Shinseki Promises Transformation If Confirmed to Head VA

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2009 – President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs promised senators today that if he is confirmed he will transform the department into a 21st-century organization.

Retired Army Gen. Erik K. Shinseki told the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs he is fully committed to fulfilling Obama’s vision to transform the department.

VA is the second-largest Cabinet agency, and has a budget of around $95 billion to serve the nation’s 25 million veterans. The department has a wide range of clients, from recently wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an aging population of vets from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. VA oversees medical care, home loans, the GI Bill of Rights, employment and other benefits for veterans.

“Transformation is always challenging for any organization, and I use the term transformation rather than incremental change,” Shinseki told the committee. Transformation is particularly challenging for organizations that have complex missions and are steeped in tradition, he explained, and he promised the department will look at fundamental and comprehensive processes as it girds for these new challenges. He noted he served as Army chief of staff as the service began a similar transformation.

“Positive leadership, dedication and teamwork on the part of all in the organization allowed all of us to redefine the challenges we first perceived to be opportunities,” he said.

Shinseki vowed to put in place a precise strategy for VA reflecting Obama’s vision. He acknowledged he has much to learn about the department, and said he looks forward to “gaining the valuable input and insights from its dedicated employees, the veterans and the organizations that serve those veterans.”

The department must have three attributes, Shinseki said. It must be people-centric, results-driven and forward-looking.

“Veterans are the centerpiece of our organization,” he said. “We will design, implement and sustain programs that serve them. Through their service in uniform, veterans have sacrificed greatly, investing of themselves in the security, the safety and the well-being of our nation.

“They are clients that we represent,” he continued, “and whose well-being is our sole reason for existence.”

The department’s charge is to address veterans’ changing needs over time and across a full range of support that the U.S. government has committed to providing them.

The VA work force must be leaders and standards-setters in their fields, Shinseki said. In some areas, he said, this already is true, while other areas need work.

“From delivering cutting-edge medical treatment to answering the most basic inquiry, we will grow and retain a skilled and client-oriented work force,” he said.

The measure of VA’s success is the timeliness, quality and consistency of services and support provided to veterans. “We will set and meet objectives in each of those areas,” Shinseki said.

He also promised the department will be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money.

“We will challenge ourselves to do things smarter and more effectively,” he said. “We will aggressively leverage the world’s best practices, its knowledge base and emerging technologies in such areas as health care, information management and service delivery.”

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Navy Announces Decision on Mayport Homebasing

From Navy Office of Information

WASHINGTON (NNS) — Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations & Environment, B.J. Penn, signed a Record of Decision for the Mayport Homeporting Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Jan. 14.

The Navy’s decision is to implement the preferred alternative, which is to homeport a single nuclear powered aircraft carrier (CVN) at Naval Station (NAVSTA) Mayport, and to complete associated infrastructure modifications. These include dredging, infrastructure and wharf improvements, and construction of CVN nuclear propulsion plant maintenance facilities.

“We have studied this issue very carefully and considered multiple factors,” said Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy. “This allows the Navy to obtain the benefits of fleet dispersal without negatively impacting our carrier capability or operations. Homeporting a carrier in Mayport best supports the Navy’s mission and safeguards our nation’s security needs.”

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Sub School Earns MUC

From “The Stupid Shall Be Punished.”

For those of you who served on the staff of the Navy Submarine School in Groton between July 2005 and June 2007 — Congratulations! You just earned a MUC. From an article in The New London Day:

Vice Adm. Mark E. Ferguson, chief of naval personnel and deputy chief of naval operations, presented the commendation to Capt. Daniel Forney, Naval Submarine School commanding officer, on Jan. 9.
The commendation for meritorious service, from July 2005 to June 2007, states that, “Naval Submarine School consistently demonstrated unparalleled success by instilling advanced submarine technologies, procedures, and dynamic initiatives in the provision of team and self-paced learning to more than 4,000 students enrolled in more than 200 courses and team trainers.”The Meritorious Unit Commendation is awarded to a unit that “…distinguished itself, under combat or non-combat conditions, by either valorous or meritorious achievement which renders the unit outstanding compared to other units performing similar service, but not sufficient to justify the award of the Navy Unit Commendation. .. To justify this award, the unit must have performed service of a character comparable to that which would merit the award of a Bronze Star Medal, or achievement of like caliber in a non-combat situation, to an individual.”

