Robert Walker

Walker was a much more conservative, traditional MCPON than his predecessor, John Whittet.

During his term, Walker often ruffled feathers by identifying directors of Navy programs who weren't serving the best interests of the Navy (such as a director of the Board of Corrections of Naval Records, and a commander in Pearl Harbor who was separating sailors for being overweight even though he himself was obese) and saw to their quick removal. He was instrumental in creating the Navy's Senior Enlisted Academy, from which virtually all subsequent MCPONs were graduates. He also brought about the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist program, to add the same professionalism and thorough platform knowledge within the surface community that had been present for decades in the submarine community.

He fought for increases in sea pay, improvements in off-duty education opportunities, consolidation of the three-form system of enlisted evaluation reports into a uniform format, and a return to the traditional "crackerjacks" phased out by ADM Zumwalt. Personnel records were moved to microfiche vice paper to streamline archival, storage and retrieval. They have since been completely computerized. Many of these changes would not take effect until after Walker's MCPON tour ended, but he was the driving force behind their implementation. Read Less