ENABLING THE WARFIGHTER NAVAL JUNIOR OFFICER COUNSEL EXPANSION IS WINNING WHERE IT MATTERS
By QuaWanna Bannarbie ’99
The leadership development of military junior officers cannot always be measured by vertical advancement or hierarchical climbs. Growth is not always up and over.
Naval Junior Officer Counsel’s (NJOC) growth has been deep and wide. Deep in that junior officers are gaining transformational perspectives regarding their individual contributions to the fleet’s readiness. Wide is the result of the community’s deliberate collaboration across Navy designators such that there is a collective leveraging of their shared value to make a difference in the Navy and ultimately its service to the United States.
The Navy’s mission involves maintaining an elite winning team. Teams don’t win on talent alone. Junior officers are already endowed with the ability and authority to act according to their designation. They are commissioned to faithfully discharge the duties of the office and titles they carry.
NJOC has made a significant impact on that commission by qualifying the voice of the newly minted ensign and second lieutenant to inform the decision-making of Navy senior leadership. Naval Junior Officer Counsel began as an idea that became an initiative designed to bridge the gap in communication channels between junior and senior officers. In November 2021, Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Admiral John B. Nowell ’84, USN, and Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Lorin C. Selby, USN, officially sanctioned Naval Junior Officer Counsel’s charter making NJOC the Navy’s first Management Advisory Group (MAG). It is a “budding” enterprise making steady milestones.
Today’s Navy does not just want the hands and feet of its junior officers but allows the intellectual capacity of its juniors to stand in rooms, conferences, and symposiums by representing their collective voice. Our Navy is one that conveys the value of one’s humanity.
The Navy’s mission is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, and maintaining freedom of the seas.1 NJOC founder, Lieutenant Commander Adam Johnson ’13, SC, USN, said NJOC’s mission aligns with the Navy’s mission because “the people are the naval service. NJOC helps junior officers canvas their environment and consider how to better their service as part of the winning team.”
That mindset has an exponential effect on empowering young leaders, Johnson said.
“One junior officer with an idea is just one junior officer,” he said. “Yet, when that same junior officer brings his or her ideas to a conglomerate of minds beaming with similar drive, hope, innovation, and fearlessness, that one idea now gains the emboldened stature and informed backing to move from ambitious aspiration to possible prototype.”
With NJOC, one enabled warfighter now makes a difference in the warfighting status of an entire force.
By uniting behind a shared vision, NJOC hopes to generate momentum behind projects that can benefit the entire fleet. Lieutenant Daniel Conley ’07, USN, collaborated for two years with peers to develop a Unified Breathing Mask. He and his partners hit several roadblocks en route to producing a prototype for sailors, aviators, and divers.
Using input from sailors in the fleet, the Unified Breathing Mask was designed to better fit different-sized personnel, has a flat front for greater underwater visibility, and allows users to swap out gas mask capabilities with self-contained breathing functions. One of the potential lifesaving uses could be for sailors fighting fires on their ships.
In January 2022, Conley presented his Unified Breathing Mask design prototype to his peers at the 34th Surface Naval Association Symposium. He connected with NJOC to network that idea to the Office of Naval Research to move the development of the mask to the next level of production.
“NJOC is a vital resource for getting groundbreaking ideas from junior officers to senior leadership, enabling all of us to work together to strengthen the Navy and Marine Corps,” said Selby. “From promoting the innovative Unified Breathing Mask prototype to creating unique opportunities for collaboration and the exchange of ideas, NJOC truly sparks the flame of
creativity with diverse perspectives.”
GROWTH STARTS TO SHOW
The expansion of Naval Junior Officer Counsel may not be seen throughout the entire Navy just yet. Progress is happening and junior officers are forming what Nowell dubbed “the coalition of the willing.” These are officers willing to question how well NJOC is doing business and determine alternative ways to build strategic competition.
He is reminded of the ways new doctrines and tactics were developed during the wars of the 1930s and 1940s by the students attending the Naval War College. He said it is “imperative that we stay on top of what is going on throughout the world in terms of warfighting advancements. Junior officers help senior leadership remain cognizant of the competition. We fight as a joint coalition team.”
Lateral communication across that community brings about an increase in junior officer readiness. As the leaders, ranked lieutenant commander and below, increase peer mentoring and extend their resourcefulness across designators, the benefit to the Navy is not just a maintained capability. It also retains the technological and innovative advantage that exists in the young minds of junior officers.
NJOC Director Lieutenant John-Rex Spivey ’13, USN, said NJOC is where the future weapons systems of our Navy will develop and the tactics to deploy them.
“The technology of war is changing,” he said. “For our Navy to remain competitive, we must retain our young leaders. Cyber defense, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology are in the minds of young people.”
Spivey believes that the diversity of thought in the U.S. military service creates innovation through inclusion. NJOC meetings have engaged in some tough conversations. He learned from his mentor, Janie Mines ’80, that “it is important to talk in terms that everyone sees themselves.” NJOC affirms that representation matters and formed offspring groups of various designators as more junior officers joined the coalition. The leaders intentionally built their strategy for collaborative dialogue across designators. Johnson said NJOC is a representation of all of the conversations among naval junior officers.
