Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) James Honea spoke with Sailors and visited installations around San Diego, Oct. 3-7.
Honea visited Sailors at Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Coronado, and Naval Base Point Loma, hosting an All Hands Call (AHC) at each installation. During the AHC he talked about a number of quality-of-life topics important to enlisted Sailors such as housing and childcare availability, mental health support and suicide prevention, manning levels, limited-duty status and what that might mean for long-term career progression, and the temporary increase in Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) coming for the San Diego area. He also spent a significant amount of time listening to questions and concerns from local Sailors.
Some of the first concerns voiced by a Sailor were BAH, as well as housing and childcare availability. Naval Aircrewman Mechanical 1st Class Jasmine Meyers stated she felt the policies used to determine the amount of housing availability in a geographic location may be out of date. Meyers said that with more ships, Sailors and civilian contractors coming in, there are a lot of personnel having a difficult time finding suitable living arrangements.
One of the other things frequently asked about during Honea's talks was manning. Sailor's stated that their respective commands were manned at as low as 66 percent. With manning this low, Sailors stated that they were overworked, and even that certain operational requirements could not be met.
"I feel good about MCPON's answer," said Master at Arms 1st Class Alexandra Frias. "I now know that it's (manning) an issue that is being addressed."
Honea has been traveling and talking to Sailors since he took office last month. The Sailors that attended these talks were excited that a MCPON was deviating from only delivering speeches, and actually interacting and having open discussions with Sailors.
"It was awesome," said Frias. "Usually it's intimidating to even ask a question, but this was completely different. I loved that he related to his personal life and let us know that we are being heard."
"I think MCPON did a satisfactory job answering my question," said Naval Aircrewman Tactical Helicopter 1st Jonathon Anderson. "He related back to when he started his career in the Navy, and let us know that it's gotten better and that the plan is to continue to improve."
As an advocate for enlisted Sailors, Honea felt it was very important to gather as much information as he could before going to congress and voicing concerns.
"I didn't want to go to congress thinking about what the problems were," said Honea. "I wanted to get out on the waterfront and speak with Sailors and hear from them what the problems were."
Honea will testify in front of the House Armed Services Committee in the spring.
In addition to holding all hands calls with Sailors, while in San Diego Honea held leadership and policy meetings with local Chief Petty Officers to discuss the best ways to improve mentorship and support enlisted Sailors and their families.
