Command Master Chief

Farewell Speech

To

Captain Frederick M. Tettelbach

Thank you Danny, and good evening ladies and gentlemen, Captain and
Mrs. Tettelbach, Captain and Mrs. McFarland, distinguished guests.

I hope everyone has had a good time, I've had a GREAT time,
especially being a part of this whole bash myself. I know it sounds trite,
but this evening's dinner and show really couldn't have been done without
the support and contributions of a whole lot of people. I'd like to say a few
words about them.

First, everyone involved in this production worked very hard, harder I'm
sure than most of you realize, you cannot judge the contribution a person
has made by the size of the part that was played on stage. For if a person
had a small part on stage, there was a larger part off stage.

Our cast of players was also busy behind the scenes as stage hands,
costume designers, and prop builders as well as doubling on the tickets,
decorations, publicity and menu committees. Each of them also contributed
not only energy, but also enthusiasm, ideas, and large measures of mutual
support and encouragement that made us become a full fledged company in
only a matter of days. I thank each and everyone of you.

Similarly, there is a small army of people, whom you never saw on stage,
who also made their contribution to making this evening a success and who
worked just as hard. Take a look at those hand made decorations, remember
the hand colored flyers promoting this party? I'd like at this time to recognize
the efforts of all the others concerned. You know we call this a command
party. That doesn't only mean we have people from all elements, and of all
ranks of the command here with us tonight. Pay attention to the names I call
out. Visualize the ranks, the divisions, the departments those names signify,
because this is truly a command party.

Success is not measured in the cross section of command represented by
those that buy tickets. The real measure of success of any command party
is the cross-section of command that participates in the planning and
execution of the function.

My thanks First of all to Paul Rickman whose labors far exceeded the
relatively brief time he participated as our audio effects man tonight. It took
hours of dubbing, mixing and recording and re-recording to bring to realization
what at first glance seems a simple concept. Believe me, it's harder than it
looks. Thanks, Paul.

And also, First of all to Danny Shepherd, who did such a tremendous job
tonight. You'd never know he joined the show as Master of Ceremonies less
than a week ago, would you? Or that the script underwent its latest revision
in the early hours of this morning? Thanks, Danny.

And for my third First of all, because I simply can't put anyone ahead of
anybody else, I want to highlight the spectacular effort made by everyone
in 70 Department, led by our own Senior Chief Ken Reed, who is
responsible for that beautiful cake up there, provided players for our car
wash scene, logistic support to transport people and things all over the base,
and who somehow convinced the boswain, Gil Vaughn, that he could build
a car, make a floral trellis, a shower stall and still tend to his regular duties,
and all this during the change of command week. We can't thank 70
Department enough. It's just another super job.

Well, there are many more, you see the list goes on and on. And I'd like to
quickly go over the names and ask you to hold your applause 'til we're
finished.

Thanks to Carol Stabach, who spent hours helping Danny Shepherd; to Dave
Howe and FEN's Bob Marshall who provided support to Paul Rickman; Bob
Plumb who was overall head of tickets, publicity and decorations, and who
also produced some props and provided invaluable moral support to me. To
Det Q's Paul Van Brunt; NSGA's Lew Burleson, Mary Cudzillo, Tammy
Beach, Rick Dyal, Glenn Mazar, Mary Jo Fox, Rachel Watts, Ben Johansen,
Bill and Sue Leslie, Don Sedlacek, Ann Zappa, Ron Snyder, Aki Damme,
Kevin Baker, Ellen Causey, Chris Sanner, Lt. Larry Shaeffer, Brian Finnegan,
Jack Kings, Judy Gorby, and to Dale and Barbara Crane, who as members of
the base Hawaii Club, provided "His and Her" grass skirts. And let's not forget
the club staff.

There are a few other acknowledgments to be made before I move on, and
they are every bit as important. We could not have had this evening's event
at all without the support and good humor of a few key people. To Captain
Tettelbach who authorized Command Association Funds to bring ticket prices
within reach of everyone within the command, because he truly wanted it to
be a command party. To Commander Cole, who has also provided the
enthusiasm, encouragement to us all and who so effectively communicated
his idea that we really let ourselves go, so that everyone could have a good
time because he also wanted this to be more of a command party than a
somber farewell testimonial.

And to Commander D. Spencer Hines, our Operations Officer, who despite
the increasing intensity of the operations world, lent his valuable support to
our efforts because a lot of his people were planning to come here tonight to
have a good time and he knew that. He also knew it was going to take a lot
of people to make it so. But he also wanted it to be successful. The party
committee did tie up a lot of his people, at one of the busiest times NSGA
Misawa has ever had and we all owe Commander Hines our thanks for his
support.

