National Navy Mustang Association - ENEWS. President s Message

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1 National Navy Mustang Association - ENEWS PONY EXPRESS Winter 2010 Issue 4 Fellow Mustangs, President s Message Welcome to the new year. Hope it has been prosperous for you thus far. My goals for the Navy Mustang Association for this year are to add 100 new members by the end of the year. Our membership has grown in each of the last two years, but we have a way to go before we return to the membership numbers of years past. How do I plan to add 100 new members? Very simply, I m not going to do it all, YOU are. I personally invite every Mustang I meet to join OUR association. Not all, but many do. NMA is on LinkedIn and Facebook, and we have garnered some new membership from each (more on that later). Quite simply, the best advertising for NMA has been word of mouth. I have worked with the schoolhouse in Newport and they are making our website and membership application available to newly commissioned LDO/CWO. Other Mustangs are harder to capture, but I m open to your suggestions. The second way I would like to grow the membership is by growing the number of chapters we have. Several formerly thriving chapters have seemingly fallen by the wayside. If you have an active chapter and have just fallen off our radar, please contact us at UPFRMRNK@aol.com or me directly at phillip.bachand@ me.navy.mil (or if you have an independent association and would like to affiliate it with NMA). We have some resources available to help you get your chapter started. My second topic for this newsletter is networking. Active duty Mustangs, we need to network with each other and share our collected knowledge. All of us are smarter than any one of us. I regularly communicate with a large number of retired Mustangs who have transitioned from the military to careers in the private sector, government service, etc. Most are eager and willing to help you make that transition (and oh by the way, they are also very aware of what Mustangs bring to the table in their own companies and often are actively seeking your brand of leadership, skills and experience). I recently spent two years on a chamber of commerce board of directors. Here is a key takeaway from that experience, and that is, people in business view every interaction as a networking opportunity. If the networking opportunities are not happening fast enough, they host a networking event that gets folks with similar skills and concerns together. Here is a second takeaway, if you wait until you are on terminal leave and looking for a job to start networking, you probably missed the boat. These relationships are built over years, not days. I would like for local NMA chapter meetings to become these kinds of networking functions. We have almost equal representation from the retired and active duty groups. If that is not your cup of tea, professional networking sites such as LinkedIn provide a great way to build your network online (and LinkedIn has an LDO/CWO group which I highly recommend you join). You will see that I am a frequent contributor to the discussions (and no, this is not an advertisement or an endorsement, merely a suggestion) in this group as well as several others. For you younger folks (and even some of us old guys use FB) Facebook offers similar opportunities to create networking groups. That said, social media is no substitute for good old fashioned getting out and meeting people and I hope that NMA can expand upon that through chapter gatherings or perhaps a national gathering in the future. Lastly, the mere act of senior Mustangs interacting with junior Mustangs facilitates another thing we need to do every day, and that is mentoring. I implore the more senior Mustangs out there to attend local chapter functions. I you do, the more junior folks will, and they are hungry for the knowledge and experience you can share with them. I would also encourage you to include applicants and selectees in certain chapter functions. It is never too early to start mentoring/networking. Very Respectfully, Commander Phil Bachand

