13. Navy Gold Star Program Cons

In 2020, while we were on Active Duty in Southern Maryland, the Navy spoke for my husband. They published words attributed to my husband without his knowledge or consent, and against his written instruction. The post first appeared on a Navy website, then on Facebook. The Navy required Colter to serve beyond what is asked of any other Sailor. In doing this, the Navy required that I not exist and that our children not exist, publicly, in Colter's life and in the Navy.

The Navy’s action had detrimental, devastating, and lasting effects on our family and our family’s future.

It was an unnecessary and preventable action by the Navy Gold Star Program. The Commander who oversees the NGSP is the Vice Admiral of Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC). This role is handed off to a new Vice Admiral every 2-3 years.

The Navy is not a subjective entity. The policies in place must be followed. The DoD receives trillions of dollars based on the department adhering to policy.

Emotions do not dictate leadership, policy, or decisions in the field.

According to the Navy Leader Development Framework 3.0: “Authority, responsibility, accountability, and expertise are four essential principles at the heart of command. Effective command is at risk if any of these principles is lacking or out of balance.”

Whether funded through the DoD budget (appropriated fund), or funded through the Navy’s business development plans (non-appropriated funds or NAF), the Commander of CNIC is still responsible for the pristine execution of all programs under the CNIC umbrella, to include the Navy Gold Star program.

What are the cons of having a highly visible Navy Program such as the NGSP under the Non-Appropriated Fund?

1. Military leadership turns over approximately every 30 months, while civilian employees and Senior Executives maintain their roles as long as they like. The civilians are viewed as the “experts.” Therefore, Navy leadership may “defer” to the civilians who staff the programs. The Navy Gold Star Program is run by civilians.

2. As in any industry, when someone works in a role for a long time, they may ‘just do things a certain way’ because that’s how they’ve always been done. The Navy Gold Star Program operated under this notion. (See image below.) DoD and Navy procedures, policies and guidelines should operate outside of these parameters.

3. Subjectivity is a driver for reasons why something is done in the NGSP. Emotions guide decisions and outcomes, as opposed to policy.

4. NGSP employees are charged with “advocating for the families of the fallen” to assist them in finding support and resources. They are not charged with speaking for Sailors. This is strictly against policy.

5. Sponsorship is key to the success of NAF programs.

6. Facebook ”follows” and post interactions are tracked and leveraged to attract sponsors for NAF programs, and the Navy Gold Star Program is no different.

7. Fleet and Family Readiness Marketing manages the NGSP Facebook Page, not a trained military Public Affairs Officer, such as those in charge of Official Navy Social Media Pages. No civilian should ever speak on behalf of a Sailor without their knowledge or consent, especially when guided by their own personal emotion or because that is how they've always done something.

8. Protected information— Personally Identifiable Information (PII)— is available to employees who must be able to attain ”Secret“ Clearance. Does each employee have it? I don’t know the answer yet.

9. The mission of the Department of Defense, “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security,” supersedes all missions of individual programs within all branches of the military. The NGSP disregarded this mission in order to carry out its “May 2020 Campaign,” a marketing campaign, run by civilians, many of whom are “military spouses.” (More to come on this topic later.)

Is there room for deviation from policy or “creativity” within the military?

Navy Leader Development Framework 3.0 says: “A fully-developed approach to leadership, however, must recognize the value of both compliance and creativity. Properly, they reinforce each

other. We must know the fundamental, even physical elements of the trade in order to improvise safely and effectively. Compliance precedes and then leads to creativity.”

The Dalai Lama put it this way:“Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” Writers embrace this notion.

In this blog, I know the rules of journalism, but I leverage creativity in terms of my writing style to create a non-fiction narrative. I do not forego the tenets of journalism to exhibit creativity.

When the Navy [as the NGSP] spoke for my husband regarding his personal loss, it broke the tenets of the Navy. In speaking for Colter, 11 years after Allison died, the Navy reassigned and legitimized the flawed narrative that lives on social media, the narrative that was created by others, not Colter. In doing this, the Navy assigned where Colter's heart, mind, and public life would be in the Spring of 2020. And it left us without our Sailor, so he could serve the Navy's marketing needs which were decided by civilian NAF employees, guided by emotion, subjectivity.

Let me take you back to Spring 2020, wait, we were all there, you don't need me to tell you, we were all navigating the start of the pandemic, collectively...

Next—>

This is an image/excerpt from my “Responsive Documents,” and this excerpt is not from my personal email account containing my email exchange with this person, as the email I have notes that the exchange is protected by “The Privacy Act.” This is hypocritical in my opinion to not allow me to use their name, but they used my Sailor’s name against his written instruction. This image states that the NGSP has always taken information as factual, as long as it aligns with their current records. Their current records are those contained in DCIPS. This does not account for the policy dictating that civilians may not speak for Sailors, Navy Social Media Policy, Navy PAO Procedures, PII Policy, or DoD Policy, which this program is responsible for adhering to, and the CO of CNIC is accountable for ensuring this happens.… More to come on this in a future post.