senior petty officer in the division. The LPO assists the division officer in his or her duties and in supervising and training division personnel. Some of the specific duties and responsibilities of the division LPO are as follows: Assists the division officer in preparing watch and liberty lists Assists in assigning personnel to cleaning stations and supervises assigned personnel in performing their cleaning duties Prepares and submits supply requisitions to the division officer Assists in training division personnel Assigns  tasks  and  supervises  the performance of division personnel Supervises the division damage control petty officer Performs such other duties as may be assigned The division LPO reports to the division officer. The section leaders, the work center supervisors, and the division damage control petty officer report to the LPO. Assigning Division Responsibilities As the LPO or as one of the senior petty officers in the division, you will probably have some input on the assignment of personnel to billets. Keep in mind that each job given your division and each duty for which your division is responsible must be assigned to a specific person. Make sure the person assigned is qualified to do the job. For example, assume that the special sea detail bill assigns the billet of telephone talker on the forecastle to a seaman from your division. Since the seaman is from your division, you should assign a petty officer to instruct that person in proper phone-talking procedures. You should also make sure trained replacements are available. When assigning duties, you should follow this three-step approach: (1) assign the personnel, (2) assign petty officers to supervise the personnel, and (3) be prepared with trained replacements when personnel are transferred or absent. The responsibilities you assign must be clear-cut. If the job is a big one, a person will likely need help; but even if more than one person is assigned, one person must be held responsible for the job. The same detail should not be assigned to several people. For example, closing (or shutting) a watertight door should not be left to the compartment cleaners who work nearby. One person should be assigned to check the door each time it is to be closed. Other crew members may close it, but only one person should be responsible for closing it. No matter how obvious or easy a job appears to be, never take it for granted. Always make one person responsible for it. All members of your division should know to whom they report and who reports to them; in other words—who is in charge of whom and when they are in charge. Responsibility must be matched by authority. If you are the LPO, you hold your work center supervisors responsible for the efficiency of their crews. You should also give them freedom to assign and train their personnel. Let them recommend training schedules and take their recommendations  into  consideration  when evaluating the performance of their personnel. Permit them to endorse or reject special requests submitted by their personnel. Make it clear to them and to their people that only in unusual cases will you go against the supervisor’s recommenda- tions. ASSIGNMENTS The responsibilities you assign must be clear- cut. If the job is a big one, a person will likely need help; but even if more than one person is assigned, one person must be held responsible for the job. Personnel When you assign personnel a job, the qualifications of the people assigned must be carefully considered. If you assign a person to a job who does not possess the proper qualifica- tions, just to fill a numerical billet, that job is destined for failure. Supervisor Petty officers you assign to supervise jobs should be qualified to do that particular job and qualified to train others to do the same job. Petty officers that you assign to the various work groups must have your full support. They should be included in any discussion in the assignment of 4-4