2 Seasons greetings from Millington. This is the first of our monthly newsletters to get the word to you about what is going on, issues that need to be addressed, and where we are headed. Our goal is to engage you with the issues so that we can benefit from your experience, unify our vision of the way ahead, and get the word out to our juniors FLAG SPONSOR. When you get the chance to meet Admiral Quinn, please pass on your thanks for all that he has done for us. As busy as he is, he always makes time for our community. Admiral Quinn has already made a remarkable impact on our community and helped to drive home some great initiatives (and many more are in the pipeline). So to quip an old TV phrase, And now for a word from our Sponsor : TO ALL OUR MUSTANGS AND YOUR FAMILIES I OFFER A HAPPY NEW YEAR. JOHN HAS OVERSTATED MY CONTRIBUTIONS, BUT I AM GRATE- FUL FOR THE KIND WORDS. THOSE OF YOU I HAVE SPOKEN WITH KNOW IT IS MY PERSONAL BELIEF THAT OUR OFFICERS WITH ENLISTED TIME ENABLE OUR NAVY TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE; DAY IN AND DAY OUT. YOUR APPRECIATION OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE IS, FRANKLY, MUCH MORE INFORMED THAN MINE. GIVEN THAT VALUE YOU PROVIDE TO OUR NAVY, IT IS MY INTENTION TO REDUCE THE ANNUAL VARIA- TIONS IN YOUR BILLETS AND END STRENGTH AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE BILLETS YOU HOLD IN EACH ENTERPRISE. SPECIFICALLY, I DON T WANT LDO CDRS DOING LT WORK, NOR CWO5 S DOING CWO4 WORK. WE WANT TO MAKE YOUR PROMO- TION OPPORTUNITIES CONSISTENT. WE WILL NEED YOUR ENGAGEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS TO DO THAT RIGHT. AS ALWAYS, JOHN WILL BE THE FUNNEL POINT FOR INPUTS. CWO COMMUNITY MANAGER. CWO4 Mitch Allen continues his great work and will take on the added responsibility of the lead Community Manager for the CWOs. I will continue to have overall responsibility. LDO CWO MANAGERS MESSAGES December 2009 So why Enterprises? It allows us to better serve our communities and ensure they have top cover by plugging them into a recognized Enterprise. Detailers will not be moving and it will be business as usual from that perspective. We are investigating promotions and selections by Enterprise to see if they can allow us to better level load. This is particularly beneficial to those designators that may not have enough senior billets to support a long career. As you can appreciate, this is a very complex subject and you will be asked to help us get it right. I will be contacting a few of the seniors as my go-to people for the enterprises. We will be looking for leaders that have the time, initiative, and vision to get us through the tough times ahead. Each enterprise will be led by a minimum of a Captain and CWO5. We are also looking for leaders for each of the designators - they will be the point men for that particular community to provide guidance. Again, a 06/W5 partnership is desired. In future Newsletters we will address Enterprise specific issues. JANUARY IN-SERVICE QUOTAS. Lots of good work done by the detailers and Mitch Allen. We have finally gotten the approval to better load our needs in a balanced way rather than a fill to vacancy. This means that we will pretty much know how many we will pick up every year and will stop the peaks and valleys that have become all too familiar. LDO/CWO SYMPOSIUM. We will hold it in Millington (it s central, we can get facilities for free, and you wont be distracted) in the first week in May (4th-6th) and an additional (optional) day on the 7th for those of you who have not had selection board experience. We are going to fix you up with some hands on training and tips from a couple of our star briefers. You will be well prepared when asked to come for a board and, more importantly, you will know how to write a fitrep/eval. We will pass the names of those that attend to the detailers for consideration. The symposium is for all 06 s, W5 s, Detailers, and designator seniors if they do not have 06/W5 representation. We want to ensure everyone has a voice at the table. ENTERPRISES. We are getting more traction on moving communities into like pairings (i.e. enterprises). Most are self explanatory with a few requiring a little more definition: - SURFACE - SUBSURFACE - AVIATION - SERVICES (Admin, Security, Supply, Bandmasters, Law and Food Services) - NETWORK WARFARE (Information Systems, Information Warfare, Intel, Oceanography and Photography) - EXPEDITIONARY (SEALs, EOD, Seabees and Combatant Craft) We will have an ice-breaker social after work on the 4th, tentatively at Admiral Quinn s home on the golf course. We are also trying to put together a dinning in on the 6th in the base club. The dinning in will be for all attendees and the Millington Mustang Association. Unity is strength. Your thoughts? RECRUITING. We all need to get out there and start beating the bushes for the Superstars in our commands to apply for this great program. I ask that every one of you mentor at least one candidate this year. It is your duty to go and find your relief.

