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1. PwC AustraliaShort- and long-term international secondments are a major draw for employees working at professional services firm PwC Australia, which topped LinkedIn's list again this year.2. Commonwealth BankCommonwealth Bank is hoping to supplement its staff's knowledge by providing money well-being classes for their personal finances. It comes after the bank faced allegations of money laundering and mis-selling insurance products.3. Deloitte AustraliaManagement consultancy Deloitte Australia has made strides in its research capabilities in a bid to address some of the biggest challenges facing the world. Those include environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef and the impact of artificial intelligence.4. KPMG AustraliaHealth and well-being is a core pillar for accounting firm KPMG. As such, it has launched a series of initiatives to encourage staff to talk more openly about their health issues.5. Westpac GroupAustralia's oldest company and first bank Westpac Group celebrated two milestones last year: reaching its 200th birthday and passing population parity for indigenous employees.6. CIMIC GroupGlobal subsidiaries in Asia and Africa mean that employees at engineering firm CIMIC Group have the opportunity to work on exciting overseas projects.7. Macquarie GroupHealthy breakfasts, yoga classes and kids clubs are some of the perks available to staff at financial services firm Macquarie Group. Employees are also encouraged to indulge their passions at work via a number of interest classes, including photography, gardening groups and a choir.8. LendleaseProperty company Lendlease is on the hunt for new staff after it saw an almost 50 percent rise in residential apartment projects last year. Staff are compensated for their busy workloads with an additional "well-being leave" day each quarter on top of their annual leave. The days can be spent doing a range of activities, including martial arts and cookery classes.9. National Australia BankGiving staff access to volunteering and financial well-being programs are a few of the ways National Australia Bank is trying to do good after facing allegations it breached lending laws.10. EYCool job titles including Robot Warriors, who help automate mundane work tasks, and Cyber Ninjas, who work with clients to make sure their systems are secure, are among the things attracting staff to the multinational professional services firm EY. Other perks here include flexible working arrangements, spa discounts and access to healthcare initiatives.

If you want Customer Centricity as the core of your business you need to begin with your organisational culture. Get that right and the structure will quickly fall into place.No matter how clearly you define your vision or how many processes are in place, the people who work for you won’t consistently make the right decisions unless you have a culture that reinforces the customer centric strategy.Successful businesses understand that focusing on culture is a key point of difference, and a way to cement competitive advantage in achieving their vision and strategic goals.How do you establish a customer centric culture?This is a tricky process as organisational culture is an intangible entity. As such, it is important to identify observable behaviours that indicate your organisation’s culture, as well as its alignment to your customer strategy and objectives.The model outlined below provides a framework for understanding the levers that will allow you to design your desired customer-centric culture, as well as understand the current culture state in order to determine the gap to be closed between the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’.Strategy: Requires the organisation to not only clearly articulate their customer strategy, but also to ensure that employees understand this strategy, as well as how their individual objectives link to both their immediate team and the overarching strategy.Leadership: Requires the organisation to articulate what it will look like when leaders act as customer guardians. It is then imperative for leaders to understand their role and the behaviours required of them to achieve the customer strategy. Leaders themselves then need to consider the behaviours that they demonstrate for their teams and the behaviours that they reinforce from the frontline to the executive team.Structures & Networks: Requires the organisation to identify the most effective operating model (structures and processes) to support their customer strategy and keep pace with change. Often the customer is shared across teams such as marketing, sales and customer services. However, there should be one ultimate ‘owner’ of the customer experience, which may require you to break down silos or leverage lines of power and influence to achieve the customer strategy.People & Performance: Requires the organisation to identify how they will ensure that employees will be appropriately qualified, skilled and experienced to effectively act as customer guardians across the entire employee lifecycle. Specifically, they need to consider the standards for performance that are required, including behaviours and metrics, and how these will be set in a customer-centric manner. It is also important to consider the reward and recognition frameworks that can be introduced to encourage employees to embrace their role as a customer advocate. The approach that leaders will take to monitoring performance, as well as coaching and managing employees to effectively elicit appropriate customer-focused behaviour should also be considered.Decision Making: Requires the organisation to identify the business processes that need to change in order to reduce complexity for customers and allow employees to effectively provide customer care, in particular determining who is responsible for key customer decisions and defining clear escalation processes. This will include identifying any roles, responsibilities and accountabilities that are impacted by process changes, and ensuring that employees understand and support any changes to their roles and accountabilitiesCommunication: Requires the organisation to agree the language, communication channels, signs and symbols that will be used to reinforce the customer strategy and behavioural expectations. This should include the use of two-way, formal and informal communications that reinforce your customer strategy, values, ethics and behavioural expectations.What do you do with this framework?Its not enough to upskill your customer-facing employees with good etiquette. Truly creating a customer-focused organisation requires much more.Knowing the:BehavioursMindsetValuesThat you want to promote and empowering all of your employees to act accordingly is critical to success. This challenge should belong to all layers of the business.Of course there are numerous ways to do this, the following approach assumes that a business case has already been established and that