Chief of Naval Personnel Has All Hands Call With NSA Bahrain Sailors

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Aramis X. Ramirez, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet Public Affairs

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- The chief of naval personnel held an all hands call with Sailors stationed on board Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain during a visit July 1.

Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson's visit was part of a tour of 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) commands to meet with Sailors and their leadership to address Navy policies and explain their impact to Sailors and their families.

Among the topics Ferguson discussed during the call were the recent changes made to the performance evaluation and fitness reporting system, which will take effect Aug. 1. The program has been modified to more readily reflect performance as an individual augmentee (IA) or service in a global support assignment (GSA) billet by classification in a billet subcategory code. Changes will also mandate that physical fitness assessment (PFA) scores from the past two cycles be annotated on the performance report.

"For the IA, we didn't want them to leave the United States an 'early promote' and return with a 'promotable' or a 'must promote,'" said Ferguson, noting that IAs returning to their parent commands from deployment will have a six-month reintegration period during which the billet subcategory code will still be applied on their periodic evaluation reports.

"For the changes we've made concerning PFA scores, we found it important to have them incorporated because physical fitness is as important as technical expertise in creating a well-rounded Sailor," said Ferguson.

Speaking before a crowd of more than 500 personnel, Ferguson said further IA support programs will be implemented for enlisted Sailors and their families. One of the programs he discussed was the recently announced Overseas Contingency Operations Support Assignments (OSA) program. Under the new program, Sailors who accept OSA orders will remain attached to their parent commands throughout their deployment instead of detaching as they would under the current GSA program, and still earn additional monetary benefits. The current GSA program will remain in place for deploying officers.

Ferguson also discussed the Navy's strong retention rates and reaching a stable end strength level.

Sailors were given the opportunity to ask Ferguson questions, which included concerns about tuition assistance (TA) for Reservists, manning on surface ships and commissioning opportunities.

In response, Ferguson noted the importance of the TA program, explaining how current changes are designed to ease the application and disbursement of TA funds to Sailors.