GROTON, Conn. --- Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark told commanding officers to challenge every assumption and exert their full authority to keep the Navy ready.
"If we had not put our money where our mouth was in current readiness, we would not have been able to do, Navy-wide, what we've been doing since 9/11," Clark recently told COs at Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn. "You keep today's Navy ready. My job is to get you the resources."
Clark also said COs need to accurately state their manning requirements in order to help Sailors realize their full potential and recapitalize the Navy.
"If you find one person on your ship that you don't need, get him out of there," Clark said. "I want to put that money someplace else. If you've got real jobs for real people, I'm going to buy everyone of them you need. But I'll tell you what, I'm not remotely interested in buying even one I don't need."
While saying that greater business efficiency will improve future readiness, Clark emphasized that COs and the Sailors they command are, first and foremost, warriors.
"You have got to be warriors. If you are not that, you're not any good to the Navy," Clark said. "But when you get to command, I'm convinced that you have got to have your prospective broad enough to start asking the right questions. I don't believe hope is a strategy."
