A letter from a Navy Wife to the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.

[eljefefx]

A message from Ember R Hulett to MCPON...

MCPON,
With all due respect, several weeks ago I posted on your page in regards to the likelihood of suicide triggered by the stress of ERB information right before the holidays, followed by a period off of work with nothing to keep the mind busy and little supervision.

Petty Officer Hatfield shot himself a few days ago in his home, broken under the stress of losing his career. His wife lived with the body for days before blood seeped through the ceiling in the garage and told her where he had gone to end his life, hiding in the attic. Perhaps he wished to make it impossible for her to be the one to find him. Who knows? We've lost a sailor.

His wife Nikki is devastated.

400K is NOTHING to her.

Please, please take better care of your sailors, Master Chief.

In fact, I'm now a Navy wife, and our President, your boss, works for me, the American People.

So with all due respect, Master Chief...
That's an ORDER.

DO SOMETHING, now, before it's too late.

I know there is only one of you, and there are thousands of them, but my comments about the manner in which our Navy is drawing down have held true.

10 years ago so many of my friends and family were barely beyond teenagers. We were partying, preparing for college, falling in and out of love... being young people.

Our Nation called us.

For whatever reason, you called.
Just as generations of young people have done at various times for this country, we put on boots, helmets, and a load of responsibility far beyond our years, and we responded, filling out the required ranks of enlisted personnel in every armed force.
We were not always prepared, not always well protected, NEVER well informed, and not always at our best, but we were THERE for our country when our country called.

We gave you our BEST years.

10 years later we have forgone college, deferred our dreams, and in some cases given our lives for the call. Now, 10 years later, our country has spent BILLIONS and claims it can no longer afford our services.

We are being turned out of the jobs we have grown to love at an increasing rate to face an unemployment rate approaching ten percent. We are behind in education, unprepared in many cases for civilian life, and untrained to be much other than the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen we were asked to become.

Where is the job training?

Aggressive, not just "adequate," transition services?

Why are we being so abruptly shunted aside?

Where are the tools we will need to face the nation that we were asked to defend?

Without an AGGRESSIVE CAMPAIGN to re-introduce the sailors you are letting go to civilian jobs- job matching, placement and training, you are leaving thousands with little hope and great fear.

ERB, PRT, and HYT changes are hurting your sailors, and destroying families.

Changes to the GI bill mean sailors in North Carolina may suddenly see out of state rates from one semester to the next.


We kept our promises to you.

We manned the Greatest Navy on the planet when you called us.

Keep the Navy's promise to us.

Support our families both on Active Duty and in the wider Navy family.

STOP throwing us away in favor of green recruits who cost less to maintain because they do not have families and can live on the ship or in barracks.

SLOW RECRUITING, SLOW FORCED ATTRITION.

Draw down, and stay that way, but do it fairly.
Do it with respect for the men and women who have freely stepped up to entrust their lives to you at an age when they generally had no CLUE what they were signing up for over a 10-20 year period.

With compassion, and Very Respectfully,

Ember R. Hulett
-USN-Veteran
-Active Duty Navy Wife
-Sailor forever

Police think body is missing VB man | WAVY.com | Virginia Beach


Fair Winds and Following Seas, Petty Officer Hatfield.
We have the watch.

[Vantage]

I'm not really familiar at all with the navy's draw down plans or their ets clearing procedures but that sounds like a lot of moaning and groaning to me. Leadership at that level is damned if they do, and damned if they don't. The problem is that we let to many dirt bags swell our ranks andhad no choice but to keep them because we were hurting that bad on personnel. Now that we longer need to beg people to join, people are afraid they will no longer get their welfare the military really is. The new SMA said it best, "Your a 15 year E-5, what's going on?" People know now that they can no longer hide out for 20 years and collect an easy retirement, and they are scared. I know where I'm stationed, SM's getting out are told to immediately apply for unemployment, so no shit, veteran unemployment rates are rather high.

And what is this diarrhea that people are not being giving the skills to be successful outside of the military? Get the fuck over yourself lady. You can not talk about how you were part of the greatest navy on Earth, and then cry that you and others can't make it on the outside. Last time I checked, millions upon millions of people have had great and successful lives without having ever been in the military. My phones about to die so Ill try and continue this rant later. This is just my $.02 .

[eljefefx]

Look up ERB. Also, it's not 15 year E5's (no such thing in the Navy). In many cases, it's individuals who just did their last reenlistment (or at least putting them up to 20) as an E6.

[Vantage]

After briefly getting up to speed on the ERB, from my outside the navy viewpoint, I still see no issues with how it helps to reduce the Navys total end strength. All branches are having similar things to reduce troop levels. A performance oriented review board seems like a far way to go about it, while still being feasible. But in your last post, are you saying the board is purposely targeting those closest to their 20 year mark for termination under the ERB program? How would you reduce end strength to the approved levels? And why is this lady writing the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, instead of Congress? He doesn't decide how many sailors the Navy gets...

[Alex3000gt]

Police think body is missing VB man | WAVY.com | Virginia Beach


Fair Winds and Following Seas, Petty Officer Hatfield.
We have the watch.

A year ago I would have passed this story up without thinking about it.

It now brings me to tears. Rest in peace.

[AgentOblivious]

That's balls. Hows about less corporate welfare, more taking care of your own. I don't care if you're the gutsiest John Wayne muthafucka out there that managed to walk out of the armed forces and into a dream job; that's not indicative of the situation of your peers. They were there when they were needed, don't let them down.

[eljefefx]

After briefly getting up to speed on the ERB, from my outside the navy viewpoint, I still see no issues with how it helps to reduce the Navys total end strength. All branches are having similar things to reduce troop levels. A performance oriented review board seems like a far way to go about it, while still being feasible. But in your last post, are you saying the board is purposely targeting those closest to their 20 year mark for termination under the ERB program? How would you reduce end strength to the approved levels? And why is this lady writing the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, instead of Congress? He doesn't decide how many sailors the Navy gets...

he problem that we're facing right now is that with the implementation of ERB and the ground rules for being selected for separation, many are reporting that there are individuals who did not meet the criteria for separation but who were not selected. I have seen numerous reports of people who, after having just made E6 at between the 10-14 year range (and who then reenlisted, some up to 19 years of total service), were selected to be separated in September of this year. These people have passed our other RIF tool, Perform To Serve, and were approved to stay in in their rate, or cross-rated to another job in the Navy.

The guidelines are not being followed, and people are pissed off. Now, we have one sailor who was so distraught with the situation that he took his own life. Did he feel betrayed? Possibly.

And that is the problem. While the MCPON doesn't set this policy, he does have the ear of those who do, namely the Chief of Naval Operations, SevNav and SecDef. He can help.

[Vantage]

OK, I think I'm beginning to understand now. It is unfortunate that the program is not being performed to standard or IAW the regulations/guidelines that were established for it. Has any other senior Navy leadership made any mention of tis apparently broken system? Or are they turning a blind eye, pretending all is well and good?

[eljefefx]

Nothing that has been officially put out criticizing it. Plenty of talk around the spaces that it's bullshit.

[IPD]

i'll add that regardless of how well the aid to transition is, you can't escape the simple fact that someone age 40+ (who doesn't necessarily qualify for military retirement) has a LOT harder time in the job market than a 20-something. age-ism is alive and well.