CWO5, Departing

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ronald McGinnis, a gospel service lay leader, baptizes a Sailor. Photo by Tyra Watson.

What it takes to leave a legacy.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ronald McGinnis Sr. is stopped in a passageway by Retail Specialist Seaman Destiny Muse. The conversation is passive until McGinnis says, "I’m leaving in December." She stops, choking on her words and responds, "Every time I get a mentor, ya'll leave." McGinnis measures his speech - he'll punch through most conversations, but the second someone speaks with emotion, he matches it, carefully enunciating, he says, "I'll still be here. We have Wi-Fi on board now. When you need me, call me. I'll always be here."

McGinnis' foundations were forged by three people: his mother, his grandmother, and a preacher uncle. His mother was a hard woman, dedicated to whipping sense into her son. Drugs and crime were present outside the house, but they never wandered into his life. His mother beat them back religiously - his living room was stocked with books and other literature. It was strict, he calls those he respects ma'am or sir, because that's, "how I was raised." He inherited a kind streak from his grandmother. The rock of the family, she "would loan someone $5, even if [they] were broke." A God-fearing woman, she firmly believed in helping her neighbors, and would preach in her own way — calm and quiet — helping anyone and everyone. His uncle was the man in his life.

One day, when the family found out McGinnis was not doing the best in school, just taking tests and not caring about the consequences, his uncle sat him down, looked him in the eye and said, "If you keep acting this way, you won't amount to anything. If you want to be something, and you can be something, you'll show up, care, and change." And so he did. Playing professional football was his first choice, but a blown-out knee put that dream to bed early so he joined the Navy and it was a choice he hasn’t regretted.

"I was born and raised to be a warrant officer," and now, after a 30 year career, being a warrant officer isn't about being the best or the brightest - it's about investing in the future. He started as an undesignated seaman, rated to ship’s serviceman, cross-rated to Cryptologic Technician (Technical), became a chief, then a warrant officer, and climbed the ladder to CWO5, the highest rank in the warrant officer community. This journey has taught him a few lessons.

A Sailor walks into McGinnis' office with years of his evaluations. He comes to him because, as a CWO5, McGinnis will be the first to tell you after 30 years of being every kind of Sailor, he can, "look at a stack of evaluations and tell you where you'll be in four years, and I'm usually right."

They sit as McGinnis carefully looks at each evaluation before throwing it to the side. The Sailor interrupts him at the third, saying, "I want them to look at this one."

"No you don’t. If they look at this one, it means you're close, and you don’t want it to be close."

On the fourth, the Sailor starts to explain his back to back "promotable" evals - McGinnis bookmarks it, before answering his follow up question on why some Sailors stay "Must Promote (MP)" and the lack of the usual accompanying language.

"In the language, they can leave stuff out to say 'Don't (or do) make him a Chief,'" McGinnis explains. "Don't worry about the back-to-back 'Ps,' it looks like you just got stuck in traffic."

"My Senior (Chief) says the same thing," said the Sailor. "He says the language could be better."

McGinnis laughs, responding with a quick, "yup," and then more seriously with, "Remember that when you're writing evals for your junior Sailors."

They finish combing through the evaluations, McGinnis takes a breath, summarizing, "I see you have Medical Training Team, but why not Damage Control Training Team (DCTT)? Everybody looks at DCTT - it directly shows you know how to fight the ship, and you're mentoring the crew to do the same, you gotta have it. I would be working on it even in port. You leave in July right? You gotta have it. All of this stuff is operations, operations, operations. Your next step is command level. [It's important because] it shows your comfortable being uncomfortable."

As they wrap up and the Sailor leaves, McGinnis emphasizes that once the command bullets are filled in and he makes Chief, the next step is an officer package - and to keep submitting it, because the only thing the board can do is say is, "no."

McGinnis' days are filled with these moments, bouncing from each as he finishes his daily tasks. On the way to check in his with boss, he'll stop to talk to a seaman, listen to her bemoan how she’s stuck at the bottom of the rate because of paperwork errors, and he tells her to keep pushing.

On his way to the barbershop (he cuts hair for fun, a callback to his time as a Ship's Serviceman and a chance to feel the pulse of the ship's crew) he'll be approached by another Sailor, to catch up on how his constant "stay positive" mantra led to her getting out of her own way. In his work center, his Sailors are sad he is leaving. They trust they can survive without him, but up to this point, he has been instrumental to their journey.

Two days later, McGinnis is escorted onto a barge that hosts the crew of USS Rafael Peralta's (DDG 115) while the ship undergoes in-port maintenance. The ship's Command Master Chief Tshombe Harris walks McGinnis into the Chiefs Mess. They've known each other for 15 years.

