A Crypie Wins CNO's Sailor Of The Year Nod

It's about time! CTT1(SW/AW) Cassandra Foote from CID Pensacola was recently selected as the CNO's Sailor Of the Year. She will be meritoriously advanced to the rank of Chief Petty Officer this summer.

Congrats Shipmate!

Fellow Chief Retiring

Shipmates,

Please join the CSRA CPOA in congratulating CHIEF Christa Mariacher on a job well done and piping her ashore for her final time. She's one of the best Chief Petty Officers this fine Navy has ever seen, but she has successfully trained her replacements and is now ready to move on to another chapter in her life.


Her retirement ceremony will be held 1300 on 16 April 2010, in Friendship Chapel, Ft. Gordon, GA.

Come on out and celebrate this momentous achievement in her looooong career and help us wish her a Chief's farewell and following seas!


V/r,


Derek Beck
President, CSRA CPOA

Meeting Minutes From 16 March 2010

Meeting Minutes, 16 March 2010:

CPOA Mission: To embrace our CPO heritage and encourage cross-generational information sharing through a strong social network of Chief Petty Officers, active, reserve, and retired, in the CSRA.

-Time Started: 1150
-Time Ended: 1300-ish
-# of Attendees: 16

-Old Business: None.

-New Business:
*Monthly meetings to be held in rotating locations and times for the next several months.
>April Meeting to be held at the Ft. Gordon bowling alley. Day and time are TBD.

*Re-initiated dues: $5/mo. or $40/yr.
>1st meeting is dues-free for each member.

*We'll begin planning for social activities like campouts, river boat trips, BBQs, etc.

*Other social events will be combined with charity drives in the name of Chief Petty Officers.

*NO FUNDRAISING EVENTS.
>Money will be raised through dues, sales of shirts/mugs/coins, and possible corporate sponsorship.

*Spending money will be limited to food for meetings, parting gifts for our CPOA members (retiring/PCS'ing), gifts for NIOC/CID/NRC SSOYs, and CPOA social activities.

*Initiated membership committee to oversee a dedicated drive for CPOA awareness/membership. Pauly and Phil Edwards volunteered to start. If you are interested in getting involved with the Membership Committee please contact one of them.

*Other positions still open: Secretary, Technical Director, Community Services Chair. Contact the President, Derek Beck, or the Vice President, Eric Ahlstrom if interested.

-Good of the order: None


Thanks to all who came out! We had a terrific showing today and had a good time catching up with some old friends, especially Bill Hill and Curtis Klebba.

We really look forward to seeing everyone again next month!

V/r,

Derek Beck
President, CPOA

A Story Of Respect, Growth And Leadership

In an article posted at Defense.gov, is a great story about the life and career of a fellow Chief Petty Officer from 1936-1956. Odell "Kid Odell" Williams served aboard the USS Enterprise, the oiler USS Salamonie, general stores issue ship USS Acubens, attack transport USS Henry T. Allen, attack transport USS Noble, cruiser USS Des Moines, and naval Operating Base Argentina, Newfoundland, Canada.

Chief Odell Williams was one of the first African Americans to join the Navy as something other than a steward and later served in the Battle of Midway. He says his best memory of his Naval service was aboard the USS Enterprise because of their teamwork, lack of racial divides, and hard work. Kid said of that experience, "You went to your battle station, no matter what your special duties were. Discipline was hard."

Kid says his worst memory was aboard the USS Des Moines in 1950 when the CO supported kicking him out of Chiefs' berthing because he didn't want any troubles.

Despite his hardships dealing with segregation in the United States Navy, he's not only grateful for the people he met and the life lessons he learned, but he continues to "Be The Chief" and do what he must to help develop our young Americans. He still, to this day, finds the time and energy to speak to young children in local schools about discipline, the importance of positive self-esteem, objectives, cooperation, mutual respect for others and responsibility. As Kid puts it, "If you don't think something of yourself, who is going to think anything of you?...And forget about peer pressure; if you have an idea, speak up about it."