3 FRATERNIZATION. Just when we think we are making improvements, the accusations start to come back. The last two Admirals I have talked to mentioned, in the first couple of minutes, the spike in fraternization cases involving LDO/CWOs. I responded that, percentage wise, we are less likely to engage in this than the URL - their counter is it is usually JO URL s with 2-3 years of service while our junior officers have around 12. Fair point - we should know better. This is an important issue that we need to address and stop. Many of our people are working in high visibility jobs - if they are caught fraternizing it is a very visible red flag against the entire community. Too many great careers are coming to a crashing halt for a little slap and tickle. It s just not worth it. Please mentor your people/designator about this subject - let them know that some people are attracted to rank because they didn t get good looking all of a sudden. Everyone is watching and the perpetrators will get caught. next couple of months that could blow zones wide open and it could be a very good year in CWO5 zone for 2011 includes several personnel that did not receive a below zone look. This may occur occasionally as we try and keep the flow to 12 years commissioned service. Bottom line, if you are coming up on 12 years commissioned service make sure your record is up to date. KNIFE AND FORK SCHOOL. RADM Wisecup, President of the War College, addressed the current class in Newport and is planning to address future classes. If you are in Newport, let the school house know and they will get you in to talk to the class. The curriculum is continuing to be tweaked to best serve our people. NEED TO DO: Captains, it s time for your mid-term counseling in January. Let your boss know. LT fitreps are due in January. OCM WEB PAGE. I know it doesn t say very much, but we are getting ready to change all of that. We are getting smarter on how to best manipulate it to best serve our people by being timely with news and issues. Any other suggestions? BLUE BOOK. Remember the old blue book, or LDO/CWO Professional Guidebook, that we were issued at commissioning? It contained an overview of laws, OSRs, and a basic career planner by designator. Mitch and I are working with the detailers to produce a new and improved one by the spring. We will make it available electronically and will investigate if we can get it published again. We will include articles on education, fraternization, lateral conversions, benchmark goals and mentoring. Anything else needed? ZONES. I know the recent zone announcement sent a few shock waves through the community. Please reinforce to your juniors that zones change every year and projections are nearly always conservative. Events can happen in the Happy New Year from Millington. We received a lot of feedback on last month s newsletter. It was particularly pleasing to see how fast it made the rounds with our juniors - there is a hunger for information. It s been a busy month and your feedback is enabling us to target some key issues. In this issue we will identify a couple of works in progress to let you know what we are working on. ENTERPRISES. Here is the list of leaders for each enterprise and designator. They were selected based on their having the time, initiative, background and vision to get us through the tough times ahead. They are also the designator leads that the Enterprise leads have endorsed. Their work will be vetted through the OCM shop for consideration, analysis and implementation. They are your point men for your particular community. If it applies to all LDOs January 2010 In closing, these are incredible days we are living in. We are preparing to enter a period of great change for many of our designators and enterprises - and I think they are all for the good of the Navy. We are getting a say in how we fit into the big plan and, most importantly, we have receptive external chain of command to make it work. We have all arrived and got ours - now we have to work hard to ensure our reliefs are best equipped to get theirs. What an incredible honor it is for us to be able to do