You have GOT to be kidding me...

Today will go down in history as the SECOND time in my naval career where the detailer has dropped a bomb in my lap and made a run for it. (Aside: The "detailer" is the guy sitting at a desk at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee who decides where you are going for your next tour of duty.)

The first time this happened was just after we moved to the DC suburbs for my last shore duty. We had JUST bought a house in Ashburn, VA, about 20 miles outside the beltway to the WEST of DC. Our household goods had JUST been delivered. I hadn't even reported to my new command yet. Then I received a voicemail from the detailer that went something like this: "Yeah, hi, Kevin, congratulations! You're the submarine force's nomination for the flag secretary position at the Naval Academy. The USNA offices will be contacting you to set up an interview with the admiral. Oh, and I'm going on leave for the next two weeks, so I'll talk to you when I get back. Hope it goes well, bye!" Nice. Input from the service member neither required nor desired. There was a week or two there we were really stressed out and wondering if we were going to have to pack our stuff up again and move to the OTHER side of the beltway so I wouldn't have a two hour commute to work at Annapolis. Luckily, I didn't get that job. The detailer dropping that in my lap without even asking what I thought and then taking off on leave just really drove me nuts.

Fast forward a couple of years to this very afternoon. Remember the detailer has recently told me I'm staying in Hawaii. Although we didn't really want to stay in Hawaii, we have come to terms with this and were moving on. We stopped shopping for houses on Realtor.com. LW started working on reservations for our timeshare vacation in January here in Hawaii. LW started making a long honey-do list for things she wanted to change around the house since we were staying for a few more years. I started working on some of those tasks over the last couple of days - like moving furniture around two nights ago. Last night, I cancelled our reservations in the Navy Lodge. I had made reservations for us as a placeholder for the last couple of weeks I expected us to be on the island before transferring, but I didn't need them anymore since we were staying.

So I get this email from the detailer this afternoon...

In essence, it said something to the effect of, "Yyyyyeah, hi, about that job in Hawaii I was going to send you to? Yyyyyyeah, not so much. Admiral ___________ called and picked someone else by name he wants to take that job, so that's off the table. Well, I'm going on leave now through next week, so give me a call the week after next and we'll see what we can work out for your next set of orders."

Um...

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think I must really be a pessimist at heart.

Case in Point #1: All the past week I've been trying to focus on the positive aspects of staying in Hawaii, but I was still grimacing over the fact that I really didn't want to stay in Hawaii. For example, I was really annoyed the other day when I was drooling over all the HD channels available now on Dish Network, only to find out that you can't get most of them in Hawaii.

Case in Point #2: Now, again, am I trying to focus on the positive aspects of NOT staying in Hawaii. We didn't WANT to stay in Hawaii in the first place. Still, my thoughts are in turmoil right now not knowing where we're going next. At least when we thought we were staying in Hawaii, the path ahead was clear and we could plan accordingly. Although the path wasn't the optimum path / not the path we had chosen, at least we knew which path we were taking and where we were headed. Now, that's all out the window. It's like we've discovered that previous path was washed out by a landslide and there's a heavy fog set in for the next week, so we just have to sit and wait until the fog lifts (when the detailer gets back from leave and I get some orders) to start evaluating the new path we're going to take and making appropriate plans.

Keep in mind, we're about 2 months from wanting to have our household goods and our car packed out and shipped off the island if we're heading back to the mainland, so it would be NICE to have ORDERS so we could reserve the move dates we want. Summer is a big time for PCS (Permanent Change of Station) transfers with a lot of people moving, so a lot of the move dates are already reserved at this point - there are only just so many moving companies on the island.

Argh this is frustrating. I know the Lord has a plan for us... I just wish we knew what it was.

I'm going to go make those Navy Lodge reservations again...

Difficult Decisions

It turns out I have a handful of readers who are midshipmen or newly-commissioned officers in the training pipeline. I've been honored that a few of them have emailed me to ask for career advice or pointers on things.

One emailed me recently with a difficult circumstance he wasn't sure how to handle, and I wanted to share it with anyone else reading this who might find themselves in a similar situation. He wrote that one of his classmates had been drinking and driving on more than one occasion (not getting caught other than by his own classmates), and he asked, "If I go talk to the command DAPA and ask him to talk to my classmate, will that get my classmate in trouble?"

