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"Submitted for Your Approval..."

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Mike:
I've recently started taking college classes online with the aspirations of gaining more academic credibility before I hang up the Uniform for the last time. While this is a development very late in coming, I am positive that my educational goals are not "just for the diploma/degree/certification", but more of a refining process for the talents I already have and developmental restructuring for the areas I need to improve. The end goal is a Bachelor's in Military History with a concentration in American Military History... with what hopefully will be a generous dose of Human Resources Management certifications heaped in there somewhere. As I have said here on this forum before, it is the guidance and suggestions given here which has initiated this course, and I thank you all for the constructive words and perspectives you have shared.

Now comes more chances to be constructive...

One of the best influences in my life was my 12th grade Creative Writing teacher, and the advice he gave to me then still resonates in my head: "Mike, write what you know." At 18, I didn't know a lot, but I knew when to shut up and remember wise words. Years later, I am doing exactly that - writing what I know... or more precisely, what I think I know. This topic will be submissions of essays I have written for various classes, and they are up for dissection. While they are posted here after being turned in (I have this strange dread of plagiarism - even if they are my own words), I still would like to get feedback from subject matter experts in order to refine my ideas and clarify potential errors I have made.  Not only that, but this forum has gotten real quiet, and it is a shame to have such a wealth of information sitting dormant.

I don't foresee any immediate academic reason for referencing/using any information shared here, but if there is, I will address it accordingly with the involved contributors and give appropriate citations. Along with that, I have thick skin and only want to give only the best "high-quality ingredients", so please don't beat around the bush - if I'm wrong, let me know (which, with this crowd, will NOT be a problem :) )

Mike

Mike:
"The topic I am choosing for the next essay is somewhat obscure: Logistic Leadership and Management during the Second World War.
In browsing the ProQuest ebrary, I came across “32 In 44: Building the Portsmouth Submarine Fleet in World War II” by Rodney Watterson. Since this incorporates two topics of personal interest: leadership and diesel submarines, this only seemed to be a natural fit and something worth looking into more.
 
My son and I are what you would call “history nerds”, and what started it for him was an old World War II submarine moored in Pearl Harbor. The USS Bowfin, a Balao - class submarine, was built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1942. During this time in the United States, victory in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific was far from certain. On a scale not seen before, production lines across the country were being expanded to produce more of everything – from boots to bombers.
 
Leadership has routinely been the subject of the Generals, Admirals, and politicians, but the lessons from the individuals who built, shipped, maintained, and developed the capability for those “highly-visible” leaders are more applicable today than previously considered. 
 
An idea which I have been pondering for a long time is how concepts, ideas, and processes which came naturally to those few who were tasked with so much can relate to modern day leadership/management styles.  The challenge is how to make it relevant without being dry and overly academic, but this is a task which is worth the effort."

Mike:
Thesis Statement:  Leadership has not always been about what is learned in books or heard in a seminar – it has historically been a trait learned through application and experimentation.

The decision of this statement is merely a quick summary of not only why this topic is interesting to me, but how it could theoretically be applied to the modern age. While the discovery of the book was due to a chance moment of distraction on an unrelated topic, this thought has been on my mind ever since I read “Under the Red Sea Sun” by CDR Edward Ellsberg in 2010. I think I take a pretty decent stand in this statement as I not only challenge the validity of the various leadership courses I have attended through the Army, but I also feel that I almost have to defend the statement against itself, as it seemingly creates a paradox of purpose versus application.
 
The ideas for the purpose of this writing are somewhat fluid, but the core of the direction I would like to go is fairly clear – to keep this essay relevant/applicable and to build further on it later in life.  At the time of this writing, the three supporting directions will be:

  What were the conditions necessitating strong leadership?
  What were the typical problems associated with large-scale production of complex equipment?
  How might this relate to modern leadership dynamics as well as correlate into issues which the leader/manager faces now?

The supporting research should be interesting, as there are already good sources of current management/leadership material. The challenge might be in relying on just the one period book I have found so far.

