E2E, or Ensigns To Ensigns, was presented at the very first Athena event (then called WikiWardroom) at Basic Pizza in San Diego.
LTJG Isaac Chase developed the concept of E2E because he felt that something was missing between the training that young officers get at the Basic Division Officer Course and the knowledge they are expected to have when they are filling a Division Officer job onboard their first ship.
LTJG Chase presented the concept as a way for more senior Division Officers to increase their level of knowledge by training brand new Ensigns in seminar-based sessions, rotating amongst participating ships. The junior Ensigns receiving the training would be free to ask whatever they wanted, without having to worry about asking a “dumb question” and losing credibility onboard their own ships.
“As an Ensign trying to learn the ropes, sometimes you miss out on learning something,” LTJG Chase said. “After enough time has passed, you look silly if you ask how to get to a space or how to draft a naval message. E2E solves that.”
The program would cover a different topic at each seminar session, ranging from drafting casualty reports to sharing shiphandling tips to touring engineering spaces.
BENFOLD Surface Warfare Officers training in a ship simulator.
USS BENFOLD hosted the first E2E session in August, bringing on officers from Amphibious Ships to teach them about the Aegis Weapons System as they prepared for their Surface Warfare Officer qualification boards.
“They were really grateful, and they all sent me e-mails thanking us after the tour,” LTJG Chase said. “I was like, ‘Hey, this actually works!'”
The next step for E2E was drafting up a topics list and soliciting for other ships that wanted to participate. LTJG Chase put a schedule together and shipped it out to BENFOLD’s Destroyer Squadron to get the ball rolling.
LTJG Chase intends to host another E2E session onboard BENFOLD next month on the topic of shipyard coordination and the completion of work in a complex Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) environment. BENFOLD is a prime host for this topic as the ship is currently berthed in BAE Systems Shipyard receiving an upgrade to her combat systems suite.
“I know I was a bit lost when we started the SRA, and I know I wasn’t alone,” LTJG Chase said. “It’s a normal part of every ship’s life cycle, and it would benefit officers to understand it before their own ships commenced the maintenance phase.”
The more ships that are involved in the E2E process the better, and LTJG Chase is always on the lookout for networking between Surface platforms. As E2E grows, so does the overall level of knowledge of the Fleet’s young leaders.
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