The formal structure of NJOC is expanding to include Type Commander (TYCOM) charters under the NJOC umbrella. Johnson saw this expansion for NJOC’s future when it began but was not eager to push for it.
“True commonality can only be leveraged if it is properly identified,” Johnson said. “We must be united at the most critical level of the Navy and do so at the unit level. The gateway to the unit level is the Type Commander.”
On 2 September 2022, Vice Admiral Kenneth R. Whitesell, USN, commander, U.S. Naval Air Forces, also known as Air Boss, signed an NJOC Sub-Charter, officially establishing NJOC-Air. Whitesell is the first TYCOM leader to officially endorse NJOC. Lieutenant Dewayne “DJ” Hooper ’13, USN, a naval flight officer, serves as the NJOC-Air chairperson.
NJOC-Air developed rather seamlessly because Whitesell planned to establish the Junior Officer Leadership Council (JOLC) to help resolve the concerns raised each year at the Junior Officer Training Symposium (JOTS).
Hooper attended JOTS 2022. At the time, he was already serving as the Air Community liaison for all NJOC meetings. Hooper said NJOC “makes him proud to be a part of these important conversations about expanding the aperture of what we consider competitive in terms of leadership advancement.”
NJOC aviators Spivey, NJOC Deputy Director Lieutenant Craig Veech ’13, USN, and Hooper saw an opportunity to brief Whitesell about how NJOC could meet the needs of the Air Community in maintaining a communication window for aviators to share their concerns with Whitesell throughout the year. Whitesell already had a framework for his JOLC establishment.
NJOC was operating in this reverse-mentoring manner, helping senior leaders refocus on strategic leadership issues. Veech believes what is more important than just junior officers being able to share ideas with senior leaders is that “NJOC shows our leadership that we are bought in and support their mission. This trust and respect binds all levels of leadership together and provide great strength and effectiveness to our community.”
The naval air community was the first to endorse their sub-charter and will soon be followed by the information warfare (IW) community. The IW community is the largest group of NJOC members. Lieutenant Junior Grade Francesca Browne ’20, USN, a cryptologic information officer, serves as the NJOC liaison for an 80-member NJOC-IW community.
“We have managed to attract incredible people who care, and they have helped me to be very optimistic about my future in the Navy,” Browne said.
She sees the value of having senior leadership explain “why things are the way that they are.” Through her connections with senior leaders, she said she is able to set up her junior sailors for success.
COLLABORATIVE CULTURE AND CONSCIOUS
NJOC is established for, self-organized by, and designed to help develop junior officers in line with the Navy’s culture and principles. Johnson has witnessed how NJOC has opened the eyes of junior officers to know what is going on above their heads.
“We have a problem if junior officers do not know what is going on in the Navy at the senior level until they become senior leaders,” Johnson said.
The lack of junior officer insight leaves a trail of unintended consequences. Spivey said too many junior officers are leaving the Navy without having a full perspective of their professional development.
“NJOC’s goal is to optimize the Navy’s talent and if we can’t retain talent, let’s make them ambassadors in citizenship and government,” Spivey said.
Lieutenant Commander Christina Danai ’12, USN, serves as the NJOC liaison for the surface warfare officer community. She also manages the social media outlets for NJOC’s LinkedIn and Instagram accounts. She joined NJOC in 2020 when she was an instructor for the newly commissioned officers entering the SWO Basic Division Officer Course.
“When I began to network with my peer-to-peer relationships in NJOC, I started to value cross-designation connections that helped me meet the needs of my sailors,” Danai said.
Naval Junior Officer Counsel is a body of work representative of what matters to the junior officer. Johnson describes NJOC as more than just a collection of thoughts but also a decision of “making sure that all parties interested in a positive outcome (or avoidance of a negative one) are given the opportunity to invest in that outcome in an equitable way.”
The evolution of innovative ideas equips the Navy to remain resilient and less susceptible to defeat at a critical time in our nation’s history.
“It is a national security imperative for our leaders to evolve together,” Spivey said. “If we don’t evolve, then our adversaries will divide us.”
NJOC is modeling an inclusive environment to present different points of view for the express purpose of maintaining elite warfighting readiness in the Navy.
THE WAY FORWARD
NJOC has had to demonstrate grit. The junior officers leading this effort are certain there is more to do. U.S. Naval Academy alumni may support NJOC further by fulfilling the need for mentors and continued guidance from veteran and retired officers.
“NJOC would not be established if it were not for the relationships our core team formed with senior and wiser leaders, including our Naval Academy family,” Spivey said.
NJOC’s impetus exists whether the formalized charter does or does not. Junior officers have tangible counsel to give and to receive.
For active duty junior officers interested in getting on NJOC’s distribution list, email NJOC@navy.mil.
1 Military Advantage. (n.d.). U.S. Navy’s Values and Missions. Military.com. Retrieved 23 March 2023, from https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/navy-missions-values.html