Darrin:
Mike,

leadership as you know as a NCO in the Army has it's unique problems for a person to be able to plan, prepare and execute a task no matter how big or small so you actually have a great skill set that you can use during your thesis.

IF you haven't seen this before this is regarding the accidental grounding of the USS San Francisco SSN 711 that took one sailors life. That day leaders emerged and took over without needing to be told what to do and why they needed to do it. http://www.torskphotoguy.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2&sid=ab336f84182271a5c57867e8b3f3ac42

To answer your questions the best that I can here is my take on it.

1.) Everyday work requires strong leadership for things to run smoothly, with a poor leader you will have poor performance and poor quality of work. For the Leaders whom had a week leadership skill set in WWII they were eventually relieved of duties and one with a strong skill set replaced them. Today's leadership sadly enough can be poor and the leader depending on the situation doesn't get relieved until the end of their tour and the strong leaders have to set on their thumbs or do twice the work to make the tasking work.
2.) IF you had multiple business building ships using the same or similar drawings there tend to be minor differences in the end product. i.e. A Portsmouth diesel boat compared to an Electric Boat diesel boat, the differences are minor in design and in some areas the quality was better in all regards to those whom rode them. i.e. some of the creature comfort inside of the boats were better in one area then on the other builders boat (berthing and I am sure that others here can pitch in on other things that were better on one compared to the other)
3.) Today's leader has so much more information at their finger tips and is able to communicate the information faster to more people than ever before. i.e. today's computers you can research just about anything that you could think of or need without thinking about it, where as take WWII your communications were limited to radio's or land lines and IF you needed to do research on a subject you had to go to a library or contact a subject matter expert if there was one on a certain subject that you had the question about hoping that they had the answers.  Also keep in mind regarding computers, computers of days past were large and took up a lot of space like the floor of a building and have less power then a typical cell phone in today's world.
4.) Would WWII or previous wars ended differently had we been able to used today's technology? absolutely. With satellite imagery and drones you can see what your enemy is doing without him knowing you are even there and the smart weapons are making for precision strikes and not "carpet bombing" or for our submarines, weapons that nearly think for themselves and without having to fire a spread of weapons hoping that you hit your target. Now you fire one weapon depending on the size of the ship and wait for the boom and the ship sinking while evading any threats or attacking other targets in the area until they are all gone or you are out of weapons to expend.

I hope that some of this helps you in your thesis, let me know IF I can help you more

Darrin
 

Darrin:
Mike,

Forgot to mention that you also can find good and bad qualities of leadership right here on this bbs in some of the boat forums, i.e. Batfish, Torsk, Clamagore, Drum, Cod.. The first two have had great volunteer groups with museums with bad leadership that has instead of making their museums better have fallen short on and now are having to pay others to do work that was being done for free by the volunteers. The Clamagore? well she just suffered straight up from bad leadership as did the other ships in the museum. And the last two have shown that great leadership with a great group of volunteers anything is possible as long as the materials are available when needed and the knowledge of both the museum and the volunteer groups are working together and not against each other is priceless.

Personally I would make it a bucket list item if you are a history buff that loves to study submarines would be to go see the USS COD in Cleveland, Oh. Paul Farace whom is also a contributor on here is their director and I am proud to call him my friend has in what most people call the closest to perfect WWII Submarine that looks exactly like she did during WWII inside and out. i.e. her weapons shipping hatches have not been cut so you have to enter the same way the crew did and yes she could submerge if needed without much fear of flooding or sinking. Can she go to sea? nope, the Navy took her screws (propellers) off many moons ago and from what I remember she no longer has her batteries onboard.

Speaking of Paul Farace, he started on the very bottom rung of the ladder their at the USS COD as a volunteer whom knew nothing about submarines or really about the Navy and now he runs the in my opinion the BEST WWII Submarine museum in the world. And that is because he had great leaders mentor him and he has become a great leader in his own right

Darrin

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