This Flag*Gram comes late. This is a direct result of the “optempo” that affects me and my staff in the front office, even as it confronts each and every one of us. Our challenging times continue, with no end in sight. I must say up front that I am so proud of the very big role we are playing in meeting the mission. I am also quite aware of the fact that this role requires of each of us a sacrifice of time and energy – time and energy that we would otherwise have for families, friends, careers and jobs. I appreciate your sacrifices very, very much, and I want all of you to know that -- and, most importantly, that our active component colleagues and counterparts appreciate it very much as well.

There is a lot going on, and I have promised to address these things along the way in these Flag*Grams. No one issue will have the space to cover everything, but I will continue to give you highlights in upcoming issues, and you can look forward to more in-depth discussion at our upcoming MLTSs – East and West in May and June, and that for legalmen in September.

Let me first congratulate Captain Steve Talson once more on his selection as my relief. Steve will make a great leader for the Reserve Law Program. He will bring a great depth and breadth of knowledge and experience to the job, and I could not be more confident that our Program will be in very good hands, indeed. We are already deep into a detailed and extensive turnover process, which we will continue right up until I turn over the conn to Steve in the next fiscal year.

I will turn to more news about what is going on in our Program and in our community in my next Flag*Grams. This time, however, I want to discuss a consequence of our daunting pace of work that has me a bit concerned. As we have turned to in every way possible, and in the face of an unrelenting pace, it appears to me that we have begun to lose sight of a couple of basics – basics that, if ignored, can be “show stoppers” for us. These basics relate to, first, our own careers and development as Law Program Reservists and, second, to our fundamental readiness to serve. Let me deal briefly with each of them in turn.

In the first place, the evidence of recent boards, including Apply, is that we have throttled back on attention to our fitness reports and evaluations. Our fitreps and evals are, too often, not up to standard. They often violate every principle of good drafting and careful presentation that we have taught in the past. I do not have the space to go into detail here, but I can offer as examples the writings that do not give an explanation for breakouts, or the lack thereof, and those which seem composed in a vacuum, without reference to mission, potential, or future. It is clear to me that this is equally a failure of leadership – including my own -- as well as of adherence to the principle that each member is responsible for his or her record. We must re-engage here, at every level. Members must be part of the evaluation or fitness reporting process, through good input to and communication with seniors. Seniors must take care to obtain that input and to engage in that communication, and, most importantly, to take the time to craft careful work that provides context and useful information to selection boards.

To address this concern, we will return to instruction regarding good fitrep and eval writing in our MLTS agendas. I expect everyone to take full advantage of the opportunity to re-set their expectations and standards to the highest levels. We simply must have processes that work fairly and effectively as we shape our people and community for the future.

A second key concern that I have is for our medical and dental readiness. We are seeing failures of follow-through and of communication with regard to annual physical assessments and dental exams, and in overall physical and medical readiness for mobilization and other service. This preparation is the very bedrock of our ability to serve and support the mission. It is prior to training, to technical expertise, to family and personal mental and legal preparedness – to every other form of preparation for service that we make. As such, we cannot afford to ignore it, or to give it less than first place in our attention.

I ask that every one of us take stock of this. COs, poll your members, and assign action officers to drive corrections and updates; SJAs, monitor progress in your AORs and be prepared to report to me your assessment of status, complete with plans to address any problems; members, look to what you have completed and to what you have yet to do, and ensure that everything is in place. When in doubt as to what is required, ask via the chain of command. Our nation has made a tremendous investment in Navy Operational Support Centers for just this purpose.

We must not let this continue to slip. We must be ready “full-up.” Our professional accomplishments and competence will be useless without this ultimate foundation for service.

Before I close, I must add that I fully understand that the challenges of our daily lives combined with our very high tempo of operations in the Reserves makes keeping up with the basics quite difficult.  I sympathize, and I always appreciate the challenges and how your efforts to meet them always do us proud.  We must, however, be sure that we take care of our own, and that we are fundamentally ready to keep up this great work.  I know that you will recognize this and do what is necessary to keep up our standards – and I thank you in advance for that.

I look forward to returning to a discussion of our initiatives and contributions in my next Flag*Gram. In the meantime, remember to take stock of the basics, strive for balance where you can find it, and be safe and well! We need you, ready, prepared, and energized, for the great work we have yet to do, together!

Norton Joerg

March, 2008