Top Navy admiral holds ‘worldwide’ town hall; sailors ask about deployments, the future, health care and haircuts

U.S. Navy personnel will not be returning to Bahrain soon, and the USS Theodore Roosevelt will be the next carrier to take up station in the Arabian Sea, the Navy’s top admiral said Monday during a “worldwide town hall” with sailors that also touched on pay, housing, health care and even the cost of haircuts. 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman took questions from a studio audience of about 100 personnel at Fort Meade, Md., plus remote questioners from Europe, Asia and across the U.S. More Navy personnel submitted questions and comments to Navy social media accounts.

Before Caudle appeared, a Navy video played outlining some of his main goals and accomplishments.

“Most importantly, that our Navy can win when it matters,” the video said. “Under the CNO’s watch, that means moving faster, bringing unmanned systems and non-kinetic capabilities into the fleet now, not years from now. That means cutting administrative drag so sailors can spend more time training, leading, innovating, warfighting, getting better at their craft and spending time with their families.”

One of Caudle’s top priorities is the “Sailors First” credo.

“That means making sailors first more than just a slogan,” the video said. “It has to show up in the things sailors feel every day: better housing, better support, better training, better tools, clearer policies, faster decisions, and less friction and more trust. The past year has shown us that the Navy is moving, not perfectly, not without challenges, but with purpose.”

Caudle came out to applause and quipped, “This may be my first live studio audience.”

The first question of the day came from a seaman who asked about household goods displaced by an Iranian attack on Bahrain at the start of the war with Iran.

Caudle said a return to the base was not imminent.

“We’re not getting back in there anytime soon,” he said. “I just want to be completely honest with that. But we’re working real hard to develop a scheme of maneuver in order for you to get your things.”

A sailor from the USS Gerald R. Ford asked about deployments and mental health.

“Sadly, I’ve known sailors who have made attempts of suicide, and sadly, one that was successful,” the sailor said. “The Navy has made great strides to help them but also has stumbled occasionally. How are we going to continue in this fight before we make progress and make sure all of our sailors stay safe?”

Caudle started by saying that instilling resiliency among sailors was a key to improving “warrior toughness.”

What the Navy wants is to make sure when sailors get to the fleet they will have the full spectrum of care available, including embedded health technicians to psychologists, psychiatrists, chaplains, appointments ashore through Fleet and Family services, Caudle said.

The goal is to remove “friction” from sailors’ lives so they can focus on their jobs whether deployed or in port.

“I want you to get to work quickly, get through the gate, get to your work site, have a place to park, get on point, have the tooling necessary [and] the work plan of the day presented,” Caudle said, adding that it is important that day care and support for families and spouses is available.

Asked how future carrier strike group deployments might be handled, Caudle said the Navy is “a learning organization.”

The Navy has looked at the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln deployments and ways they could have been improved or made less difficult — especially with supplies.

USNI News reported last week on Caudle saying that USS Theodore Roosevelt would take the place of USS George Washington in the Arabian Sea, freeing Washington to return to its primary role as the only forward-deployed aircraft carrier in the Pacific. 

“So as the [USS] Theodore Roosevelt comes into theater, you know, making sure that we have supply parts, basically our Class 1, which is our food, basically our Class 6, which is maybe like things like hygiene products, and, of course, things that we need to make sure you sustain that aircraft carrier and the destroyers that are with that aircraft carrier more fully,” Caudle said.

Caudle also said the Navy understands the impact of port calls.

“You know what we’ve seen between the fact that the USS Ford had more port calls than the Abe did certainly has weighed into the quality of life that those sailors have,” he said.

Lincoln went more than 250 days without a port call during an extended combat deployment in the Middle East.

Downtime for crews is something that will be factored in.

The entire model is predicated on making sure sailors can “enjoy a port call, relax, take a knee, rejuvenate, get the ship back up to speed again, repair anything necessary and get back in that fight,” Caudle said.

“I want you to rest assured we are learning from this, and we’re going to make sure we do every carrier that goes into that theater a little bit better than we did the last time,” Caudle said.

Caudle said he was pleased that, as part of his “Sailors First” initiative, the number of personnel assigned to ships in port has fallen from 10,000 to 2,000.

On a light note, a questioner asked about getting financial support for the rising cost of haircuts and the frequency of grooming under enhanced enforcement of standards.

While saying he wanted to help sailors “close the kill chain on your quality of life,” something like haircuts might be “out of pocket.”

But Caudle and Perryman said they would look into ways to bring down on-base costs for meeting the standards.

“I’ve been in the Navy for 41 years, a long time, and I knew coming into this I wanted to make sailors first a priority because behind every bomb that’s dropped, behind every missile that’s launched, behind every line that’s cast off, every wrench turned, every computer button that’s pressed, there’s a sailor, and there’s a family supporting that sailor in some way, shape, or form,” Caudle said. “And so, without that being right, I just knew the rest of it could not be right.”