that. Please let us know how we can do business better by dropping a line or giving us a call. Rest assured that everything we do will be geared towards the good of the Navy. Have a blessed and productive New Year. VR VR CAPT John R. Jones CWO4 Mitch Allen john.r.jones@navy.mil mitchell.allen@navy.mil (901) (901) (DSN 882) Fax (901) and/or CWOs then you can address the issue with Mitch or me to investigate or provide guidance. SURFACE CAPT SOUCIE/CWO5 PELON 611/621/711/721 CAPT MOORE/CAPT VALENTINE/ CWO5 PELON 6120/7121 CAPT LINTNER/CWO5 TUVELL 6130/713 CAPT HENDERSON/CWO5 PRASNIKAR 6160/7161 CAPT AUBERRY/CWO5 HARMS 6180/7181 CAPT SHEARMAN/CWO5 WOLKE SUBSURFACE CAPT BAKER/CWO4 COLE 6400/7401 CAPT SHARER/CWO5 SOLHEIM 6230/7231 CAPT HOLDERMAN/CWO4 COLE 6260/6261 CDR ARMSTRONG/CWO5 AGERS

4 6280/7281 CAPT NELSON/CWO4 GREGOR 6290 CDR LOVELL 7201 CWO4 MIKULSKI AVIATION CAPT LEPARD/CWO5 EMINGER 6310/7311 CAPT ANDERSON/CWO5 SMITH 6320/7321 CDR DANIELS/CWO5 HEADLEY 6330/7341/7381 CAPT MILLER/CWO5 EMINGER 6360/7361 CAPT LEPARD/CWO4 THOMAS 6390 CAPT EASLER SERVICES CAPT OAKES/CWO5 WALKER 6410/7411/6550 CAPT OAKES/CWO5 HUDSON 6430 LCDR WHITHAM 6490/7491 CAPT ARANDELA/CWO4 HERB 6510/7511/7521 CAPT KING/CWO5 WALKER NETWORK WARFARE CAPT EATON/CWO5 MORRIS 6420/7421 CAPT SLEVIN/CWO5 ESHLEMAN 6440/7441 CAPT EATON/CWO5 ANDERSON 6450/7451 CDR LALLY/CWO4 HIRTH 6460 CDR TREHARNE 6470 CDR MCCLURE EXPEDITIONARY CDR NOEL/CWO5 TURNER 6150/7151 LCDR CHENEY/CWO5 LOCKLEAR 7171 CWO4 RON CARPENTER 6480/7481 CDR ANDERSON/CWO5 EVANS 6530/7531 CDR EDWARDS/CWO4 STONEKING Mitch and I will travel to Norfolk next week to meet with Captain Craig Eaton to discuss his enterprise. This is the first enterprise we will investigate because it is small enough to be manageable as we learn to move forward. Some of the subjects that enterprises will investigate include: Where is the work? Is the right designator doing the work? Is the designator pyramid out of kilter? If so then: Do we need to have more or less LDOs and/or CWOs? At what pay grade? Should we seek Enterprise endorsement of off-ramps for designators that have an identical U/RL designator? If so, what pay grade would be optimum to transfer and keep competitive? Once we have achieved balance within designators, should we promote by Enterprise? What precept guidance do we need for selection/promotion boards. As you can appreciate, this is going to be complex, and sometimes gut wrenching, work. We have to get it right to move forward so we either drive this train or it will be driven for us. I think we are at a time where we have enough support where we can design it to our, and ultimately the Navy s, advantage. JANUARY IN-SERVICE QUOTAS. The attached numbers will remain relatively consistent over the next few years thereby stopping the peaks and valleys we face from year to year. The only item that may skew this will be if the Enterprises determine we need more CWOs or LDOs (one community will compensate the other). My initial assessment is we may be creating more CWO billets to balance opportunities and right size some of the pyramids /7411 is a clear example of an imbalance. Designators Annual Accessions 611x - LDO - Deck, Surface 9 612x - LDO - Operations, Surface x - LDO - Engineering/Repair, Surface x - LDO - Special Warfare Technician 2 616x - LDO - Ordnance, Surface x - LDO - Electronics, Surface x - LDO - Deck, Submarine 0 623x - LDO - Engineering/Repair, Submarine 2 626x - LDO - Ordnance, Submarine x - LDO - Electronics, Submarine 2 629x - LDO - Communications, Submarine 3 631x - LDO - Deck, Aviation 4 632x - LDO - Operations, Aviation 3 633x - LDO - Maintenance, Aviation x - LDO - Ordnance, Aviation 9 639x - LDO - Air Traffic Control 7 640x - LDO - Nuclear Power x - LDO - Administration x - LDO - Information Systems x - LDO - Bandmaster 2 644x - LDO - Information Warfare x - LDO - Intelligence 3 646x - LDO - Meteorology/Oceanography 3 647x - LDO - Photography 0 648x - LDO - Explosive Ordnance Disposal 4 649x - LDO - Security x - LDO - Supply Corps 7 653x - LDO - Civil Engineer Corps 5 655x - LDO - Judge Advocate General Corps 0 711x - WO - Boatswain, Surface 4 712x - WO - Operations Technician, Surface x - WO - Engineering Technician, Surface x - WO - Special Warfare Technician 8 716x - WO - Ordnance Technician, Surface 4 717x - WO - NSWC-C Technician 5 718x - WO - Electronics Technician, Surface 4 720x - WO - Diving Officer WO - Submarine Deck 0 723x - WO - Engineering Technician, Submarine 1 726x - WO - Ordnance Technician, Submarine 1 728x - WO - Electronics Technician, Submarine 1 731x - WO - Aviation Boatswain 4

