NORFOLK, Va. — Following two ship collisions in 2017 that killed 17 sailors, the Navy took a closer look at its Surface Warfare Officers who command and operate surface ships at sea.
The Navy made minor changes to the officers' career path, such as extending training and tours of duty.
But, it had not regularly evaluated or changed this career path in over a century. And recently, the Government Accountability Office uncovered some disturbing findings.
It turns out, the 8,900-member surface warfare officer corps isn't sticking around.
The GAO found that Surface Warfare Officers separate earlier and at higher rates compared with officers in similar U.S. Navy communities such as Naval Aviation, Submarine, Explosive Ordinance Disposal and Special Warfare.
Specifically, just 33% of "SWOs" remain in their community, compared with 45% of officers from other Navy officer communities.
The question is, why?
"That's part of the thing the Navy needs to do, is an examination of those retention rates and set up goals and objectives and a way to evaluate initiatives to improve Naval Surface Warfare Officer careers," said GAO Director of Defense Capabilities, Cary Russell.
He said it was urgent the Navy turn around this trend, because the work that surface ships do is critical.
"Oh, absolutely," he said. "The surface fleet of ships is huge. And they're actually engaged in the waters all across the world."
The report also finds that the attrition rate for female surface warfare officers is even worse, with women SWOs staying in at a third of the rate of men.