Earning your chief's anchors: Why sailors should never give up

Each year At the end of July every year, the Navy releases the list of it’s newest chief petty officers. For the past six years, that's almost seemed like Christmas to Damian Kelly.

It almost didn’t happen for Kelly, who spent years over eight years as a machinist's mate first class and his career clock was ticking. He was just over a year from hitting his high-year tenure limit. was nearing the high-year tenure limit of 20 years. who saw the looming specter of high-year tenure at 20 years looming in his future.

At the time, Kelly had 18 and a half years of service. He’d made first class off the in September 2001 fall petty officer cycle and by the time 2009 rolled around, he’d been up for chief five times already. His sixth shot wasn't looking good. And he knew he had only one shot left.On his sixth shot opportunity still wasn’t looking good and he knew he had only one shot left and he was out of the Navy as a first. 

It was time to get He decided to be proactive.  

"It wasn’t looking good for me," Kelly recalled. "MM had seen tough advancement for years so, I bought a house in Wisconsin in 2008 because I was preparing to retire as a 1st class — the numbers were just not there for MM's at the time and I was preparing for my second career after the Navy."

And then Christmas came on July 31, 2009. 

Kelly was the 10th selectee on a list of 114 MM’s selected for chief petty officer during fiscal year 2010 E-7 selection board. 

"It really is an exciting time — I remember when I found out, I actually checked [BUPERS Online] three times, as I thought that there may have been a mistake," Kelly recalled of said about checking his online records to be sure he was now actually a selectee. "After that I had a smile from ear to ear as it was such a relief to be finally selected and to let my wife and grandfather — who had been in the Navy — know that I finally did it."

Ironically, he’s now made senior chief and master chief, each on the first time up — first try.

So, he’s more sensitive than many He's sensitive to the plight of those first classes who didn’t make the cut each year because he knows how tough it is to take. 

Kelly says the key is to treat each cycle as if it were the last chance. ’s glad he never gave up and hit each cycle as if it was his first and his last. 

And lately, there’s more and more stories emerging of sailors not only putting on chief just before hitting high-year tenure, but also right after. 

Not everyone knows that the Navy’s high-year tenure rules allow sailors to compete for chief if they’re on an approved waiver allowing them to stay on active-duty a year at a time past their retirement deadline. Many sailors are making good use of those waivers, according to advancement data provided to Navy Times by the Naval Education and Training Command. 

In four out of the past five years, at there have beneath least one rating has advanced a sailor to chief with where sailors advanced to chief with over 21 years of service. This past year, Chief Electrician's Mate (SW) Jose Delgado on the forward deployed minesweeper Chief earned his put on his anchors after 21 and a half years in the Navy. 

In 2014, two sailors accomplished this feat. And as well as in 2011, an EOD tech was advanced to chief with 22.17 years of service. For the past five years, about two dozen of the During each of the last five years an average of 23 of the 90 ratings at the E-7 level each year  have advanced at least one sailor to chief who had more than 20 years at the time they were moved up. and 21 years of service at the time of that advancement. That number is on the rise, with nine ratings in 2012 and 31 in 2015. 

The numbers are larger for those with between 19 and 20 years of service as annually over the past five years, an average of 32 ratings have advanced someone to chief with between 19 and 20 years of service.

So what The data shows that many sailors advance to chief late, for whatever reason, advance to chief late, but like Kelly once they do they often excel on the back end of their careers. A chief petty officer can serve until 24 years of service and an E-8 until 26 years of service. A master chief gets to stay until 30 — and now that’s Kelly’s reality. 

All because he did not give up — and that’s a message he tries to passes along to any non-select who will listen to him. 

"I tell them that I’m living proof that you may not make chief the first, second, third, 2nd,3rd time up, but if you stay determined, work hard, take care of your sailors and family, maintain the faith, and not be scared to tackle those challenging billets and jobs — good things come to those who wait."