5 732x - WO - Aviation Operations Technician 2 734x - WO - Aviation Maintenance Technician 9 736x - WO - Aviation Ordnance Technician x - WO - Aviation Electronics Technician x - WO - Nuclear Power Technician 5 741x - WO - Ship s Clerk 6 742x - WO - Information Systems Technician x - WO - Information Warfare Technician x - WO - Intelligence Technician 7 748x - WO - Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician 2 749x - WO - Security Technician 2 751x - WO - Supply Corps Warrant 1 752x - WO - Food Service Warrant 4 753x - WO - Civil Engineering Warrant 4 Grand Total LDO 287 Grand Total CWO 168 Grand Total LDO/CWO 455 FORMAL EDUCATION. Lots of opinions out there and I definitely have mine. The problem is, our juniors are asking and they re getting conflicting answers. So we need to establish what we endorse/support as a community and keep personal opinions to ourselves. So lets look at the pro s and the cons of getting a degree: PRO Improves our abilities as officers through better written reports Removes any stigma out there about us being uneducated officers Blurs the lines of formal qualifications with the U/RL Removes the last barrier for us to be unlimited Opens doors of opportunity for lateral conversion Improves your resume CON Lack of funding - (on the agenda to investigate) Tougher to do for sea intensive fields Less down time (particularly sea intensive) Although the list is not all inclusive, it is pretty clear that the pros outweigh the cons. So, accepting that, I recommend the best way to jump start getting your degree is by having Navy Campus do a full assessment to understand what has already been earned - then apply to a school of your choice and see what they will accept and, therefore, what remains to be done. Or you can apply to a college such as Excelsior and see what needs to be done to finish a degree with them without ever taking a course with them. The most important thing is not to be intimidated and just go for it. You have to believe that the days are gone where we could continue on without formal education - I know some of us made it without it, but our juniors will not fare as well. It is the only way forward. We will identify education milestone goals for all designators in the new LDO/CWO guidebook. MUSTANG ASSOCIATIONS: When did you last participate in your local Mustang Association? Some are thriving and some are languishing - some locations don t even have one. Help revitalize them, or even establish one, because it is there that you can have your greatest impact as a mentor. As an added bonus, our unity is our strength. Your leadership and experience is invaluable to them - please engage. I also recommend engaging the retired LDO/ CWOs living and working in many of the Fleet Concentration areas they too are a wealth of knowledge and will help you to network. For the Mustang Associations; send me your links with key officers and next meeting and we will publish them in the next newsletter to advertise. ROAD TRIPS: Expect the results of the In-service procurement board in about two weeks. We are updating the road trip briefs to be more current and address what is important to us. An important element of the brief will be the board call out by CAPT Dave Lepard. We would also like to talk to any Mustang Associations at luncheons during these trips to further get the word out. Definitely want to do any big decks if in port. The following is a tentative schedule and we will need to ask some of you with deep pockets for help with travel funding: March (1st - 4th) Hawaii (1st MCAS, 2nd NAVSTA, 3rd PACOM, 4th PACFLT compound) April (5th - 8th) California (5-6th NAVSTA San Diego, 7th NAS