Time to Merge

The Navy, in its constant quest to save money through reduction in personnel (remember, during peacetime, the military works like a business during a recession), has mandated a number of rating mergers of the years. For the first time, I'm actually involved in one of them.

Ever since I enlisted in 1988, both the Navy Military Personnel Command and rumor have bandied about the idea of merging Quartermasters and Signalmen, or sometimes Quartermasters and Boatswain's Mates, or occasionally all three, which would be like putting a lion, a tiger and a grizzly in a pit after having starved them all for a week.

At any rate, it looks like the QM/SM merger is going to happen. We've been awaiting the merger message for a while. A reporter from the Navy Times told me that the merger package was at the board that would make the final decision.

That was August. We're still waiting.

Not that I mind much, I'll be staying a Quartermaster, and other than the fact that I need to bone up on my semaphore, not much will change for me. I'm too old and set in my ways to change anyway.

Not so the younger guys and gals. They now have to learn two entirely different jobs, and hope for the best.

The smarter enlisted leaders, the Chiefs and First Class Petty Officers who actually run divisions, are already cross training their people, and QMs and SMs have already been running in the same division for a number of years now on most platforms. So it won't be total culture shock when we are finally thrown together.

But here's the part that the Navy isn't publicizing much: Only somewhere between 200 and 600 out of some 2000 Signalmen Navy-wide are going to become Quartermasters.

Huh?

Somewhere along the line, we're going to have to find spots elsewhere in the Navy for the ones who don't shift to QM. Those that stay are going to have the harder time of it though if those numbers from the Navy Surface Operations Center in San Diego are accurate, though.

Take the manning on a Spruance-class destroyer, for example. Five Quartermasters and four Signalmen. Assuming an even distribution of what's left after they cross-rate, that will leave one former Signalman onboard each Spru-Can. That makes six Quartermasters to do the job that ten people were doing before.

Sounds like Navy math to me.

I expected the manning to be reduced, but not that much. I'm not complaining, mind you. I do, however, like to know what to expect. The situations that are foisted upon us are much easier to deal with that way. Far too often, what's said is only half of what's true. Sailors are a bright lot, and we expect very little from our leaders. One of the most important things that we do expect though, is a little honest and timely information now and then.

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