It doesn't seem like much has changed over the last 117 years with regard to what it means to "Be The Chief". I will be thinking about Chief Kid Odell Williams' legacy, and the legacy of all others who have gone before us, as we train our next generation of Chief Petty Officers this fall.


V/r,

Derek Beck
President, CSRA CPOA

SECNAV Pinned As Honorary Chief Petty Officer

(Photo from Navy.mil)

According to an article posted on the Navy's main webpage, the SECNAV Ray Mabus was pinned as an honorary Chief Petty Officer at the Naval Academy on March 8th, 2010.

Ray is the 75th Secretary of the Navy. Prior to his current position he served in a variety of positions to include serving as a Surface Warfare Officer on the USS Little Rock, being elected as the Governor of Mississippi, serving as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and CEO of Foamex, a large manufacturing company.

So, this is clearly his greatest accomplishment. ;o)

Info On The Next Meeting

The next meeting for the CSRA CPOA will be Tuesday, 16 March, at 1130 in Godfather's Pizza on Ft. Gordon. Pizza will be provided so come on out and hang with your fellow Chiefs, both active and retired, in the CSRA.

Top on the discussion list will be future meeting locations/times. Do we want to rotate locations and times? Or do we prefer to have one fixed location/time? Are we better off meeting at the beginning, middle, or end of the month? What days are best? Come with your inputs in mind so we can make the best decision possible. If you're an initiated Chief Petty Officer in the CSRA, active or retired, and you'd like to be involved but can't make this meeting, place your comments/inputs here on the blog, post them on our Facebook page, or email them to CSRACPOA@gmail.com so I can bring them to the table for you on the 16th.

We'll also be discussing our plans for 2010, such as membership drive efforts, dues, the kind of activities we would like to engage in (and those we do not intend to involve ourselves in). And hopefully, we'll be looking fill some much needed positions: 

• Secretary-Keep the minutes and build/update the CPOA social roster.

• Technical Director-Set up/maintain a CSRA CPOA webpage (both on the regular web and on high side at work) and email aliases on the low and high side.

• Membership Drive Committee Chair- Create and post CSRA CPOA flyers on base and around key locations in the local community, come up with any other creative methods to reach out to the active and retired Chief Petty Officers in the CSRA, welcome new members at the meetings and collect dues.

• Community Services Committee Chair- Establish CPOA involvement in various community services.

I'm hoping we'll be able to get through the business part of this meeting quickly and get to the socializing, but this particular meeting will probably be the most important one as far as the discussion of what's next. 

Hope to see everyone there!

V/r,

Derek Beck

President, CSRA CPOA

Ft. Gordon Tax Center Now Open

**UPDATED**

Shipmates,

This may be common knowledge, but just in case...

The Ft. Gordon Tax Center is open for business. Located in the Courtyard, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen who have been trained by the IRS will be providing free tax services.

The Tax Center will be open through April 15, 2010. The hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

If you have questions, you can reach a tax preparer by calling 787-1040.


R/

Derek

Service Dress Khakis Finally Arriving!

(MCPON Joe Campa Jr. sporting the Service Dress Khakis for CPOs.)

NAVADMIN 020/10 announced the approval for final development of Service Dress Khakis, or SDKs. The NAVADMIN states that the uniform will be an optional wear item for E7 through O10 in place of Summer White and Service Khakis during the summer, or for situations where wearing a tie is appropriate.

Because the uniform is an optional uniform, there will be no uniform allowance for it. So Chiefs and Officers will have to pay out of pocket to cover the cost.  According to the message, SDKs are expected to be available for purchase by FY 2012.

~Derek

2010 Ride Across Maryland

Shipmates,

Retired Chief Petty Officer Kirk Towner has initiated the USN Chief's Team for the 2010 Ride Across Maryland and has asked that we help in spreading the word for this event. You can find out all the major info on the event as a whole at the official site of Dick Gelfman's 2010 Ride Across Maryland.

Kirk has also started a blog to keep the Chief's team posted on the team specific events. Visit his blog here if you are interested!

V/r,

Derek Beck
CSRA CPOA President