your organisation is ready to commence creating a customer-centric culture.1. Identify your core customer culture teamFirstly, you need to consider who will lead this program of work – perhaps it is the CEO, or maybe it is the executive team member who ‘owns’ the customer, for example your head of sales or customer service.Alternatively, a new role, such as a Chief Customer Officer (CCO) might be needed. Keep in mind while the CCO or another executive may lead your customer strategy, the engagement leadership from the CEO is imperative to the success of any culture program.Your CEO’s role will be to support the customer culture lead and ensure that all executives are held accountable for behaving in a manner aligned to the customer strategy.You then need to identify the core team members that will help the leader to develop and implement the customer strategy. This commences by considering the key functions that need to be represented. While the inclusion of divisions such as HR, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing are obvious choices due to their clear links to either the customer or the organisations’ culture, it is important to consider other functions such as IT, Operations and Finance. While these teams may not have a direct link to the customer or your organisation’s culture, they are critical enablers of the strategy.Additionally, in order to truly establish a truly customer centric culture each and every employee MUST understand their role in customer care. This begins with ensuring that each key stakeholder group is represented in the program team to support the design and implementation of behaviours that are relevant and meaningful for all employees.2. Design your ‘to be’ customer cultureUse your customer culture program team and an experienced facilitator undertake a series of focus groups or workshops to develop your customer-centric vision for the future. This should include storytelling to articulate what a successful customer-centric culture will look and feel like. Well told stories articulate relationships, processes, cause and effect, and prioritisation among the elements in the story, all of which are critical for an effective strategy.Companies such as 3M are renowned for incorporating storytelling across their business, from strategy development, to sales and customer service, and innovation.When utilising this technique it is important to ensure that the stories told take each culture lever (i.e. Strategy, Leadership, Structures & Networks, People & Performance, Decision Making, and Communication) into consideration across each performance driver level (i.e. Foundations, Capabilities and Beliefs). Customer insights should also be incorporated into these sessions to ensure that you truly understand both their present and future needs.3. Understand the gapWorking through a similar process to Step 2 (i.e. utilising focus groups or workshops) agree and document the current state in relation to your desired customer-centric culture. This could be as simple as creating a dichotomy with your ‘to be’ state at one end and the opposite of this on the other end. Then plotting how far along the continuum your organisation is at present.For example: When embarking on a culture change program, Ikea engaged front-line employees to understand their experience with and knowledge of customers, and assessed this feedback against the customer culture dimensions that they had deemed critical.This encompassed positive customer experience, as well as gaining an understanding of what happens when things go wrong. Additionally in the UK, Virgin Trains’ CEO, Tony Collins, supported HR to facilitate workshops with leaders and employees to understand the gaps, and translate the customer vision and values into meaningful action.4. Identify priorities and create a program of workNow that you know what your vision for the future is, as well as how significant the gap is between the current state and desired future state, it is important to identify your key priorities, commencing with the components of the culture model that are most critical to achieving your customer strategy.For example, as previously mentioned, leaders and leadership behaviour will be critical to successfully realising your customer-centric culture.Companies such as Westpac have realised this and designed a series of workshops for their people leaders to enhance their customer mindset and provide them with the necessary capability to lead and support their teams to behave in a customer-centric way.This can be as simple as asking team members to share a customer story – positive or negative – in order to recognise positive behaviour and share lessons learned.Once you have your priorities and quick wins, it is time to create your program of work. When documenting this be sure to consider allocated time frames, budgets and stakeholder engagement, as well as the natural progression from one activity to another.For example, it may make more sense to address any changes regarding employee identification, attraction and selection prior to revising an onboarding program.Finally, it is important to consider when and how you will monitor the progress of the program through customer and employee feedback. This can be done at regular intervals or aligned to key program milestones. Whichever you decide, it is important to consider other employee and customer contact points so as not to annoy them with a battery of communications.Final WordA customer-centric culture can be defined in a corporate memo, but it’s unlikely that this alone will translate into the realisation of what is defined.When all is said and done, customer centricity comes down to the decisions individuals make on a daily basis that align to the aspirations of the business.**This is an excerpt from the article below, if you want to know more about customer centricity I’d recommend checking it out.https://expert360.com/blog/5-steps-creating-customer-centric-culture/?utm_source=quora.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-share-icon&utm_content=text&utm_term=Social-IconKeep in mind I work for Expert360 the company that posted the article but think it would be useful regardless.

