During the course of this initiation you have been caused to suffer friendly indignities, to experience humiliation. This you have accomplished with rare good grace, and therefore we now believe it fitting to explain to you just why this was done.

There was no intent, and certainly no desire to insult you, or in any way intend to demean you. Pointless as it may have seemed to you, there were valid, time honored, yes, traditional reasons behind every single deed and each pointed barb.

By experience, by performance, and by testing, you have earned advancement to the grade of E-7. You have one more hurdle to overcome. In the United States Navy and only in the United States Navy, does an E-7 carry such unique responsibility. No other armed force throughout the world grants the esteem and the responsibilites which you are now privileged to observe and fulfill.

Your entire way of life and position in the United States Navy has now been changed. More will be expected of you, more will be demanded of you. Not because you are an E-7, but because you are now a Chief Petty Officer. You have not merely been promoted in pay grade, you have joined an exclusive fraternity, and as in all fraternities, you have a responsibility to your brothers, even as they have a responsibility to you.

Always bear in mind that no other armed services has a rate or rank equivalent to that of the United States Navy. Granted that all armed forces have two classes of service, Enlisted and Commissioned. However, the United States Navy has four: Enlisted, Navy Department appointed Chief Petty Officers and Navy Department appointed Warrant and Commissioned Officers. This is why we can maintain with pride our feeling seniority once we have obtained this position of Chief Petty Officer.

The privileges and responsibilities that we enjoy do not appear in print. In fact they have no official standing, neither can they be referred to by name, number, or file. They exist because, for over 200 years Chiefs before you have freely accepted responsibility beyond the call of printed assignment, and have by their actions and by their performance commanded the respect of their seniors and have earned the respect of their juniors.

It is now required that you become the fount’ of wisdom, the ambassador of good will, the authority (sometimes the "buffer") in personal relations, the technical advisor and finally the example (militarily, morally and otherwise) that your juniors look up to, and that they strive to emulate and one day become! ....."ASK THE CHIEF".....the phrase that rings throughout the United States Navy - - - - YOU ARE NOW THAT CHIEF!!

The exhaulted position you have now achieved, and I use the word exhaulted advisedly, exists only because of the attitude, example and the performance of the Chiefs before you. It shall exist only so long as you and your cohorts maintain these standards.

So this then is why you were caused to experience these things. You were subject to humiliations to prove to you that humility is a good, great and necessary trait which can not mar you. In fact - it strengthens you. In the future as a Chief Petty Officer, you will be caused to suffer indignities and humiliations far greater than those imposed upon you today. Bear them with dignity and with the same good grace with which you bore them today.

It is our intention to prove these facts to you.

It is our intention that you will never forget this day.

It is our intention to test you, to try you and to accept you.

Your performance today has assured us that you will wear your hat with the same feeling of great pride as the Chiefs who

proceeded you have honorably and proudly worn theirs.

We take sincere pleasure in welcoming you to our midst.

16 September 1988