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Sailor surprise program

This morning was a good one for the Kitty Hawk crew. Sure, there are many who are disappointed that the ship is now going to stand in for the carrier George Washington in the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise, known around the Navy as RIMPAC.

The Kitty Hawk’s skipper, Capt. Todd Zecchin, called everyone who wasn’t on watch to the flight deck for an all-hands call to announce the news and tell them what’s expected of them as they head out into Guam for a few days of liberty.

But Zecchin had a bit of other business to get out of the way before he delivered the official news of the change in the ship’s schedule — an announcement the crew has been expecting for two weeks, since the ship left its former home port of Yokosuka, Japan, on May 28 under a cloud of uncertainty because of the fire onboard the George Washington.

One by one, he called seven sailors up to the small, makeshift stage set up in front of the ship’s island superstructure and lined them up.

When they were all in place, Zecchin walked down the their ranks and told five of them with a wave of his hand they were now third-class petty officers. Two others got a similar wave — they were now second-class petty officers.

Capt. Todd Zecchin points to Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (AW) Michel Lackey

telling him he was now a third class petty officer.

Command Master Chief (AW/SW) Charles Clarke, Kitty Hawk’s top enlisted sailor

congratulates seven sailors advanced under the Command Advancement Program.

“Oh, and before I forget, it’s effective immediately, so your pay starts today,” Zecchin said. Only days ago, he frocked 291 sailors who had advanced off the spring petty officer cycle. But these sailors were advanced through a program that all commanding officers at sea have, the Command Advancement Program, known as CAP.

This program is designed to advance sailors who, though they are outstanding performers, are either in ratings where advancement is very slow due to manning issues, or their final multiple scores — the combination of their test scores, evaluations and awards — have not been high enough to move to the next paygrade.

But for these seven sailors, what is officially called CAP should be called the Sailor Surprise Program, as most commands work hard to keep the process secret and then surprise those being advanced when they least expect it.

That’s what happened to newly minted Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Aircraft Handling) 3rd Class (AW) Michael Lackey.

“I was hoping I might get advanced like this, but I didn’t think it would happen,” he said. “I thought I’d make it off the last [petty officer advancement] cycle — it was my third time and I thought it would be the charm,” he said. “It wasn’t.”

But all that changed for Lackey as Kitty Hawk sat at the mouth of Apra Harbor in Guam.

“I’m kind of shocked, but very happy,” he said. “It’s certainly a great way to start out in a liberty port, that’s for sure.”