DATE: Friday, July 4, 1997                  TAG: 9707040512

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   55 lines

SURFACE FORCE CO LENDS AN EAR TO 50,000 SAILORS

The new commanding officer of the Atlantic Fleet's Surface Force has a message for sailors. Essentially, it's this: We want to hear from you.

Vice Adm. Henry C. Giffin III, who took command Thursday in a low-key ceremony at SURFLANT headquarters, said the Navy needs to do a better job of ``harnessing'' the ideas of its enlisted people and lower-level officers as it sails deeper into downsizing.

``We have to trust them. We have to give them a bit more leash,'' Giffin said, three days after the Senate confirmed his promotion to three-star rank and to the top job at the Norfolk-based command. He now oversees more than 50,000 sailors and 131 ships - just about every type of Navy vessel on the East and Gulf coasts except aircraft carriers and submarines.

Though he stressed that ``we're not going to accept groundings and collisions,'' Giffin said the Navy ``can't have a zero-defects mentality. We have to accept an occasional stumble.''

The 1967 Naval Academy graduate, who previously served as chief of staff of the Atlantic Fleet, said that is part of the price paid in achieving the far larger rewards of letting sailors ``use their imagination, their innovativeness.''

Giffin - tall, broad-shouldered and jutting of jaw - has the classic appearance of a take-charge, top-down leader. But in his speech and a brief interview afterward, Giffin, who is nicknamed ``Hank,'' portrayed himself as one who'd come to listen.

One of his key leadership goals, he said in his speech, is to create more leeway for sailors ``to do what they think we need to do and not what we direct them to do.''

One reason for this push, he said afterward, is downsizing. ``Unfortunately, we've only so many resources,'' he said. ``So our job is to husband those resources. . . . There are always efficiencies. There are always smarter ways to do business. That's what our goal will be.''

Giffin conceded that his command's top priority - keeping its ships ready for combat - is getting tougher.

``The nation has decided it needs less of a Navy, but it doesn't need the Navy any less,'' he said. So as a result, the Navy's declining number of ships are being worked harder than before on deployments and exercises - so much so that the brisker operating pace is sapping money out of the Surface Force budget for maintenance of ships back home.

Giffin's predecessor, Vice Adm. Douglas J. Katz, who retired last month, decried the trend toward what he called ``just-in-time readiness,'' saying he hopes it won't backfire.

Giffin acknowledged the concern, but said he hadn't yet assessed its seriousness.

He said he aims to learn fast, however: by listening. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Vice Adm. Henry C. Giffin III: ``There are always smarter ways to do

business. That's what our goal will be.''

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