AN ANALYSIS OF ENLISTED SWCC AND SEAL OFFICER RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE

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Authors
Laskos, Stanley M., III
Subjects
Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman
SWCC
intrinsic
officer
enlisted
Naval Special Warfare
organizational design
Advisors
Hatch, William D., II
Borer, Douglas A.
Date of Issue
2019-12
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
This thesis analyzes various organizational design theories and intrinsic motivational models to evaluate the feasibility of creating an unrestricted line SWCC officer program. The two deployable operating factions within Naval Special Warfare (NSW) are the SEALs and the SWCC operators. Of the personnel inventory of SWCCs, the majority are enlisted with the exception of Chief Warrant Officer, which commissions directly from the enlisted force. The current model has the SEAL community providing the command-level and officer leadership for the SWCC community. Two case studies were analyzed: the all-enlisted Air Force Pararescue community, which developed the Combat Rescue Officer program in 2000, and the Norwegian Marine Jaegar Kommando, which combined combat diver and boat operators into a singular Maritime special operations unit underneath a newly designed special operations command. This research concludes that the current SWCC manning model would have to be changed to support the creation of an unrestricted line officer program, but doing so could incentivize SEAL junior officers. The new model should create greater leadership opportunities between the SWCC and SEAL communities. This was demonstrated successfully in the Air Force in creating an officer corps from an existing enlisted career field. Likewise, the Norwegians demonstrated that reorganizing using a similar organizational effectively increased efficiency and leadership.
Type
Thesis
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Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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