“If you were in the military, what were your duties and when and where did you serve?”At first, I was going to bypass this question as being too bulky, but then I decided OK, what the heck. Why not? I’ve answered it, partially, in the past, in various questions, so we’ll see how long it takes, this time. Hours, I’m sure.This is covering nearly 14–1/2 years, longer than the resume of many younger-generation workers. I’ll start with the “when and where” because it’s a lot easier.12/76–3/77. Recruit training, RTC/NTC (Recruit Training Command/Naval Training Center) San Diego, CA. I spent Christmas in my first week of boot camp, on purpose, because I didn’t like having to go to Christmas Dinner at my sister’s In-Laws (upper-crust jerks). I was 18, 5′7″ and 118 lbs (That’s not a typo. I was starving to death, living on my own.)3/77–4/77. Home on leave.4/77–6/77. FLEASWTRACENPAC (Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, Pacific), San Diego, CA. A-School to become an STG (Sonar Technician, Surface), even though I had volunteered for Submarine Service. The all-knowing, never-wrong, Navy decided that was where they needed me, in the surface fleet. Specifically, operating the SQS-26CX active sonar system and MK 114 ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) Fire Control System. While there, in the course of various phases of the training, I was advanced from SR (Seaman Recruit) (E1), to SA (Seaman Apprentice) (E2), SN (Seaman) (E3), STGSN (Sonar Technician, Surface, Seaman) to STG3 (Sonar Technician, Surface, Third Class) (E4).7/77. FTG (Fleet Training Group) San Diego. Fire Fighting, Damage Control, and First Aid training. My first Independence Day in the Navy, I had Barracks Petty Officer duty, and watched the fireworks from the door to the barracks. Part of the transfer period was spent at Treasure Island, CA. Went to San Francisco to stand in a three-block-long line to watch Star Wars.8/77–9/77. FLTACTS (Fleet Activities), Yokosuka, Japan. Cultural Awareness Training while waiting for my first ship to return from sea.9/77–4/78. USS Lockwood (FF-1064), 3rd Division (The ASW division, which had Sonar Technicians, ASROC Missile Gunner’s Mates, and Torpedomen), a Knox-class frigate, forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. The First Responders for international events in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Most of the time was spent at sea. Much of the time was in and out of the Navy base in Chinhae, South Korea. In my first six months, we deployed with the USS Midway (CV-41) Carrier Task Group to the Indian Ocean. We visited Singapore, The Philippines, Bunbury, Australia, Diego Garcia (British Royal Navy base), and Bandar Abbas, Iran, Navy base (Under the Shah, before the Iranian Revolution). The last three months were spent in drydock, for a mini-refit, which included installation of a new passive towed array sonar system (SQR-18). I was transferred to another ship in the squadron, as a trade. The other ship had an extra VDS technician, and mine didn’t have any. They transferred me one week before my birthday, which really sucked. The first ship gave birthday-boys a day off. The new one didn’t.4/78–7/79. USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067), AS Division (same thing as 3rd Division, just a different name). We visited Chinhae, of course, Hong Kong, Taiwan (before the US broke diplomatic ties to Taiwan, in deference to the People’s Republic of China), The Philippines, and Pattaya Beach, Thailand. While enroute to Thailand, we rescued two boat-loads of Vietnam “Boat People” refugees (77 men, women and children). Our visit was extended while the US negotiated with Thailand to allow the refugees to go ashore. The end result, as I remember, was that the US had to guarantee they would give them refugee status in the US, and pay for their transport. Thus began Operation Boat People over the next few years, looking for, and rescuing them at sea, hopefully before the pirates got to them. The crew was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal. My last four months was spent in drydock, doing another mini refit, identical to the first one. During my final year, after a lot of pestering the Chain-of-Command, writing an essay, and having an interview with the Commodore in command of the submarines in Japan, my request for transfer to submarines was approved. While there, Star Wars was released in Japan. The actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was there, and visited the Base. It turns out that he’s a Navy Brat, and graduated from high school at the Yokosuka base High School. He visited his school, got a tour of the base, and a tour of our ship. When done, he visited with the crew in the Crew’s Mess. He told us he was proud of us, that WE were the REAL Star Wars, and then signed autographs. I was surprised at how short he was, when he shook my hand. A great guy!While there, I nearly finished PQS (Personnel Qualification Standards) for the new ESWS (Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist) designation (What submariners derisively called “Skimmer Dolphins”), but didn’t have enough time. I DID qualify as an In-Port Repair Locker Leader. I also was advanced to STG2 (E5), after my first advancement exam.7/79–9/79. At home on leave, and transiting to my next duty station.9/79–10/79. Submarine School, New London, CT. Learning all the basics about submarines and, in my case, unlearning all of my surface-ship “bad habits”. LOL Most of my classmates were fresh out of boot camp, and I was a PO2 (E5). In fact, I found out later, most of them were afraid of me, since their only experience with Petty Officers were their boot camp Company Commanders (a Navy Drill Instructor). I thought it was pretty funny.After graduation, I was given the SU (Submarines, Unqualified) designation, STG2(SU)10/79–11/79. BEE/NTC (Basic Electricity and Electronics/Naval Training Center) San Diego, CA. An 8-week “Independent Study” course, that I finished in 4-weeks, just to get out of that training-base hell hole. Watched the World Series for the first time in my life. I remember watching Kent Tekulve, and his crazy pitching style.11/79–5/80. FLEASWTRACENPAC, San Diego, CA. C-School, for an STS (Sonar Technician, Submarine). Before starting the technical training, I had to beg for some submarine sonar operational training. In their infinite wisdom, the Navy said I already GOT my A-School, back in ‘77, and they couldn’t give me a student billet. I argued that me SURFACE operational training was useless on a submarine, because submarines don’t use an active sonar. They compromised, by allowing me to monitor an STS A-School class in my off-time, and loaned me tapes to listen to, to learn the sounds of the sea and learn how to do a turn-count (timing, by ear, the speed of a ship). So, I was doing training about 17 hours per day, M-F. Fortunately, my technical training was on the swing shift, and the operational training was day shift. I had zero social life.The C-School training was for the 0421 job code, making me a SPACE-Tech (Special Purpose Auxiliary Combined Equipment), which meant I could be assigned to any submarine. Everybody else got a C-School that locked them in to either a Boomer (SSBN) or Fast Attack (SSN), with nearly zero cross-over. That fact served me well, later. The equipment I trained on did everything EXCEPT detecting anything on sonar. Tape recorders, spectrum analyzers, underwater communications, navigation equipment, oceanographic measurement equipment, you name it, I fixed it all. And, in a pinch, I could figure out how the main sonar systems worked, and help fix them, too.After I graduated, I converted from STG2(SU) to STS(SU)6/80–8/80. SUBRON (Submarine Squadron) 15, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, HI. Waiting