Publication:Sea Talk Autumn 2007/A tale of two warrant officers

Manifold benefits to be had from maritime course

By Barry Rollings*

WO Wade Green with a backdrop of Fleet Base West. Pic by ABPH Nadia Monteith

Warrant Officers Wade Green and Simon Kelly say the benefits are manifold from attending the Maritime Single Service Module of courses conducted by the Australian Command and Staff College at Weston Creek in Canberra.

The two - based on opposite sides of the Australian coastline - are among the most recent graduates of the course from July to October last year and were generous in their praise of what students can derive by attending.

Putting a human face to the Navy, understanding the philosophy of its procedures and inter-acting with overseas students at the college were just some of the benefits the duo listed.

WOCSM Green, of HMAS Stirling, and WOET Kelly, of HMAS Penguin applied for the course as a result of the signal from the Directorate of Sailors' Career Management calling for volunteers.

After providing career summaries and putting their cases why they should be selected and the benefits to their positions and future career options, the two passed the DSCM selection process.

During their time at the college, which included a three-day excursion to Fleet HQ in Sydney, the pair studied such diverse topics as the Law of the Sea, Regulations of Shipping, Ocean Governance, Naval History, Command and Leadership, Strategy and Sea Power, RAN Governance and Management, Contemporary Maritime Issues, Maritime Operations and Future Maritime Technologies.

WO Simon Kelly at HMAS Penguin on Sydney's Middle Head. Pic by LSPH Nina Nikolin

WO Green, the Ship's Warrant Officer at Stirling, expected the course to be difficult because he had not pursued any tertiary education before this course.

"I was not disappointed," he said. "It is very intense from a study point of view and requires continued effort throughout to meet the course objectives. I do feel that I learnt a great deal from it though."

Producing university standard written work in a condensed timeline was the most challenging aspect of the course and the most rewarding was "actually handing in the work and achieving fairly good results.

"To receive a graduate certificate at the end of the course is very satisfying," WO Green said.

"I didn't really come away with any new concepts or ideas as such but I have a better understanding of more of what Navy is about. Many of the management strategies and plans in place with Navy have become clearer to me and I now appreciate the importance of some of these initiatives.

"When I deal with people now, I can explain to them why we need to do certain things, how Navy is tackling issues and why we do what we do.

"Understanding the organisation beyond the individual command and having an insight into how the many and varied organisations fit together is very valuable when raising a concern or making a suggestion to a higher level.

"I would recommend the course to any Navy officer or warrant officer. I believe it broadens your outlook and gives a better perspective of what we do and why. It is very professionally rewarding studying hard, then achieving results."

Asked what concepts he had been able to apply to his Navy career, WO Kelly said that, given the diversity of the course elements, there was no particular concept or idea; but rather that he now has a better understanding of the issues and environment in which Navy operates.

"I hope I can now better articulate the reasoning behind corporate decisions," he said.

"With any organisation as complex as Navy, it is often easy to blame 'them' or 'those people in Canberra'. By attending the course I can now put a human face on the Navy's senior leadership and understand the challenges that confront the Navy into the future.

"I also found the opinions and views of the foreign students particularly rewarding; again with such a diverse range of countries present (USA, NZ, Fiji, Tonga, PNG, Vietnam, UAE, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia). The ability to have open and frank discussion, especially when dealing with contemporary issues which often affect national and maritime relationships, was particularly informative."

WO Kelly, the Establishment Warrant Officer and OIC Transient Personnel Management Cell at Penguin, thought that the opportunity to attend would generate considerable interest from within the corps of Navy warrant officers so he had discussed the issue with WO Darren Jeffs (CWO for COMAUSNAVSYSCOM), who attended the course two years previously.

"Darren was the first WO to attend the course at the tri-service college at Weston Creek; whereas other warrant officers had attended the course when it was a single-service course at HMAS Penguin," he said. "I discussed with the previous and current WO-N whether attendance on the course would ever occur again."

WO Kelly expected it would be a challenge from a number of perspectives -

the standard of the course work, including assignments and individual oral presentations.

"I suspected that my work would have to be of a higher standard when compared to that which I had submitted in the past," he said. "Certainly I felt that the added incentive of the directing staff assessing my course work would require considerable effort.

"There were two main challenges I felt I would need to overcome. Obviously the requirement to produce tertiary level papers and presentations in the required time frame (particularly as this is something which I had not done in the past) was the biggest challenge.

"I also felt that WO Wade Green and I were under pressure to prove the concept that warrant officers could perform at the expected level, and hopefully setting the foundation for the continuing participation on the course by other WOs in the future."

Meeting the challenge of the course and obtaining the results that he did proved the most rewarding aspect for WO Kelly.

"I would recommend the course to any WO who would like to be challenged, obtain tertiary qualifications (on completion of the course you qualify for a Graduate Certificate in Maritime Studies from the University of Wollongong, with the opportunity to articulate that qualification into a Masters Degree) and be given the opportunity to be exposed to issues and individuals a WO would not normally have access to.

"Traditionally, as sailors we have a tendency to be introspective and focus on issues that directly affect our ship or category. Attending the course forces the students to consider real-world issues that are framed by how the Navy has evolved since its genesis.

"Certainly I do not think I would have enjoyed the course as much if it were not for the support by (Director of Studies - Navy) CAPT (Vince) Di Pietro and the directing staff, particularly CMDR Rod Harrod. Other course members accepted Wade and me from day one as course members as much as they were. This made the integration into the course seamless."

• Barry Rollings is Senior Reporter with Defence Newspapers