"There are 30 CWO5s in the Navy," Harris laughs. "We want to shave this unicorn's horn, and see if we can share in that magic."

McGinnis begins in his booming, rapid-fire style, explaining who he is and why he is there, and that they can ask him any question.

For over an hour he answers questions on wardroom politics, the transition from chief to LDO, and big picture successes. He places particular stress on the importance of chief to chief, and warrant to warrant mentorship, relating it to how he always checks in on the newest warrant officer. Limited duty officers often have other junior officers to mentor them on the intricacies of the wardroom, but the newest warrant officer will walk in like it is the Chiefs Mess. He recounts how being that guiding principle for the newest ranks leads to, "seeing them grow, and noticing how [the warrant officer’s division] would do better, how the ship was doing better, and it all started with a conversation."

"I was raised in the Navy by crusty master chiefs, crusty LDOs and warrants," McGinnis says to the Chiefs. "Remember, if we're successful, the 7th Fleet is successful. If the 7th Fleet is successful, the Navy is successful, and if the Navy is successful, I'm successful. But it starts with pulling others with you, to help them be better."

Harris emphasized that while his friendship with McGinnis ran deep, it was McGinnis' devotion to mentorship that led to this conference.

"Part of my job as CMC is to develop my wardroom, as well as develop my Chiefs Mess, and what better way than to bring some of that outside insight, from someone who has climbed the ranks from [seaman recruit] to CWO5," Harris said. "I have six chiefs that put in for the LDO or warrant program this year, and that transition can be very tough without some mentorship. I’ve been in the Navy 27 years and have seen wardrooms that have had struggles between LDOs and warrants integrating into that culture."

He went on to explain how bringing in Sailors with that experience to coach chiefs and new warrant officers or LDOs is part of how the Navy stays competitive.

"I think the thing that keeps most Sailors like Ron McGinnis up at night is, 'did they do enough,'" Harris said. "[McGinnis] is a person who has rolled to success by helping others."

McGinnis' mentorship streak comes from his heroes – key childhood figures like Martin Luther King Jr., his mother, his uncle and also the Sailors he found in his Navy career. On his first ship, after experiencing the negativity of an old-Navy mindset, he contemplated leaving. Voicing this, a petty officer 1st class turned to him and said, "If you get out, they all win. You don’t win. They win."

Arriving at his next command, he was committed, but defensive. His new ship’s serviceman 1st class spotted it immediately.

"I'll never forget him." McGinnis said. "He caught me one time, we're in the office, and SH1 said, 'McGinnis, I don't know what they did to you on your last ship, but that’s not us.' I said, 'okay SH1, whatever,' kind of dismissive but not disrespectful. But I thought about what he said, and he was absolutely right. My whole perspective changed on people in the Navy. From that day, I started smiling more, being more interactive, because my outlook changed."

Later, at Naval Security Group Activity Rota, Spain, this new mindset was tempered by another petty officer 1st class after McGinnis became a CTT. He remembers CTR1 Kevin Youngblood the best.

"Kev, like SH1, taught me so much. He was the one that showed me the difference in evaluations - a leadership eval, a work eval, he taught me all of that, he took me under his wing," McGinnis said.

Soon after becoming Youngblood’s mentee, McGinnis began competing heavily with his friend. They both badly wanted to make the next pay grade. They both said they would make it their first chance, but McGinnis was not able to take the test. Youngblood was, when results came around he was a new CTT1. McGinnis remembered Youngblood saying, "You're going to [transfer] in six months. You've already done your turnover, you already have your people trained up. You see that desk right there?" Youngblood pointed to a desk directly in front of his, and said, "If I look up, and I don't see you studying, there’s going to be hell to pay!"

"I said, 'okay,' sat there studying every day, and found out when I was in [secondary school] in Pensacola that I made [petty officer first class]," said McGinnis.

He would later make chief, and warrant officer, eventually rising to the highest rank possible for a CWO. But in Rota the driving force behind that rise revealed itself - the moment he saw an African American captain for the first time in his eight year career. It validated McGinnis' decision to be an agent of change.

"I had to be the change. In order to be the change, you have to get into a place to be the change, and that means I needed to get into the officer ranks."

Becoming a change for good would be his driving force and personal oath to the Navy community.

Now, at the twilight of his career, after passing his junior Sailors in the passageways, and spending the day disentangling himself from Ronald Reagan, he finishes the work day in his office, checking emails for spot-checks, pop up meetings, and paperwork requirements. As he leaves, the red lights of an empty shop shine on a plaque above his desk, highlighting a quote by Martin Luther King Jr., featuring an excerpt of his speech during the march for integrated schools.

"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, a finer world to live in."

McGinnis has made a career of humanity and hopefully, those he's mentored along the way will continue to do the same.