for the submarine crew I was assigned to. They were on patrol and, later, in training, while somebody decided who I would actually go to. My job was working in the abandoned hanger where single men on patrol could store their cars. Every week, a crew would return from patrol and get their cars. That took one or two days. I had a little cart with several charged car batteries I used to give a jump start, and some gasoline to prime an empty carburetor (no fuel injection, back then). The rest of the time was roving security, and shooting the shit with the Senior Chief in charge. Finally, I was called in to Squadron at lunch, and told to pack my sea-bag with deployment clothes, don a travel uniform (Summer White), and catch a Pan Am flight to Guam. I was finally going to the boat and crew I had original orders for!8/80–3/81. USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) Blue, a George Washington-class Polaris SSBN operating out of Guam. This was the first class of SSBNs, built in the ‘50s. This boat was the second one, and, together with the USS George Washington, did all of the trial launched of the first A1 Polaris missiles. This class was the boats where they took a Skipjack SSN, and stuck a missile compartment in the middle. This particular one carried the Polaris A3 missiles. Later boats carried the Poseidon missile, which was too big to fit in our smaller missile tubes. On my first patrol, we got a rare mid-patrol break, and visited (guess it) Chinhae, South Korea! My old stomping ground! In fact, my old frigate was there, and I visited with some of my old shipmates, who had arrived just before I left, 18 months earlier. For off-crew, we flew back to Ford Island on an Air Force MAC flight. I re-enlisted then, and used my re-enlistment bonus to pay six months advance rent on an apartment on the other side of Oahu, on a secluded golf course near Kahuku. In the middle of our next patrol, I qualified submarines, four weeks ahead of schedule. No quals for a couple of weeks was a dream come true, then they handed me a binder of watch-stander qual cards, and told me to “turn-to” (from the surface ship announcement, “All Hands Turn-to, Commence Ship’s Work’). While on patrol, we got word that our boat had been selected to be the next SSBN to be converted into an SSN (due to the SALT treaties with the USSR, reducing the nuclear arsenals). So, when we got back from patrol, they would be consolidating the two crews, and transferring the rest to the rest of the fleet. One of my shipmates, the other SPACE Tech in our crew, had orders to an old, archaic SSN, and DIDN’T want to go. I did, so we swapped orders. Another good choice for me. Once again, I was transferred just before my birthday.3/81–3/83. USS Seadragon (SSN-584), an ancient Skate-class SSN, built in the ‘50s, the first SSN class in the US Navy, Pearl Harbor, HI. The pier where she usually moored, next to the Sub-Base Enlisted Club, was generally known as the Seadragon Pier, because she spent a lot of time there, broken. The boat was 25 years old, in a unique class of 4 boats, with two different first-generation reactor designs, so repair parts were scarce. That included sonar, so maintenance and repair was a challenge. I LOVED it! Work-arounds were the Order of the Day.Before reporting aboard, I was given orders to a special sonar school, SSSA (Submarine Sonar Subjective Analysis). It is, in my opinion, the hardest school in the Navy, because it’s entirely subjective. This is where we learned to distinguish exactly what contact we were listening to, by class of ship/sub, sometimes down to the exact hull. Is that a Victor I or a Victor III SSN? Is it a Yankee or a Delta II SSBN? Is it a Kashin destroyer or a Krivak frigate ? Is it a Permit or a Sturgeon? Is it a Knox FF or a Spruance DD? Nothing is written in stone, because they’re all similar, and sound conditions may obliterate part of the expected signal. That’s why it’s “subjective” and that’s why AI, to date, won’t work. It’s not like the movies, at all. You can’t just feed it into a computer and get a print-out.Once I reported aboard, came a huge surprise. Just before I arrived, nearly the entire sonar crew was discharged from the Navy for illegal drug use. The only survivors were the top two, the Chief and the STS1. And I was the replacement for the First Class. I suddenly went from being a junior nub STS2 on my first boat, to the senior non-Chief on the new one. The Chief did all the paperwork, and left the rest of the leadership to me, to figure out on my own. More about that later, when I discuss duties.While on Seadragon, in addition to myriad short deployments (the other reason they called it the Seadragon Pier was because most of our sea-time was M-F, being a training target for the skimmers and airedales), we made two WestPac deployments. We visited Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hobart, Australia, Midway, Guam (another old stomping ground) and a short visit in Yokosuka, Japan (all the skimmers were deployed, so we were alone). Interesting note about Yokosuka. Unlike all of the other submarines in the fleet, our topside sentries weren’t armed with a pistol. Our Captain had us armed with a shotgun. When we arrived in Japan for some maintenance, none of the shipyard workers would set foot on the boat, because of the shotgun. The base Admiral ordered our Captain to ditch the shotgun and arm us with a .45, instead, or go back to sea, broken. Most of our deployed time was doing Special Operations in sundry places near Japan.While there, I met my wife in the Philippines, got married, and got a new apartment near the Laie Mormon Temple and Brigham Young University, where most of my friends were. It was in Hanohano Hale, on the beach, next to the Pat’s at Punalu’u condos in Hau’ula. (I LOVE those Hawaiian names!!). I chose that location, and didn’t own a car, because my Division Officer was a jerk who liked to wake me up in the middle of the night, to work on stuff that could wait until the next morning. When I was single, it was OK, but as a newlywed, it was unacceptable. The bus didn’t run all night, and I always caught the first one in the morning, arriving on the boat just after 7:00. One time, he wanted to call me at 11:00 at night, so the Senior Chief had a little talk with him. “Sir, you know he rides the bus to work every morning, right? And he gets here at 7:00 every morning, right? Is it so important that you want to send the Duty Driver to Hau’ula, a two-hour round trip, to get him here, now?” “No.” “Then sir, why call him, now? Why don’t you let him get some sleep? He’ll fix it in the morning.” And I did.While on Seadragon, I spent a lot of time wrangling orders to my next school, to the newest top-of-the-line part of the submarine service, TRIDENT SSBNs. I was eventually told that I would be receiving orders, soon, to go to school for a year in Bangor, WA, a few miles from my home. One of the best aspects was that the Trident program was different from all previous submarine