| For most underage Sailors—and
college students, too—turning 21 is the last major rite of passage in
their young lives—an important fact to consider, even in the case of
nondrinkers. Most major social venues won't permit entry to underage
individuals, and many enforce an early curfew. This situation denies
access to a major portion of any city, regardless of a Sailor's drinking
habits. Thus, even nondrinkers are likely to celebrate their 21st
birthdays as a seminal event. Many of them will choose to celebrate this
day by drinking to excess.
 Given the disproportionate number of incidents caused by Sailors within
a year of their 21st birthdays, mentoring and counseling as that date
approaches is vital to any prevention program. [Twenty percent of the
Navy's alcohol incidents involve 20-to-22-year-old Sailors. One third of
all DUI and DWI incidents involve 21-year-old Sailors.—Ed.]
Commanders should know the dates when their Sailors turn 21 and
incorporate such counseling into prevention programs. Effective counseling
should include these topics:
Choice
Many young Sailors protest that they are treated like children. What
they must understand is that the decision to drink or to drink excessively
is theirs. Yet, it is important to emphasize that they will be held
accountable for the consequences of their choices. Mentors need not resort
to scare tactics to get this point across. A brief discussion of the
Navy's and your command's policy on alcohol abuse, giving them the
necessary information to make a risk analysis before drinking, will
suffice. Many still will choose to drink excessively, regardless of our
best efforts. The best we can do is to ensure they make an informed choice
and enforce Navy policy if an incident occurs. In some cases, experience
is the only thing that will help Sailors learn to moderate their drinking
habits or to abstain.
Support
Knowing that many Sailors will choose to drink, commanders should seek
to minimize the possible consequences of excessive drinking. Aggressive
designated-driver programs and allowing Sailors to call their chief, LPO,
or division officer without fear of punitive action when they have been
drinking will reduce the likelihood of DUIs and other incidents. Letting
Sailors know this support system is in place actually may deter some from
drinking heavily. At the very least, it lets Sailors know the command is
looking out for their welfare.
Relevance
Sailors should know that the concern with their drinking behavior isn't
simply another attempt by an authority figure to control their lives. Let
them know they play an important role in mission accomplishment, and you
cannot afford to lose a single one because of an alcohol incident. While
this fact seems self-evident, the concern for Sailors' well-being and
their contribution to the command's mission often get lost in the
prevention or disciplinary process.
Key Points to Consider
Your Sailors are adults. Talking to them at that level means
stressing that drinking is their choice but that they will be held
accountable for their actions.
 Sailors want to know they're important to the mission. They should
know you're not trying to control their lives, but, rather, you're trying
to ensure their safety.
The command needs to be consistent in its alcohol policy. If
Sailors see some people get away with incidents, while others get busted,
they probably will ignore your counsel.
Sailors need to know that being a shipmate doesn't end at the pier.
Stress the need for them to look after each other. If they decide to
drink, it's better they do so around shipmates. Liberty is a chance for
young Sailors to learn to act responsibly by policing one another.
Don't use gimmicks. Young Sailors know you're older than they are,
so don't try to act their age to get your point across. Let them know
you're responsible for their safety, and you want them to have a good time
in a safe way. Honesty is the best policy to follow; they'll see through
you if you put on any airs.
The goal of any prevention program targeting young Sailors cannot be
simply an end to alcohol incidents. By emphasizing choice and
responsibility, mentorship will help develop Sailors who will make the
right decisions on their own. As they advance in rate, they then will
mentor those junior to them.
A Model Prevention Program
What does it take to turn around a drug and alcohol problem? In the
case of the amphibious ship USS Nashville (LPD 13), the answer is a
top-down, sincere commitment to setting Sailors up for life and a
successful naval career.
Nashville has accomplished this objective by establishing and
enforcing standards, training the trainers, and implementing several
people programs. Three of these people programs (command mentorship,
alcohol and drug deglamorization, and the command urinalysis) are
essential ingredients in the overall success. The ship also has developed
or improved the sponsor, advancement-preparation,
physical-fitness-assessment, and advanced-education programs, all of which
have the buy-in of the entire command. Nashville isn't just paying
lip service to Sailor improvement. As one crew member noted, "We live
and breathe it every day, and the results have been stunning—improved
performance and morale across the board!"
Mentorship Program
Nashville has a robust, three-phase mentorship program that was
established in November 2002. Its mission statement is "Using Leaders
of Today to Form Leaders of Tomorrow." The command master chief and a
program coordinator selected from the CPO mess oversee phases one and two
of the program. The First Class Petty Officers Association and the
surface- and air-warfare-qualified second class petty officers administer
these two phases. All mentors are screened for their leadership
attributes, positive attitude, and proven ability to advance and to
develop professionally. None can be delinquent in their qualifications or
physical standards.
Phases one and two share the common goal of providing young Sailors
with proactive guidance and helping them choose a successful career path
while minimizing risk of misconduct, substance abuse, and other problems.
The goal is to have motivated and developed Sailors heading down the path
of professional success, with increased retention rates of high-quality
Sailors. The motivation is similar for phase three, but it's tailored for
more seasoned Sailors.
Mentorship Program Best Practices
By attacking at-risk Sailors' problems head-on, phase one of the
program has yielded early and measurable returns. Disciplinary cases have
dropped dramatically, and the number of repeat offenders is nearly zero.