You see, despite the buffoonery you saw and heard tonight, Commander
Hines is not a bad guy. He's just the 'Boss' for a large segment of our
personnel, and as the boss, he is of course a big target. He's also big
enough to be a really good sport. Thanks for that to, Commander.

Well, now you know the full extent of this effort. There is no star, no single
person to whom the credit belongs, because it was a team effort, just like
everything else we do at NSGA Misawa is a team effort. And NSGA
Misawa - Nobody does it better! What other team, Misawa, would do this,
go through another command evolution, and remain intensively at the ready
in operations. All at the same time. That's a team. And every team has a
Captain.

Most of you know that I's a straight shooter, and I guess that's why I'm up
here tonight. To tell you about our Captain. Since I promised many of you
out there when you first asked about the Captain's farewell party, that it
would contain a minimum of long speeches, what can I tell you about
Captain Tettelbach and keep my promise?

I'm reminded of a Master Chief friend of mine, who saw an evaluation
when he sat on an E8/E9 selection board, and thought that the evaluation
was a master piece in short but effective communications. The narrative
position of that CPO's evaluation had a handwritten statement that simply
said, "This is the best Chief in my command." Well, given the days we
live in, I don't know if that evaluation helped the Chief or not, but I will
follow that cue for brevity by simply stating that Captain Tettelbach is the
finest skipper I've ever served with. Why??? Well, I could talk to you about
his leadership, his command presence, his intellect. Or I could number his
accomplishments. I could tell you about the support and guidance he has
given to me personally, for which I am deeply grateful Captain, or I can tell
you about his feelings for this command and the personnel under his command
who work so hard, but I'd rather leave that to him, because I'm sure he'll
have something to say about that.

So, what do I tell you? Well, you see, I've had the privilege of working close
to Captain Tettelbach many, many times, and I know what kind of man he is,
I know how he thinks about a lot of things. Believe me, his concern for people
is always there, no matter what the subject. When a problem affecting one of
our people is brought to him, I've seen him act with immediate action to solve
it because someone was being hurt. At the same time when he saw a
"Bureaucratic" solution to a so-called problem, I've seen him ask what the
impact on our personnel would be. "If the solution affected so many people in
the wrong way, that it just creates additional problems then its not a solution."

Captain Tettelbach knows his people. More than once he has surprised me
with his knowledge of where an individual worked, how good he or she was,
what off duty interests he or she had, or anything else pertinent to that
individual. Believe me, he is acutely aware of how hard the officers, men
and women of this command are working. Believe me he has no pretensions
either that somehow the command would continue on its same successful
course without the continued hard work and dedication of everyone, down
to the newest operator on the position, the people who keep our equipment
going, the DK's who keep the paychecks coming, and all the rest of us across
the command.

Believe me, the Captain is also acutely aware that, sure, things could be
better for everybody here. That's why he thinks that one way to make it better
is to develop outside interests, that's why he's encouraged people to take
advantage of educational opportunities, and encourage supervisors to let people
off to do so.

That's why we have a major emphasis on sports here, why people are
encouraged to take advantage of that, and supervisors are encouraged to let
people off for that too. That's what the Captain has pushed for programs and
ideas to lessen the impact of Yen appreciation on our single sailors and
marines: has supported single COLA, and has presented his ideas to CNFJ and
elsewhere on the new BEQs to be constructed here in Misawa in the future.
I should say your ideas, because he did ask you. Where else have you seen
that? How many of you, as BEQ managers, were in the CO's office a while
back and heard the Skipper ask you your opinion, what you liked? You, the
people who have to live in the BEQs were asked. And where else have you
seen that?

Captain Tettelbach believes in protecting his personnel and going to bat for them.
And that's the reason he visits the command detachments, to make himself
known, to make assurances that nobody will roll over those detachments
because if they try it they're going to hear from Captain Tettelbach.

Suffice it to say that when I think back, I'll remember the Captain's tenacity
in pursuing something that is right....... And his vigor in correcting something that
is wrong. In my mind, Captain Tettelbach's finest moment is the way the Skipper
took up for you on the issue of the new BEQs, and pursued it to the point it is
now. He listened, and moved on it. Higher authority will decide this issue. But
no matter what the outcome, it won't be because nobody ever heard from
Captain Tettelbach. And I think it's important that everybody know that the
Skipper had his heart in it all the way.

What it boils down to ladies and gentlemen is that Captain Tettelbach cares as
any command of troops should. He's proven it to me time and again.

And now we just have a short time before we say goodbye to Captain and
Mrs. Tettelbach. We shall miss them both. Mrs. Tettelbach is a charming and
gracious lady, whose contributions here at Misawa are numberless, and the
Captain, permit me to say simply, that Captain he may be, he's a very real
person, with a real sense of humanity who I am very proud to have served with.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Commanding Officer, Naval Security Group Activity,
Misawa, Japan, Captain Frederick M. Tettelbach, United States Navy.