programs. There was just one base (eventually, two), where EVERYTHING was done. The boats were there, the refit facility was there, the training was there, all afloat and ashore administration was there, all family housing was there, on one base. Consolidation made this program popular with the crews, because you could put down roots, knowing that your family never had to move, and popular with Congress, because it saved so much money.BUT. We were short-handed, and the boat kept postponing my transfer. Until we were about to leave Hobart, Australia. We got an urgent message, directing the boat to transfer me ASAP, because I had a school to go to, and they wouldn’t reschedule it. So, the night before we were supposed to leave and return to Pearl, the boat’s Yeoman had to stay aboard, while everybody else was partying, writing my orders and arranging my flight home, and my flight, with my wife, to Bangor, and my move out of my apartment (actually easy, because our apartment was fully furnished, so we had no household goods.).While there, I was advanced to STS1 (E6), after my first advancement exam, about one year before transfer. Also while there, a new, more senior STS1 arrived, as the Chief’s replacement. So I maintained my position as ALPO (Assistant Leading Petty Officer), and gained a friend and better mentor.3/83–4/83. On leave at home and transferring to new duty station.4/83–3/84. TRITRAFAC (Trident Training Facility) Bangor, WA. Another C-School, getting the 0426 Level III job code, fixing EVERYTHING on an Ohio-class SSBN. Not just the detection sonar systems, but all of the auxiliaries, too. My wife and I initially got an apartment in Bremerton, near the Shipyard, but, after a few months, got a base-housing unit, a five-minute walk to the school building. While going through class, we all got orders to the same boat, then under construction, following the class that left six months before us, going to the same boat.3/84–5/84. On leave and transiting (driving) to the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, CT.5/84–10/84. PCU (Pre-Commissioning Unit) Henry M. Jackson (ex-PCU Rhode Island) (SSBN-730), Groton, CT. I say “ex-Rhode Island” because the name of the boat was changed after Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) died of an aortic aneurysm. He was one of my Senators, and instrumental in authorizing the TRIDENT system and getting the base built in Washington.Out of the 24 of us, I was, again, the senior sonar white-hat (non-Chief). We had three Chiefs. After commissioning and splitting the crew, one crew (Blue) would have two Chiefs, and the other would have one, with me being, again, the ALPO.Out of the 24, only one other had been to sea before. During construction, we sent one of the first 12 TDY to an earlier boat (USS Michigan, IIRC) to go on patrol and get some sea experience. So, when we went on our first sea-trials, there were six experienced guys, enough for two complete watch sections. I, personally, went on every trial, first as a Sonar Operator, then, on the longest (two weeks) one, as a Sonar Supervisor, so one of the Chiefs could stay home with his family.Before commissioning, half of the Gold crew (those with families) were given the option to transit to our home port (Bangor, WA) one month before Commissioning. Most of those chose to drive to the West Coast, including me.10/84–12/84. Leave and transiting to Bangor, WA.12/84–1/87. USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) Gold. Home port was NSB Bangor, Silverdale, WA, but, initially, the boat itself was still operating out of NSB New London, Groton, CT, for post-commissioning modifications in Groton, and missile testing and certification in the Bahamas. While in Bangor, my crew went through a lot of training, including some factory training on a new sonar system, at the Rockwell factory in Anaheim, CA. We elected to drive there, using the excess travel time as leave, and brought our wives. They had a GREAT time, sight-seeing while we sat in the classroom or went on the factory floor.After the missile testing, our crew had the opportunity to take the boat through the Panama Canal, and dip below the equator, to initiate a new batch of polliwogs into the Order of Shellbacks. This was my third excursion (after USS Lockwood and USS Seadragon). Good times were had by all!Once in Bangor, over the next several months, both crew did tests of the new sonar system, then our crew loaded 24 missiles, and took the boat out on patrol (The other crew got the honor of the First Patrol, after we did the hard work loading the missiles LOL). Just before our 2nd patrol, our Chief was suddenly transferred (don’t know why, specifically), we couldn’t get a new Chief on short notice, so we went on patrol with me as the LPO. I made another patrol, with a new Senior Chief.In that period, I passed my Chief’s Exam the first time, and was board-selected for advancement to Chief.At the end of the patrol, I re-enlisted, was advanced to Chief, participated in my CPO Initiation (At the Keyport CPO Club), and was transferred. It’s traditional to transfer a new Chief immediately, so he has an open slate in his new leadership role.1/87–2/90. TRITRAFAC Bangor. Instructor duty. Four weeks of Instructor training, earning the 9502 job code of Navy Instructor. Lead Instructor for the Level III portion of NEC 0426 (BQQ-6 maintenance), the Sonar Supervisor course, and the TSOT (Trident Sonar Operational Trainer) simulator, teaching new tactics to all of the sonar crews. Later, put in charge of the maintenance of all of the sonar lab equipment (an entire operational sonar system and two simulators, plus lab-only equipment).2/90–2/91. USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) Blue. CPO of Sonar Division.2/91–5/91. NSB Bangor Public Relations Department. Discharge processing. Discharged after two patrols, for being overweight.Over 14 years of outstanding service and advancement, gone because I didn’t look like Tom Cruise (Actor in Top Gun) and couldn’t lose weight. I say “couldn’t”, they said “wouldn’t”. Turns out I was right, “couldn’t” due to a hormone imbalance issue not diagnosed until 1995. Note that, with the exception of the PBF (Percentage of Body Fat) measurement, I was in excellent physical condition, outperforming my students in the PRT (Physical Readiness Test), and the PBF measurements were bogus because of the hormone imbalance shifting the distribution of fatty tissue.Now, for duties. The list is long and variable, depending on duty station (sea duty, vessel type, shore duty) time in service (experience), rate (rank), rating (general job description), collateral duties (morale, secret publications librarian, etc.), NEC (similar to Army MOS, a specific job category), training (operational, technical, leadership, administrative), assigned watch stations (underway, in-port, shore), warfare specialty (Surface, Submarine, Aviation, Special Operations, etc.), and others (religious, supply, service, construction, etc.). I’ll list mine in the various categories, starting with the universal and generic, and going deeper from there.I’ll start with shore duty, because I didn’t have much.Recruit Training.Student.Marching.Exercise.Sentry.Special Company (Specializing in PR performances). Mine is in bold. It’s all voluntary, chosen on the first day.Drum and Bugle Corps. Musical performancesPrecision Rifle Team. Skilled rifle manipulation.50 Flags Team. Precision marching with National, State, and Organization flags.Bluejacket Choir. Musical performances.Collateral Duties.RCPO (Recruit CPO). Recruit in charge of Company.