The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

damage control assistant (DCA) in the Central Control Station. The DCA gave periodic status updates, and in one such update he noted my repair locker was the only one that hadn’t reported completion. When my team heard this, they scrambled even faster to put on their gear and establish bound- aries. Noticing that some sailors began skipping key steps in their haste, I yelled out: “I don’t care what the DCA says! I want you to do this right!” Just then, the chief engineer, who had been observing the drill in the background, grabbed me by the arm, looked me straight in the eye and said: “Don’t ever do that again.” I got the message immediately. But I didn’t realize until many years later that the lessons I learned that day involved how to properly and effectively dissent in the military. Over time, the more I grasped the best techniques, motivations and conditions for disagreeing with my superiors, the more I realized that these lessons apply in any enterprise. If you choose the right venue, build a reputation of D uring the course of a damage control drill on my first ship, USS Anzio (CG 68), I was barking orders to sailors frommy repair locker. My job was to ensure my team quickly suited up in firefighting equipment and established fire control boundaries and then report back to the Lessons on DISSENT from a NAVY SHIP Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Drennan is a naval officer currently assigned to United States Central Command as a maritime operations planner. He has 15 years of experience in the surface navy, with assignments as repair division officer, navigator and operations officer, as well as three deployments to the Middle East on guided missile cruisers. Out of uniform, he is president of the Center for International Maritime Security. He is the recipient of the Surface Navy Association’s Arleigh Burke Award for Opera- tional Excellence and the Navy and Marine Corps Association Leadership Award. These views are presented in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of any U.S. government department or agency. A sailor shares valuable lessons on dissent that apply in any enterprise. BY J I MMY DRENNAN FEATURE U.S.NAVY/DALEMILLER 52 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL