Vice Adm. John B. Mustin, Chief of Navy Reserve / Commander, Navy Reserve Forces, hosted a virtual town hall to discuss his priorities for the U.S. Navy Reserve and to answer questions from Sailors on Nov. 7.
Mustin was joined by his senior enlisted advisor, Navy Reserve Force Master Chief Petty Officer Chris Kotz, who also took questions from around the Fleet.
Broadcast on the website of the Navy’s All Hands Magazine and on Facebook Live, the virtual environment enabled senior Navy leaders to engage directly with Sailors and keep them informed despite challenges posed by COVID-19.
Mustin opened the town hall by discussing the Navy’s critical missions, the way the Reserve supports these missions, and key changes for the future of the force. In support of the Navy’s three critical missions of power projection, sea control, and deterrence, Mustin said the Reserve force must enable these functions through operational support and strategic depth. He also emphasized force structure transformation and day-one readiness for high-end conflict.
“We're overhauling the ways in which we design, train, mobilize and resource our nation’s more than 100,000 citizen Sailors,” said Mustin. “This significant shift in mindset and effort requires deep structural and operational change. While such change is never easy, it is absolutely necessary and timely.”
During Kotz’s remarks, he emphasized “speed to fight” as an important focus for the Reserve force.
“Speed to fight’ means how do we get you to mobilize both individually and collectively and over to your mobilization unit to get to the fight,” said Kotz. “So that means today, in a drilling environment, we need to work on those things, and thankfully we have been going after that, and there are a quite few efforts online for that."
In response to the requirements of the Great Power Competition, the force has been required to refocus and consider carefully where to invest its resources and which items are the top priorities.
“I will tell you that I have one priority, and only one — warfighting readiness,” said Mustin. “To ensure warfighting readiness, the Reserve force is urgently and aggressively pivoting from a post-9/11 counterterrorism, counterinsurgency-based support structure to a force rapidly able to mobilize anywhere around the world.”
Before moving on to the question and answer portion of the livestream, Mustin addressed all Reserve Sailors directly.
“I want you to ask yourself, are we being effective, are we being efficient, are we doing what we should do? Not what we have been doing, but what we must do?” asked Mustin. “We can’t continue to do things we did last year knowing that the world is going to change next year. So I am counting on you to help us get after what our future looks like and to ask those questions within your units, within your teams.”
Mustin and Kotz then took questions on a variety of Reserve force issues from Sailors around the world. To view the town hall in its entirety, visit: https://fb.watch/1D0BCMmuX6/
The mission of the Navy Reserve is to provide strategic depth and deliver operational capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps team, and Joint forces, in the full range of military operations from peace to war. Commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command (CNFRC) operates six regional headquarters and 123 Navy Operational Support Centers (NOSCs), located in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. NOSCs are the readiness generation centers of the Navy Reserve that provide administrative, training and readiness support.
- 30 -