(RPO1) Recruit PO1. Assists RCPO.Yeoman. Administrative.Master-At-Arms. Company security.Supply Petty Officer. Orders supplies.Religious PO. Religious/moral support. Leads voluntary evening prayers. Mine happened because our first evening was just before Christmas, and I joined the group going to evening Christmas service without getting permission first, or telling anybody. Everyone started to panic when I missed the evening bunk check. Fortunately, I was marching with the Christmas group when we returned, proving where I had been. They all thought I had “gone over the fence” (desertion). Naturally, the next day, my CC (Company Commander, i.e. DI) asked if I was interested in volunteering.Training commands.Student.SentryStaff.Command Duty Officer (Monthly, overnight, supervising security, CO representative). Our officers didn’t do diddly-squat, so the Chiefs had to take-up the slack.Lead Instructor. In addition to being an instructor (which includes instructing, examination, lesson preparation, lab preparation, test preparation, and contributing to the exam data bank), supervising and in-class monitoring the group of instructors assigned to your particular course(s). Mine were an advanced maintenance course, Sonar Supervisor course, and the tactical simulator (training all of the region submarine sonar crews, both as the individual sonar crews, and, together with the officers in THEIR tactical simulator, as a weapon-control team.Supervisor of Sonar Division lab equipment (sonar systems, simulators, stimulators, special equipment, etc.) maintenance and repair, supervising several junior technicians. Doing all maintenance administration and division budgets. Yearly personnel performance evaluations.Collateral duties. Secret Material Librarian. MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) radio station Chief Operator, building, maintaining, operating and supervising operations of the volunteers.Sea Duty.Surface ships (much different from submarines).Eight-hour work day, both underway and in-port.Cleaning. If you’re not doing anything specific, clean. Twice a day, for 15–30 minutes, EVERYBODY cleans. "Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the stern. Sweepers."Collateral duty. Damage Control Petty Officer. Did PMS (Preventive Maintenance System), AKA planned maintenance, on all damage control equipment in our divisional spaces, every week. This included fire extinguishers, fire hoses, submersible pump hoses, etc.. The equipment all belonged to the Damage Control Division, but they didn’t have the manpower to do it all, themselves. They did the administration, so we had to annotate their weekly maintenance schedule when we completed a task (such as the monthly weighing/inspection of all CO2 fire extinguishers). Everybody else in the division hated doing it, because you had to get dirty. I loved it, because I grew-up fixing old cars. If there was something going on in the division, and I wanted out of it, or if I just wanted to wander the ship without somebody telling me what to do, I’d grab one of my DC gear MRCs (Maintenance Requirement Card, a laminated card that detailed all of the steps to do the task, plus a list of tools and material needed to do it), stick it in my back pocket, visible, hang a greasy rag out of another pocket, or tuck it into my belt, put a tool of some sort, such as a spanner-wrench, hanging out of another pocket, and wander the ship. If somebody saw me, it was obvious I was doing useful work, somewhere, so they never bothered me. As long as I got my assigned work (both sonar work and DC stuff) finished every week, they didn’t care, and they never told me to go clean something. Besides, would you send a guy with a greasy rag in his belt somewhere to clean?Other duties. “Fire Watch Division” Assistant LPO. When we were in extended refit, with lots of shipyard welders needing a fire-watch (somebody with a fire extinguisher, looking for stuff the welder accidentally set fire to, putting it out), the damage control guys were short-handed, plus some divisions didn’t have ANY welding in their spaces, while others had lots. So, to be fair, every division had to contribute some junior guys, on a proportionate basis (larger divisions contributed more people). These people were formed into a special division, working for the Engineer. They mustered every day, as a division, with the DCA (Damage Control Assistant) as the Division Officer, and the leading HT1 (Hull Technician) as the LPO (Leading Petty Officer). He was really busy, so I was volunteered to be his ALPO (Assistant LPO). My only duty was to assign a fire watch to every shipyard welder who showed-up. Sometimes, we ran out of people. When that happened, I called the LPO of the affected division and told them to send another guy. I was only an STG3 (an E4), and they were all First Class (E6), so I got a lot of static, at first. I got things like “You already have three of my guys, use one of them.” Or “You’re not doing anything. YOU do it!” I would tell them where their other guys were (usually in their own space, already), and for the last one, a simple “If I do that, the next time a welder comes along to weld in your space, there won’t be anybody to find a fire watch for him. He’ll go back to the shop, tell his supervisor, and the Ship Supe will come running to the ship, find you, and demand to know why the hell you’re holding-up the work! Maybe you should go talk it over with Petty Officer Case (the HT1) or the DCA.” After a week of me being a hard-ass, they quit whining, and PO Case LOVED me! He had too much work to do, without listening to a bunch of whiners. Yeah, First Classes whine just as much as anybody else, but only when there’s nobody else in ear-shot! They can’t let the junior guys hear it. A Filipino Chief drilled that into my head, once, soon after I made Second Class. Pissed me off, but he was right.In-port.Sentry Duty. Because I was a PO3, I stood POOW (Petty Officer Of the Watch), armed with a .45 pistol, assisting the OOD at the Quarterdeck. I controlled access (ID cards), made 1MC (ship-wide PA system) announcements (Reveille, Quarters, Turn-to, Sweepers, etc.), kept the official Ship Log, raised/lowered the Ensign for Colors (8:00 AM and sunset), watched for approaching senior officers on the pier (Captain and Squadron Chief of Staff most common) to make the appropriate announcement (<ding-ding ding-ding> on ship’s bell “Lockwood, Arriving” <ding>), alarms (General Alarm for fires, with an announcement), calling various spaces on the phone (call AS Division for the Duty Sonar Tech to come to greet a visiting ST). When at anchor, watch for approaching boats, and make appropriate announcements (especially if it’s something like another ship’s Captain’s Gig, so the CO can greet him).Damage Control Party. Once qualified, I had various assignments, for fighting fires, flooding, etc. (hoseman, P250 pump operator, submersible pump hose, etc.).Underway.Sonar Watch. Operating various sonar consoles, fire control consoles, communications phone talker.Battlestations. At different times, in addition to sonar operation, operated other systems, such as the VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) hoist, the T-Mk-6 torpedo countermeasures hoist, XBT (Expendable BathyThermograph) launcher, Torpedo Tube loader.UNREP (Underway Replenishment, receiving fuel and stores from other ships). Working the Phone and Distance Line, a line going from the ship to the other ship, which had a telephone line in it (so each bridge could talk to the other) and a series of flags at set intervals, to let the OOD know the distance between the ships, 100 feet or so).Sea and Anchor Detail. Being part of Weapons Department, AS Division was responsible for one or two mooring lines on the fantail. In addition to faking the lines on deck, in preparation, after mooring, the lines are doubled, frapped (wrapped with a cord to keep the three line portions together) and rat guards installed. To do the last two, one person, wearing a life preserver, straddles the line, frapping it as he inches to the other end. Once done, he installs the rat guard in a position where a rat couldn’t jump over it, from the pier.Now to the Sonar Technician (ST) Rating. That’s my specific job. An ST is both a technician (maintenance and repair) and an operator. Historically, when the rating was first invented, there were technicians (ST) and operators (SO). As time went on, big differences developed, between sonar on ships (active pinging) and sonar on subs (passive listening). It was considered too difficult for junior men to learn all about both (I disagree, but I’m weird), so they were split. There were four kinds of soundmen (the original phrase before the term “sonar” was applied to the crew), Two for submarine (STS and SOS) and two for surface ships (STG and SOG). There has always been debate about why “G” was chosen for the surface-ship rating. When I was in STG A-School in 1979, we were told that STG stood for “Guns” because one ASW weapon, then, was the depth-charge K-Gun. Members of the National Sonar Association (https://sonarshack.org) have made many searches, and have not been able to find credible evidence about the origin.The difference between the rating badge for ST and SO was only in the direction of the arrow. The ST arrow pointed left, and the SO arrow pointed right. Since the ST was a left-arm rating and the SO a right-arm rating (IIRC, right-arm ratings were operational, and left-arm ratings were administrative and technical), in both cases, the arrow pointed forward. When the left-arm/right-arm distinction was eliminated throughout the Navy, the SO rating was eliminated and absorbed into the ST rating.Initially, the two ratings were combined into one ST rating, at the PO1 level. Then, it was done at the CPO level. When I joined the Navy, it was at the Senior Chief level, and by the time I was studying for advancement to Chief, it was split all the way to the Master Chief Level, where it is, today. This is interesting, because today, there are few differences between the two, operationally. All Sonar Technicians now use both active and passive sonar systems, all use towed arrays, and all conduct passive TMA (Target Motion Analysis). The biggest difference is in equipment, where submarine equipment is more sophisticated (spherical arrays, backless bow arrays (with NO hydrophones… amazing!), line arrays, flank arrays, sail arrays, chin arrays, mast arrays, ice and bottom sounders), and surface ships can use air-dropped sonobuoys and low-frequency ACTIVE towed arrays (to dig-out bottomed submarines in littoral regions).Operationally, the duties are sonar system operators, external equipment operators (VDS hoists, towed array reels, countermeasure reels, XBT/SSXBT launchers, etc.), torpedo/rocket fire control operators (surface ships), communications phone talkers, and manual plotters on paper (DRT, geographic plot, contact evaluation plot, time-bearing plot, expanded bearing plot, frequency plot, all used to manually evaluate the target of interest) and external computation devices, to do things like sound propagation analysis, sound path ray analysis, etc., plus other new things I have no clue about, but can imagine.Technically, the duties varied by training and experience. For all maintenance ratings there are the PMS schedules. At the bottom is the maintenance worker, who looks at a weekly schedule to see what needs to be done each day. When a job is completed, it is x’d out. If it’s partially done, it’s circled, if not done, not annotated. The next level is the Work Center Supervisor, who monitors the workers’ activities and originates the weekly schedule, based on a monthly schedule. From this point, who does what, administratively, depends on the individual command. The people above the Work Center Supervisor are ALPO, LO, LCPO, Division Officer, and Department Head. For schedules, the monthly schedule is derived from a quarterly schedule, the quarterly schedule is derived from the annual schedule, and the annual schedule is derived from the cycle schedule. After each schedule is completed, the exceptions are annotated on the back, the originator signs it, and sends it up the chain for review and signature.Other administrative items include things like the Equipment Status Log (every malfunction or issue is logged, updated at least weekly with status or completion, and reviewed (and signed) by the Division Officer and (sometimes) the Department Head.Other maintenance paperwork includes includes casualty reports, repair assistance requests, etc., with names like 2-Kilo (2K) and 2-Lima (2L).For parts, a junior petty officer is assigned the duty of RPPO (Repair Parts Petty Officer) who maintains the parts logs, orders whatever repair parts that are need, and goes to Supply to get them when they arrive (if on order) or are picked from stock on board. This isn’t just repair parts. It’s anything the division needs from Supply. If the division runs out of pens, the RPPO can order a box.Another administrative duty is training. A more senior person may be designated as the Training Petty Officer, whose job is to schedule individual and classroom training for all members of the division.Then, there is career planning. Somebody, usually the Chief, with assistance from the Department and Command Career Counselors, monitors and guides each division members progress in advancement, future