Vice Admiral J. Kevin Moran: Winning the Navy's 'War for People'

"The first thing we had to do was understand this new Revolution in Training and core functions of this training organization, and then we had to rearrange our organization to deliver on the vision," Moran said. "What (the CNO) always envisioned was that we would be the employer of choice. The vision is brilliant. When we bring this thing to life, we're going to have an environment where sailors can improve themselves and advance in this organization. It's that environment that I'm so excited about."

In many ways, Moran was the ideal candidate for the new position. He had served as the executive officer aboard two surface ships; held command positions for the Navy's southeastern U.S. region as well as the amphibious ships arm of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet; received a master's degree in international relations and strategic studies from the War College in Newport, R.I.; and graduated from the advanced management program at the Harvard School of Business. The CNO named Moran commander of Task Force Excel, part of the Navy's Revolution in Training program, which eventually became institutionalized as the Naval Personnel Development Command.

"I'm responsible for individual training, for delivering the skill sets necessary to prepare that sailor to go on to team training," Moran said of his role as head of the Naval Personnel Development Command. "About 30,000 sailors go through individual training a year. That includes most of the Navy's individual training, except for nuclear power, the health profession and flight training. We teach everything from anti-terrorism force protection all the way through to the technical skills necessary for sailors to do their jobs on the various platforms."

To get the ball rolling on the Revolution in Training initiative, Moran had to ask a lot of reflective questions regarding the delivery of learning and development in the Navy, such as "What needs to stay in the classroom?" "What content can be delivered Web-enabled?" and "Where could simulations be implemented?" In order to bring the Navy's professional education up to date, he began implementing learning solutions that included modalities like e-learning, coaching sessions and simulations in addition to the traditional classroom-based method.