Two Naval Postgraduate School
(NPS) faculty members, Dr. Nita Lewis Miller and Capt. Robert Firehammer, were selected to receive the prestigious American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) "Jimmie" Hamilton Award for Best Paper of 2007 for their paper titled, "Avoiding a Second Hollow Force: The Case for Including Crew Endurance Factors in the Afloat Staffing Policies of the U.S. Navy."
Each year the ASNE Journal Committee awards the "Jimmie" Hamilton Award to the author or authors of the best original technical paper published in the Naval Engineers Journal during that year. The award has been presented annually since 1967 and selection is based on the "professionalism of the subject matter, depth of treatment, importance and lasting value, clarity of composition and style, and individual effort."
Miller, an NPS faculty member since 2000, is co-Director of the Human Systems Integration (HSI) program and teaches human factors and human performance courses in the Operations Research (OR) Department. Firehammer recently retired from the Navy after serving as a faculty member in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, and currently works as an industry analyst and private consultant.
The idea for the paper came after the Navy made changes in the Navy Standard Workweek that resulted in longer workdays and fewer hours of rest for Sailors. Both Miller and Firehammer recognized that the Surface Warfare community was further tasking their already tired Sailors. This trend of increasing the number of hours allocated to work and reducing the number of Sailors would inevitably result in longer work hours and less rest for Sailors.
The paper reviewed the scientific studies that have been done to assess what happens to humans when they do not get adequate sleep. It explored the changes in Sailor performance due to chronic and acute sleep deprivation, and examined the afloat staffing methods used by the U.S. Navy. The paper argued that unless a drastic change in manpower management takes place, the Navy could see a second, "hollow force," much like the Navy experienced after the Vietnam War. This hollow force was marred by deficiencies in manpower, technical skills and leadership, according to the paper.
"Since the end of the Cold War and the absence of an immediate Naval threat, the U.S. Navy has instituted cost-cutting measures that may risk creation of a second hollow force," according to the introduction of the paper.
"There has been increasing pressure on the U.S. military to cut costs," Miller explained. "We continue to ask active duty personnel to work harder and for longer periods. Ensuring our Sailors are prepared to carry out their assignment and duties in a sustained combat environment will require changes to the Navy's culture, specifically, implementing programs focused on managing human performance and fatigue levels.
"At a certain point in time, we will hit the breaking point where the work required simply cannot be done," Miller warned.
Miller explained that the failures of the USS Chosin (CG 65) and the USS Stout (DDG 55) to pass their Inspection and Survey (INSURV) inspection may be evidence of the fatigue resonating through the very deck plates of the Navy.
According to INSURV reports released to the media, most of the missiles on both ships couldn?t be fired and neither ship could fire any of the big guns. In addition, the
Aegis radar, key to the ship?s fighting abilities, didn?t work right, the flight decks were inoperable, most of the lifesaving gear failed inspection, corrosion was rampant, and lube oil was all over the place. The U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey marked both ships, "unfit for sustained combat operations."
Looking at these failures as potential signs of a larger problem, Miller and Firehammer studied the Navy Standard Workweek and also poured over manning reports from the fleet. They believe that the culprit is insufficient manning, which is reflected in long work hours and little rest for Sailors.
"We do not think the Navy Standard Workweek reflects the amount of work required onboard Navy ships," said Firehammer. "The Navy has a vibrant material management program to ensure their combat systems maintain performance reliability. Albeit the Navy has a layered training program, it does not have a Sailor maintenance program that ensures their Sailors are able to reliably operate at the required levels of performance necessary to deliver the sustained Naval combat capacity demanded by our nation."
"It is clear that the Navy is moving toward developing platforms that require a much smaller human footprint," the paper explained in its concluding recommendations. "Based on the research available, sleep-related fatigue is the limiting factor in sustaining combat at sea. As such, this limitation represents a major flaw in the Navy's afloat workload staffing methodology, because it holds the workload as the hard constraint, failing to consider human preventative maintenance requirements. This construct rewards manpower planners for finding ways to leverage more productive work from Sailors, while placing Sailors' rest, nourishment, and hygiene at risk."
The paper suggests a solution. "The Navy should expand its investment in human systems integration, focusing on human performance as a critical component of total system performance. By allowing for more time to get rest, Sailors across the deckplates can excel in accomplishing the mission.
"Thereby, we will ensure that future platforms have fully integrated the human strengths and weaknesses into the system design," the report explained. "Such actions will lead to the right answer, resulting in optimal use of scarce human resources. The Navy needs a better understanding of the consequences of these manning decisions if we are to deliver the level of combat capability required to protect our national interests abroad."
For both Miller and Firehammer, receiving the award was completely unexpected and the last thing they thought about when they published their paper.
"We just wanted to look at how to make better manning decisions for the U.S. Navy," explained Miller. "My dad was a Sailor during World War II, so making an impact that could improve the lives of Sailors and other military personnel is my highest dream."
NPS continues to do research in this area to determine if Navy manning policy correctly reflects the work and rest patterns of today's Sailors. Lt. Leonard Haynes, a 2007 NPS graduate in Operations Research and one of Miller's graduate students, recently completed a study of Sailors deployed on the USS Chung Hoon (DDG 93) and another NPS student, Lt. Derek Mason, from the HSI curriculum, is currently collecting his thesis data on Sailors aboard the USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and USS Port Royal (CG 73).
"NPS's value to the Navy is its ability to challenge the Navy's conventional thoughts through data and analysis,? said Firehammer. "It is NPS' independent loyalty to high academic and research standards that provides the Navy with an honest broker that provides Naval leaders with the foundation necessary to guide the Navy's strategic business decisions."