Nashville's mentorship program has merged with and directly
enhanced all the ship's Sailor improvement and development programs.
Specifically, the New Sailor Assimilation Course and the sponsorship,
command-indoctrination, alcohol-deglamorization, and promotability
programs synergize with the mentorship program. The combined payoff forms
leaders of tomorrow by setting Sailors up to succeed today—in the Navy
and for life.
The ship's mentor-training program is designed around group
interaction, where mentoring styles and best practices are exchanged. The
mentors emerge motivated and with a full bag of tools.
Alcohol and Drug Deglamorization
This program builds on and strengthens the foundation established with
the mentorship program. It likewise has three phases:
Phase 1: Education. Every junior Nashville Sailor, age 25
and younger, attends Prevent, the Navy's alcohol-and-drugs-prevention and
health-promotion class. Every junior Sailor also attends a day of training
on such topics as anger management, sexual assault, and
sexual-assault-victim intervention.
Phase 2: Tough Love. Nashville took off the gloves in
addressing alcohol incidents by holding a stand-down for all hands in
October 2002. The ship's policy was spelled out in detail at that time.
Sailors learned they face penalties for any alcohol-related incident, such
as underage drinking, DUI, DWI, public intoxication, or public urination.
Offenders receive a page 13 entry, have any recommendation for advancement
pulled, and undergo legal process—at minimum, a disciplinary-review
board.
Phase 3: Reward Program. This final aspect is based on positive
leadership techniques built specifically on peer pressure. The timing of
this phase's beginning was significant. As a negative leadership
technique, phase two was effective in starting the command's attitude
pendulum swinging. However, everyone knows that a negative leadership
technique really is effective for only a short time. The net effect aboard
Nashville, though, has been a positive program that keeps the
ship's alcohol-deglamorization pendulum pegged to the right. Here is how
the program works:
* Sailors (and, in some cases, embarked Marines) are divided
into competitive teams of 20 to 30 people each. This size was chosen for
equity purposes and because it seems to be a number that minimizes
dividing or combining divisional work centers.
* Any team that goes 30 days without an alcohol-related incident
gets a day off in port and enjoys uninterrupted overseas liberty, to
include overnight liberty when authorized on deployment. The ship actually
schedules monthly alcohol-deglam days off in advance so Sailors can plan
on them.
* If a single member of a team has an alcohol-related incident,
the entire team and the chain of command, up to the XO, comes in on the
scheduled deglam day off. Activities begin with a 0630 muster and end with
a 1600 muster. The team spends the entire day in alcohol-deglamorization
training. It is key here to differentiate between "punishment"
and "process improvement." The ship doesn't bring in team
members on these designated days off as punishment but as a means of
process improvement. Specifically, the team is brought together to
identify what placed the team member at risk and to talk about what
measures are in place to ensure future success.
Think of the peer pressure this program builds. Junior Sailors from all
departments talk about this subject to shipmates before they leave for
weekends. The Sailors want all their days off, and they understand the
cumulative effects of consecutive months' performance. A status board is
maintained on the mess deck, and you routinely find Sailors stopped and
pointing to it. You might want to pass by the group, though, if they
happen to be part of a team who just lost their day off because one member
made a bad decision about alcohol.
Since October 2002, the largest number of teams standing in attendance
at a 0630 muster aboard Nashville has been two. In other words, 80
percent of the ship's crew routinely enjoys liberty on their targeted days
off. The first words to those teams at a 0630 muster are, "This is a
success story; more than 80 percent of the crew is off today." The
message continues, "We're not here to talk to the couple of
individuals who actually had alcohol-related incidents (remember, we took
off the gloves with those folks in phase two). Instead, we're here to talk
to the team members—to find out if you involved yourselves in the
process. If you heard the shipmates talk about tying one on or going
drinking without a designated driver, were you part of the solution or
part of the problem?"
Aboard Nashville, most Sailors are part of the solution to
alcohol and drug deglamorization. For more than six months, the ship
hasn't had a single alcohol-related incident. Why? Because Sailors make
the smart decisions. With this success, the number of mast cases has
dropped 50 percent.
Drug Positives
Nashville has had zero drug-related incidents since October 2002—not
because the ship has a drug-deglamorization program. There are no second
chances for drug use in the Navy today, which is what all hands are told,
starting with the command indoctrination. During indoctrination, Sailors
also are told to close their eyes and to visualize the one person who
really was proud of them when they joined the Navy. Then, they are told to
picture the same person when they have to pick up the phone and tell him
or her they are being kicked out of the Navy with an "other"
type of discharge for drug use. It's a simple but effective message.
The ship exceeds urinalysis-testing requirements by conducting random
tests on 25 percent or more of the crew every month and two or more unit
sweeps each year. In a nine-month period, which included two unit sweeps,
as well as the nine random tests, not one Sailor tested positive for
drugs. It would be easy to say these results are the direct result of an
aggressive drug-testing program, but that's not the truth. The fact is Nashville
uses the random urinalysis tool in a very overt way to let Sailors know
they will be discovered if they use drugs. The Sailors also know they then
will have to make what likely will be one of the toughest phone calls of
their life.
The information for the preceding two stories came from the Navy
Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention (NADAP) program website (http://navdweb.spawar.navy.mil).
Used with permission.—Ed. |
