Originally Posted by
Excargodog
It's the goat locker that runs the surface navy and has shepherded every young O-1 through his/her formative years. My grandfather assured me of that.
They run the mx and systems operations. They absolutely do not lead, manage the tactical operations.
That's like saying strike fighters don't need pilots because enlisted maintainers and aircrew run the squadron.
Do chief's mentor junior O's? Sure, they have management oversight responsibility for mx and day-to-day operations, and the Chiefs are the experts at that. No Chief ever mentored me on fighting the ship.