I’ve written about this before, and I’m wondering what some of the new commenters think about the practice of awarding MUCs to shore stations. The two components of my fruit salad of ribbons of which I’m most proud are the Battle “E” and MUC I got from USS Topeka (SSN 754) during my JO tour — they’re the ones that I felt I had to go “above and beyond” my normal job to help earn. I’m not sure I would have felt that way had I gotten one for shore duty. That being said, I’m sure Sub School did a good job during that 2 year period, so congratulations to all the awardees.

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Retired Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Retired Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and artist Peter E. Egeli unveil a portrait of Pace during a Pentagon ceremony, Jan. 13, 2009. DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

The portrait hangs on the E-Ring in the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff corridor. Pace served as the 16th chairman, and the painting joins those of all chairmen going back to General of the Army Omar N. Bradley.

Former Marine Peter E. Egeli painted the portrait.

“I didn’t want a lot of distraction in it,” Egeli said in a short interview. “The background is red. That signifies the wars we fought. I wanted the attention on the general.”

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the current chairman, hosted the portrait-unveiling ceremony at the Pentagon auditorium today. He praised his predecessor – the first Marine to serve as chairman – for his leadership, his caring and his intellect.

“His leadership and caring for the men and women who serve live with him today,” Mullen said. He called Pace a “Marine’s Marine” and said the portrait recognizes a very special individual. The chairman also recognized Pace’s wife, Lynne, for her contributions to the military and her advocacy of military families.

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Naval Leader in the Spotlight

Hon. Barney Barnum

H.C. “Barney” Barnum, Jr.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy
(Reserve Affairs)

Mr. Barnum was born in Cheshire, Connecticut. He attended Cheshire High School, received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U. S. Marine Corps upon graduation in 1962. Upon retirement Colonel Barnum served as the Principal Director, Drug Enforcement Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has served as an Independent Consultant from 1993 to the present.

Mr. Barnum, the fourth Marine to be awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor, for valor in Vietnam, retired as a colonel from the Marine Corps on August 1, 1989, with more than 27 and one-half years active service. He is a former President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

His assignments include four tours as an artilleryman with the 3^rd Marine Division to include two tours in Vietnam; 2^nd Marine Aircraft Wing; Guard Officer at Marine Barracks, Pearl Harbor and Operations Officer, Hawaiian Armed Forces Police; Weapons Instructor at the Basic School; 2^nd Marine Division as an artillery battalion operations and executive officer and subsequently Division Staff Secretary; four years at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island as Commanding Officer, Headquarters Company and 2^nd Recruit Training Battalion of the Training Regiment; Chief of Current Operations, US Central Command where he planned and executed the first U.S./Jordanian joint exercise staff as the Commander of U.S. Forces and twice planned and executed operation BRIGHT STAR spread over four southwest Asian countries involving 26,000 personnel; attended The Basic School, U.S. Army Field Artillery School, Amphibious Warfare School, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Naval War College; Headquarters Marine Corps tours included aide to the Assistant Commandant as a Captain and Deputy Director Public Affairs, Director Special Projects Directorate and Military Secretary to the Commandant as a Colonel.

Mr. Barnum’s personal medals and decorations include: the Medal of Honor; Defense Superior Service Medal; Legion of Merit; the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V” and gold star in lieu of a second award; The Purple Heart; Meritorious Service Medal; Navy Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal with Combat “V”; Combat Action Ribbon; Presidential Unit Citation; Army Presidential Unit Citation; Joint Meritorious Unit Award; Navy Unit Citation; Two awards of the Meritorious Unit Citation; and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (silver).

Mr. Barnum assumed his current duties on 23 July, 2001.

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