Does the Navy Really Care? A Critique of the Family Services Program

Abstract

The Navy has for several years demonstrated a propensity for initiating programs which carry a retention label. There have been periods when almost any proposal could gain approval if it bore that magic label. Some of the programs have been excellent, well managed and reasonably effective. Others have been started with great and good intentions only to fizzle or limp along sadly without achieving fully {or even substantially) their intended purposes. In this day and age of public scrutiny and criticism for alleged inefficiencies and deficiencies in management and judgment, the Navy can ill afford programs which fit the latter category. There 1s a continuing need to examine policy and procedures in that nebulous area of retention programs (and other areas as well) to insure that we do not perpetuate mismanagement or inefficiency in the name of some sacred cow. Similarly, we should try to insure that our retention efforts are achieving the desired goals, rather than having an opposite effect. The Navy has long maintained that it "takes care of its own". But when one finds a situation which purports to look after morale and retention but is trapped in the slough of political expediency or of form without substance, one might be inclined to ask instead "does the Navy really care"? ·