For anyone who doesn't know, at any Navy command, one guy is appointed as the DAPA or Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor. The DAPA on most submarines is a Chief Petty Officer or up-and-coming Petty Officer First Class (senior enlisted type of guy). He has to attend a school for DAPA's so he understands the procedures for handling alcohol related incidents and referrals for drug or alcohol abuse treatment. The Command DAPA works for the Commanding Officer and is required to report things directly to the CO. For example, if someone self-refers themself for alcohol abuse, then the DAPA will report that directly to the CO and nobody else will necessarily know about it. Self-referrals are protected from any punishment or long-term career implications (more on that below).

Here's how I answered his question:

If you tell the DAPA about it, then you are officially notifying the command about it and he CAN get in trouble for it.

Understand that the rules of evidence do not apply at Captain's Mast. Simply by you or anyone else telling the CO that you saw a guy drinking and visibly intoxicated and then getting behind the wheel of a car, the CO can take him to Captain's Mast for Non-Judicial Punishment (NJP) without any sort of official breathalyser or Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) results. Now, I doubt that any CO would immediately take a guy to mast based on one verbal report like that. I think most CO's would pull the guy in their office and verbally counsel and warn him, but operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol IS a violation of Article 111 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and he CAN go to Captain's Mast for it.

That being said... Please, please, please, DO tell the DAPA about it. DON'T let this behavior continue. The LIFE you SAVE may be just your own. Think about how you will feel if you DON'T say anything, and next weekend he kills a young mother and her 3 year old child while driving drunk? What if it was your mother or your sister or your wife that he killed, how would you feel about it then? Won't you feel partially guilty for those tragic deaths if you allowed it to continue and didn't say anything?

My suggested course of action:

Confront the individual, and preferably with more than just yourself. Do more of your classmates know about it? I would stage an intervention. If it's just you, then he may wave it off as just you don't like him for some other reason. Get multiple classmates together, sit him down and confront him. Lay out the choices for him. Either:

(a) He self-refers to the DAPA and gets screened for alcohol dependency and treatment, in which case he does NOT get punished and he has a long and distinguished career. GO WITH HIM to the DAPA to make sure he follows through. Don't give him time to think about it (or worse - drink on it).

(b) If he doesn't agree to self-referral, then tell him you (preferably the collective you - multiple people / witnesses) will report it to the command via the DAPA, and he may be subjected to disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Make sure that he understands that:

(a) What he is doing is very dangerous both to him, his shipmates, and innocent bystanders who don't deserve to die because of his drinking problem.

(b) The matter IS going to be referred to the DAPA to protect himself and others. The choice is his - self-refer without any punishment or be reported and face whatever consequences may come.

You might also approach your DAPA and ask him how to handle it without telling him any names.

After writing that response, I did some quick look-ups to make sure I had my facts straight. FYI - the governing document on the Navy's DAPA program is OPNAVINST 5350.4. Here are a couple of sections from the instruction that I highlighted for this circumstance:

"Shipmate responsibility. Shipmates take
responsible care of shipmates. All members must be aware of the
warning signs of alcohol abuse and take positive steps to ensure
shipmates do not abuse alcohol. This includes intervening before
excessive drinking occurs, stopping a shipmate from driving while
under the influence of alcohol, and immediately challenging
inappropriate behavior resulting from alcohol use, both on- and
off-duty." (Bottom of page 18)

"All Personnel are responsible for...
(2) Encouraging members suspected of having an existing
or potential alcohol use problem to seek assistance.
(3) Notifying the appropriate CO, via the chain of
command, immediately when drug or alcohol abuse exists or is
suspected." (Bottom of page 17 to top of page18, emphasis added)

It also directs Unit Commanders, COs , and OICS to:

"Provide a means for command- or self-referral without
risk of disciplinary action or career-ending implications for all
members who have not incurred an incident, but are in need of
alcohol counseling and/or treatment. This safe haven for selfreferral
shall extend to members who admit to having purchased,
possessed, or consumed alcohol in violation of the minimum age
requirement to purchase, possess, or consume alcohol of the
military installation, State, country, or local jurisdiction in
which the member is located." (Page 14, emphasis added)