morro appeared as a bad-guy stronghold and was blown to smithereens with computer graphic animation.

Anyway, it's time to bring this post to a close. I have a few more pictures I want to scan and upload later and will probably have a sea story or two more to go with those. Stay tuned...