North Island, 8th Lemoore) April (26th - 29th Norfolk (26-27 NAVSTA, 28 NAB, 29 NAS Oceana) June (1ST - 3rd) Jacksonville (1st Mayport, 2nd NAS, 3rd Kingsbay) June (29th - 1st July) PAC NW (29th Whidbey, 30th Everett, 1st Bangor) The following will be one day trips as the opportunity presents itself: Pensacola, Great Lakes, DC and Newport We will also try to add Naples/Bahrain and Japan/Guam later in the summer if we can find funding. This should address every fleet concentration of LDO/CWOs. If your location was not mentioned, do we need to visit? More detail to follow. CWO APPOINTMENTS: OPNAVINST B was signed 14 Dec 09. In one of the four areas in the instruction addressing CWO appointments there is a statement that E-8 with two years time-in-rate shall be appointed to CWO3. N131 policy decision is that applicants for FY-11 applied for and will be commissioned under OPNAVINST A

6 the only personnel appointed to CWO3 will be E-9 with two years time-in-rate. The area of the instruction referencing E-8 appointments to CWO3 will be revised and corrected to E-9. OCM s intent is to submit a change to OPNAVINST B for FY-12 selections as follows. Those personnel in pay grade E9 and those personnel selected for E9 as of 1 Oct in year the application is submitted shall be appointed to CWO3. This action is intended to address the need for increased applications from our most senior CPOs while ensuring they are exposed to operations at the most senior enlisted level for a minimum of 1 year before promoted to CWO3. OCM WEB PAGE. We have started to make improvements and will continue to do so. Mitch is working on a chat-room link. Any other ideas? LDO CWO SYMPOSIUM: May with the 14th as an optional board training day for any takers. We will establish working groups to investigate and report on such things as: the feasibility of promoting by enterprise; in-service selection board improvements (CAPT Lepard has the lead); investigate options to prevent our people stating out before they are considered for promotion (attrition would be through 2xFOS or voluntary retirement); compressing window of opportunity (TAS) for application to CWO or LDO. Any other topics we need to cover? One day of the Symposium will be for work with your enterprises and we will have the detailers embedded into your teams. Falardeau)). The 12th is a free evening is there any interest in setting up a bus trip to Beale Street? Don t forget about the 13th for the dinning-in - time to dust off your dinner dress blues. I have a great President and Mr. Vice lined up. NEED TO DO: LT(jg) fitreps are due in February. In closing, it s such a pleasure talking to our constituents each day. Our people are doing some incredibly tough jobs extremely well and doing it with a sense of humility. It wins hearts and minds and should make each of us very proud to be a mustang. As always, please let us know how we can do business better by dropping a line or giving us a call. This should be a two way dialogue to ensure we are hitting the mark. If you change your address please ensure we know so that we keep you in the loop. VR CAPT John R. Jones john.r.jones@navy.mil VR CWO4 Mitch Allen mitchell.allen@navy.mil (901) (901) (DSN 882) Fax (901) On the social front, the 11th will be an icebreaker social (good Memphis BBQ that has been nuked (CAPT The Pony Express Book Review By David Boisselle How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In By Jim Collins Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 2009, 222 pp Good to Great to... Gone? Jim Collins has written a brief, needed follow-up to Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (with Jerry Porras) and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don t. Indeed, the book chronicles the death spirals of two of the eleven good to great companies: Circuit City (now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy) and Fannie Mae (now in federal conservatorship). Collins Built to Last (1994) and Good to Great (2001) both juxtaposed the visionary, benchmark organizations against control group or second-rank companies. How the Mighty Fall began as a magazine