Ray Mabus, the longest-serving secretary of the Navy since World War I, stopped at Pearl Harbor on Wednesday on a farewell tour to laud today’s sailors and Marines, answer questions and reflect on more than seven years of service.
Mabus said he’ll step down in the presidential transition. U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., is a front-runner to become the next secretary of the Navy in the Trump administration.
After an “all hands” call with sailors, Mabus said he hopes to be seen as a Navy secretary who substantially changed the Navy and Marine Corps and made the sea services stronger.
Under Mabus, the Navy increased the number of contracted ships, opened all Navy and Marine Corps jobs to women, tripled paid maternity leave to 18 weeks from six, implemented the “21st Century Sailor and Marine” initiative to reduce stress on the force, and launched the Great Green Fleet to incorporate biofuels.
Mabus, who is on a trip to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Italy, said the Navy is the force that is relied on in worldwide emergencies.
“We get on station faster, we stay longer, we bring whatever we need with us,” he said. “And because we’re operating from sovereign U.S. territory — our ships — we don’t have to ask any other nation’s permission to get the job done.”
In the seven years before 2009, the Navy contracted for 41 ships to be built. In the seven years since then, it has put 86 ships under contract. Mabus told sailors Wednesday that the Navy will increase from about 272 ships to 300 by 2019 and 308 by 2021.
He and other Navy officials contend that number will rise even higher, and President-elect Donald Trump has called for 350 ships.
Mabus set historic renewable energy goals, including having at least 50 percent of Navy and Marine Corps energy ashore and afloat derived from non-fossil fuels by 2020.
When he came into office, oil was $140 a barrel. On average, one Marine was being killed for every 50 convoys of fuel brought into Afghanistan.
“If we didn’t do something, energy could be used as a weapon or vulnerability against us,” Mabus said.
Last year Navy and Marine Corps bases met the 50 percent goal for alternative energy, he said. “At sea, we’re (at) about 30 percent. Half of that is nuclear, the rest is biofuels.”
When biofuels were demonstrated at the Rim of the Pacific exercise in 2012, Mabus came under criticism for the cost. But for the Great Green Fleet, which included ships with the USS John C. Stennis strike group sailing this summer on a biofuel blend made from beef tallow, the cost came down.
“We paid $1.99 a gallon for those biofuels,” Mabus said.
He said that in Singapore there’s an oil refinery operated by the Chinese and a biofuel refinery owned by the Finns. “I don’t want to depend on China for our fuel — particularly in the Western Pacific,” Mabus said.
Many of the sailors had questions about the controversial decision made in September to ditch the long-held tradition of referring to an enlisted sailor’s rate and rank, such as “machinist’s mate 1st class.” Instead, it would be “petty officer 1st class.”
New Navy Occupational Specialty codes will be grouped under broader career fields. “Aircraft technician” alone has six ratings that are “pretty narrow” in definition, Mabus said.
“The way it’s set up now is too rigid, and it’s preventing promotions in some cases, and it’s preventing people from getting next duty stations,” he said.