career planning and milestones, what each person wants to do, and where to go, in the future, and either talks with the career detailers (the people in Washington who decide where everybody goes) or arranges for the individual to talk with them.Finally, there’s service record administration, specifically periodic evaluations. The LPO or Chief interviews each person, writes an evaluation, and sends it to the Division Officer, then Department Head, and XO (Executive Officer, the Second in Command,beneath the CO.) At each level, changes are made and, in some cases, interviews happen. Eventually, it’s done, and goes to the CO for final signature.I’ve had all of those jobs, except for the RPPO. I missed that one when I was thrust into leadership at a young age.Other collateral duties included things such as Ship’s Key Custodian and Classified Material Custodian.Submarines are very similar, except that many jobs and duties are consolidated, reducing the number of crew required.To begin with, the culture is completely different. Surface ships are very strict and hierarchical. Submarines are much looser. Relationships between officers and enlisted are much looser. Sure, submariners still say “sir” and “ma’am” and address junior officers as “Mister” but they’re also more colloquial, and willing to have fun. Example, officers are often involved in pranks. The junior ones are instigators or collaborators, the senior ones are willing victims. Many things happen, such as stealing the XO’s stateroom door. The last time I saw that happen, the XO started with putting the crew into Battlestations, until the culprits confessed and returned the door. That didn’t work, but the XO “knew” who had done it, he just had no evidence. So, he took the two off the underway watch-bill, and put them into a port-and-starboard rotation, being his stateroom door. When somebody came to visit the XO, they would shout “knock-knock-knock” then, as the person walked by, a “screee” of a door hinge, followed by a “thump” when the door was closed. This went on for two days, until some other accomplices managed to rehang the door, while the XO was “asleep”.Another time, somebody stole the Captain’s mattress. Once, a group of guys kidnapped the XO’s favorite mug, a Canadian McDonalds thing (with maple-leaf drawings), holding it ransom, taking hostage demand photos throughout the ship, using an illegal Polaroid camera (before cell phones, NOBODY was allowed to have a camera aboard, except the Ship’s Photographer and the XO (to take pictures of dolphin-award ceremonies). We went to Battlestations many times, had an extra day-long Field Day instead of the normal drills, the XO would ransack the compartment shown in the latest photo (of course, it had been surreptitiously moved). The kidnappers identified themselves as The Desperadoes. This went on for three weeks, at the end of the patrol. In this case, by the end of patrol, the mug was still missing. Then, during our flight from Guam to Hawaii (a rare Commercial Flight, booked to satiate Pan AM), the flight attendant delivered to XO’s alcoholic drink in his missing mug. The photographer was a senior Sonar Tech.Anyway, certain jobs, even divisions, just didn’t exist. For example, there were no Department and Command Career Counselors. The only trained CC was at Squadron. There was no Master-At-Arms (ship police) force. There were no separate LCPO, LPO, ALPO, or Work Center Supervisor. Just the Chief or, sometimes, a PO1 if there were no Chiefs available.For grunt work, on a surface ship, only non-petty officers had to be Mess Cooks (cook assistants. Every division sent one). On submarines, it was PO3 and below. On surface ships, only junior people cleaned the head. On submarines, EVERYBODY cleaned the head. During my first Field Day on a submarine, they made it a point to assign me to clean the toilets, even though I was a PO2. Then, before it was over, they made it a point to take me to Crew’s Mess, where the Chief Cook was on his knees, waxing the deck. On surface ships, junior people cleaned the Goat Locker (CPO Quarters) and, during Field Day, all the Chiefs did was supervise. On submarines, the Chiefs cleaned the Goat Locker, including the Chief’s Head. On surface ships, the Chief’s ate in the Goat Locker. On submarines, they ate in crew’s mess, at the “Chief’s Table”. (Anybody could eat there, if they got permission first, or the Chiefs were done eating). Also, the Chiefs didn’t stand in the chow line. When a meal started, a Mess Cook was sent to the Goat Locker, and the Chiefs ate first, until the Chief’s Table was full. Then, they waited, just like everybody else. On a surface ship, the officers ate their own food, and had to pay for it. And, most of the time, the Captain ate alone (not in the Wardroom with the other officers.) On submarines, the officers ate the same food as the crew (still had to pay for it), but in the Wardroom, on fancy dishes, WITH the Captain.On subs, the Chiefs did all of the paperwork, except for some things delegated to more senior members of the division. On my second boat, even though I was the Chief’s assistant, I had no idea what he did when he wasn’t on watch. He had no mentoring capability, at all. I only set foot in the Goat Locker once, in all the years I was aboard, and that was to ask one of the Chiefs to go wake my Chief up. On my first boat, we had no Sonar Chief, so our PO1 slept in the Goat Locker and relaxed in the Goat’s lounge. One time, they had me make them a new cu of coffee. I didn’t drink coffee, myself, and had no idea how to make it. They refused to tell me, so I guessed. The end result was triple-strength coffee-mud, and they never, ever told me to do it, again! HAHAHASo, yes, submariners had the same duties as on a surface ship, but the distribution was totally different.OH, I forgot! Submarines don’t have a Quarterdeck or ANY of the in-port foofarah surface ships have. At the brow, there’s one (on an SSN) or two (SSBN) Topside Sentries, always junior enlisted. If they need anything, they use the Bridge Suitcase (an intercom box) to call down to the Control Room and get some help. He also checks forward and after draft every hour or so. If there’s unknown flooding below decks, he may be the first one to know, when the draft suddenly changes.For in-port, a surface ship duty section has a Command Duty Officer representing the CO, and the on-watch OOD at the Quarterdeck. A submarine has a Duty Officer, for the whole ship, and an Engineering Duty Officer, for the reactor. Everything else is all enlisted men. There’s a Duty Chief, an Engineering Chief, and, forward on watch, a roving Below Decks Watch. He visually checks the status of the Topside watch every 30 minutes or so. The nukes have more, back aft, but exactly who varies, based on reactor plant status. Oh, yeah, back to topside! For Colors, the Topside Watch does the Ensign and the Below Decks Watch does the Jack.Bottom line, on a submarine, enlisted do a lot of the duties that officers do on surface ships.