piece Collins was to write as part of his six-year research study on what it takes for organizations to endure when things spin out of control. He hastened to write this brief book when the mighty began to fall in the fall of (He joked to his colleagues, We re turning to the dark side. ) How the Mighty Fall addresses these questions: How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom becomes inevitable and unshakable? How can companies reverse course? Despite the doom-and-gloom implied by his stark book cover, Collins actually offers hope to organizations in a death spiral (Stage 1 does not inevitably lead to Stage 5). First, he identifies five stages of decline:

7 Stage 1 Hubris Born of Success Stage 2 Undisciplined Pursuit of More Stage 3 Denial of Risk and Peril Stage 4 Grasping for Salvation Stage 5 Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. Turning to the dark side presented a conundrum to Collins, who remarked to his wife, I find this much harder to get my head round than studying how companies become great and concluding that there are more ways to fall than to become great. Nevertheless, Collins succinctly summarizes the fallen and those who suffered near-death experiences. Stage 1 profiles Motorola, who haughtily failed to convert its hot but analog Strata cell phone to emerging digital technology, and fell from 50% market share to 17% in just four years. Stage 2 explains the overreaching of a company like Ames Department Stores whose acquisition of Zaire brought it into direct competition with Wal-Mart, who eventually killed Ames with the very same low-price business model that Ames had pioneered. (Collins cites this as an example of breaking [Hewlett-Packard s David] Packard s Law: a great company is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little.) Morton Thiokol and NASA s complicity in the space shuttle Challenger disaster exemplifies what Collins calls taking risks below the waterline. Stating that while it s okay for great enterprises to take risks, they must avoid big bets that could blow holes below the waterline, potentially sinking the ship. Stage 4 shows how some organizations grasp for salvation by hiring the right leader who focuses on the task at hand and righting he ship before settling on a vision and strategy (IBM s Louis Gerstner) while others are in a hurry and make too many big missteps (HP s Carly Fiorina). Stage 5 reads like an obituary of the departed: once-great companies that were bought-out (Scott Paper) or died (GM?). I found How the Mighty Fall to be a quick and eminently timely and instructive read in light of present events. It should motivate all business leaders to conduct an organizational self-assessment to avoid or arrest a potential death spiral into irrelevancy or death. David Boisselle is Director of Military Affairs at Regent University and secretary of the Navy Mustang Association. He may be reached at or dboisselle@regent. edu. MUSTANG MEMORABILIA SALE The following items are available for distribution. If you are interested in purchasing any of these items please go to the order form on the website, print and mail to us along with payment. Dark Navy with Gold Navy Mustang Logo - $11.00 White with Navy Mustang Logo - $7.50 Grey Cotton T-Shirt with Navy Mustang Logo XL and L Only Logo - $10.00 NMA Logo Watch- $15.00 NMA Logo Bumper Stickers with Up from the Ranks on them - $2.50

8 STA-21 Program Career Days March 2010 OR 5 March 2010 Devary Hall, Bldg. Aerotheater, Naval Air C-9, Naval Station Norfolk, Oceana Presented by: LT David Boisselle, USN-Ret ( or dboisselle@regent.com) and NROTC Unit Hampton Roads This presentation will inform potential enlisted fleet applicants about attaining a STA-21 college scholarship, including eligibility criteria, application procedures and program deadline. Other officer accession programs will be discussed in brief. Directions to Aerotheater: Enter NAS Oceana Main Gate off Oceana Blvd., turn left at 3rd intersection, D St. Directions to Bldg. C-9, NS Norfolk: Devary Hall (Base Theater) is located near the intersection of Bacon and Gilbert Streets closest to Gate 2.

