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collision. In other words, when a ship is at anchor, care
must be taken to protect the ship at all times. As the
petty officer of the watch, you are an important link in
protecting the ship. You will be assisting the officer of
the deck as much as possible.
Naval Organization
While standing watch as POOW, you will on many
occasions be “passing the word” for official visitors to
your ship or station. Words such as “COMPHIBRON
FIVE, arriving” or “COMDESGRU TWO, departing”
are examples of the proper way to announce arrivals or
departures. You will need to know the names and
abbreviations and be aware of the missions of major
commands within the Department of the Navy. On many
quarterdecks there are pictures of members of the chain
of command (COC) and any other COC or officials
deployed at that command. You should become familiar
with them for sight recognition.
DEPARTMENT
OF
THE
NAVY.—The
Department of the Navy (DoN) is headed by a civilian—
the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The DoN has two
main objectives. The first objective is to organize, train,
equip, prepare, and maintain the readiness of the Navy
and Marine Corps forces to perform military missions.
These forces carry out military missions as directed by
the President or the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF).
The second objective is to support the Navy and Marine
Corps forces as well as the forces of other military
departments. The DoN supports these forces as directed
by SECDEF.
CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.—Chief of
Naval Operations (CNO), under the direction of
SECNAV, exercises command over the operating forces
and shore activities of the Navy.
THE OPERATING FORCES.—The operating
forces of the Navy are combat or combat-support
oriented. Combatant and certain supporting forces are
assigned to the commander of a unified or specified
command. Unified or specified commands can consist of
other DoD service members, foreign military personnel,
and components from the following:
Fleet Marine forces
Naval air forces
Naval surface forces
Submarine forces
Training commands
Fleet Marine forces are under the administrative
control of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. These
forces operate, as do other types of commands, under
their respective fleet commander in chief.
The operating forces’ commanders and commanders
in chief (CINCs) have dual chains of command.
Administratively, they report to the CNO to provide,
train, and equip naval forces. Operationally, as naval
forces, they report to the appropriate unified commander
in chief. The units of a fleet also have dual chains of
command. As units enter an area of responsibility for a
particular Navy CINC, they are operationally assigned to
the appropriate numbered fleet. Ships provided by Type
Commanders make up the operational (numbered) fleets.
The Pacific Fleet includes the Third and Seventh Fleets,
the Atlantic Fleet has the Second Fleet, the Fifth Fleet is
under the U. S. Naval Forces Central Command, and
Naval Forces Europe mainly consists of the Sixth Fleet.
The Navy units also have an administrative chain of
command in which the various ships report to the
appropriate forward-area commanders, known as Type
Commanders.
For example, administratively a destroyer may
belong to a squadron (DESRON) that is part of a
cruiser-destroyer
group
(CRUDESGRU).
CRUDESGRU, in turn, is part of the surface force
(SURFLANT) that reports to the Commander in Chief,
Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT). Operationally the
same destroyer may be deployed as part of a task
element, unit, group, and force that are part of the
Seventh Fleet answering to CINCPACFLT.
A task force (TF) is a subdivision of a fleet.
Sometimes a fleet is large enough and its duties are
extensive enough to require division into many TFs.
When that happens, the TFs become part of groupings