9 NAVY MUSTANG ASSOCIATION 2550 Huntington Avenue, Suite 202 Alexandria, VA Fax: SCHOLARSHIP CRITERIA Classification Purpose Scope Limitations Eligibility Criteria Scholarship To recognize through monetary grants 1) exceptional E5-E-8 Navy or Navy Reserve personnel whose continued performance level has distinguished them as possible future Mustang candidates; 2) dependents of NMA members; and 3) high school students. NMA Scholarship Funds are designed to be awarded annually. Scholarship checks will be made payable jointly to individual and educational institution. Applicants must be nominated by any NMA member in good standing or NMA Chapter and submit a completed application. Applicants must demonstrate academic excellence as determined by transcripts, grade point average and SAT/ACT scores. Leadership, community service, and extracurricular activities will be considered. Grants will be awarded on an equal opportunity, non-discriminatory basis. Not later than the first Friday in November, the NMA President will provide a precept letter to the board informing them of any special instructions or criteria for the selection of candidates. The Treasurer will advise the Board on the number of scholarships that may be funded. The Board will then select the candidates for the fall semester. After awardees have been selected, the Board will notify the NMA member of the Chapter who provided the nomination so they may personally notify the recipients. Press releases will then be prepared and provided to Navy Times, Pony Express and awardees home town and local base newspapers. Audit Requirements Nomination/Selection Timetable Type of Recognition Ceremony Miscellaneous Information A separate account will be set up for the Scholarship Fund. Any monies that are directly related to the Fund ( member or corporate donations) will be deposited in a separate account by National headquarters and all grants will be paid from this account. The NMA National Board will ensure that an annual, independent audit of scholarship funds is conducted. Status of funds and scholarships awarded will be posted on our web page and included in the newsletter. Deadline date 26 February 2010 Annual. Scholarship Grants will be presented during command awards quarters at the recipient's command by nominee or a uniformed member of NMA whenever possible. This program will be publicized through , Pony Express, Navy Times, NMA Chapter events, and to all major commands and on board ships. Up From the Ranks

10 Navy Mustang Association Scholarship Application Type of Scholarship requested: Tuition Assistance Offset Chapter Supported School NMA Member Dependent Following information to be completed by nominee or chapter. Name: Are You a NMA Member? Yes - Member Number: No Address: City: State: Zip: Work Phone: Home Phone: Chapter Affiliation: Name of college or university you hope to attend or are currently attending: Have you applied for the fall semester: Yes No Been accepted: Yes No If you have applied to other colleges, please indicate: Depending on which scholarship you are applying for you need to submit a written response, in 200 words or less, on one of the following questions: For Tuition Assistance What are the biggest challenges facing today s Navy? For Chapter Supported School and NMA Dependent: - What has been your greatest accomplishment in High School and what are your goals for College? Please complete both sides of application.

11 ALL applicants must include the following with application: A listing of your extra curricular activities, community service activities, academic honors and/or positions of leadership which represent your interests. Include an estimate of the amount of time involved with each activity. Three letters of recommendation from teachers, counselors or other persons of influence in your life, other than relatives, who have known you for at least two years and are in a position to address your character, citizenship, and leadership. High School Seniors should also include: A certified transcript or photocopy of high school grades A copy of ACT or SAT scores Active Duty or Drilling Reservists should also include: A letter from your Commanding Officer commenting on your military service and leadership potential A certified transcript or photocopy of the grades from your most recent four semesters of school A copy of your ACT or SAT scores if available Please indicate if you are: enrolled in or have applied for the Seaman to Admiral 21 (STA-21) Program Applicants who are not high school seniors, active duty, or drilling reservists should also include: A certified transcript or photocopy of the grades of your four most recent semesters of school A copy of ACT or SAT test scores unless you are currently attending a college or university. I hereby certify that all information on this application is true: Signature of Applicant: Date: Please return this application with required materials by 26 February 2010 to: Scholarship Coordinator Navy Mustang Association 2550 Huntington Avenue, Suite 202 Alexandria, VA 22303