How An 18-Year-Old Radioman Grew Into A Command Master Chief

What does it really take to grow from an 18-year-old radioman into a Command Master Chief trusted to steady a carrier crew? We sit down with retired Master Chief Shaun Brahmsteadt to map a 35-year journey packed with hard choices, honest mentorship, and the kind of leadership that delivers results when it counts. From a tiny Northern California town to Cold War boot camp, from a sub-chasing shore billet to first deployments, Sean shares how curiosity, discipline, and humility turned confusion into competence—and competence into command trust.

The story shifts coasts and tempos: Norfolk’s formality, Guantanamo’s relentless drills, and a NATO tour in Italy with six days off at a time. On Kitty Hawk, he earns his warfare pin and navigates rating mergers. Recruiting duty tests his values, and he chooses truth over salesmanship—signing six future sailors in a day by telling them what the first year really looks like. Then come the tours that forged his command voice: USS Duluth LPD-6 through 9/11, launching Marines, guarding oil terminals, qualifying as Officer of the Deck, and training a radio team to a back-to-back Green E. The theme that keeps returning is simple and demanding: over-train, communicate the why, and trust your people.

Crossing to aviation, Sean earns his wings the right way—learning the rating, qualifying as a plane captain, and launching F/A-18s from Nimitz. As carrier CMC on George Washington, he inherits culture friction and turns it into focus, aligning a massive crew around shared standards and winning back-to-back Battle E. Later flag staff roles at Pax River and DLA reveal a different battlefield—acquisition timelines, test squadrons, and enterprise logistics—where a senior enlisted leader becomes translator, advocate, and conscience.

If you lead teams, recruit talent, or just want to see how courage and candor scale across ships, squadrons, and staffs, this conversation delivers a field manual: tell the truth, train until calm, time your emotions, and lead so others will follow. Subscribe, share with a shipmate, and leave a review with your favorite takeaway—we’d love to hear what resonated most.

https://www.wordsfromthewise.net/

Transcript

Reuniting And Setting The Stage

Gary Wise 0:28

Hey everybody, how you doing? It's Gary here, wise leadership solutions. Words from the wise coming back at you again to you again with another podcast. And tonight I got a special guest, man. I have a shipmate of mine. He served with me on board the USS George Washington CVN 73. He was the command master chief that served with me on board that ship. And I have none other than Mr. Master Chief, retired Sean Bromsted. Sean, how you doing, man? Great, brother. How's it going? It is going good, man. I had a long day of teaching high school kids. Oh wow. Yeah, it was dress up like Adam Sandler day today. And it was on Mondays, we wear we wear our uniforms. And so it was like, Do I wear my khakis or I dress up like Adam Sandler? I dress up like Adam Sandler.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:18

Good, good. You gotta fit with the crowd, right?

Gary Wise 1:21

Well, yeah, you know, and I want the kids to see that it's fun to like participate, right? Like, yeah, do homecoming, do the dress up taste. You don't always gotta be super militant or super like focused. You can be a kid, so it was awesome.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:36

That's great, man.

Gary Wise 1:38

It was awesome. So, Sean man, I have not seen you in person, or at least like even like this, since I left the George Washington in 2013. And so I want to tell you thank you before we even go further because I remember it was like hell for me trying to get off the ship. And I love the GW, don't get me wrong, but like the Chang would not let me go. No, I remember those conversations. I would come to your office, I'm like, Sean, what do I do? My wife is already gone, my kids are gone, and you would just listen to me and be a sage. Uh someone like someone that would listen to me and help me walk through that that whole thing. So thank you so much for being that mentor during a very challenging part of my life and helping me helping advocate to go ahead and let me go ahead and go, and the ship will be okay. No one's gonna. I and I and just so you know, I did that for many other people throughout my career as I paid it forward, right? Because there's always that fear that someone's gonna leave and we're not gonna be able to be okay. But the truth is we'll be okay, right? We'll be okay.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 2:43

Yep, yep.

Gary Wise 2:45

All right, Sean. So uh I wonder you're a huge Steelers fan, right? Like you are a Pitts, I know, man. You are a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Did you grow up in that neck of the woods? Like, are you from that part of the USA?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 3:00

No, actually, no. Uh, there's a funny story how that happened, but uh, I grew up in Northern California, right by the Oregon border.

Gary Wise 3:07

Okay, so you grew up in Northern California, Oregon border, but you got an affinity for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So I'll go ahead and I will hopefully get that story out of you later on today because that'd be an awesome story to hear. Uh, what was life like growing for you up in Northern California as a kid? Were you near like Sacramento? Or like what's Oregon border? Is like the Redwoods?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 3:28

Yeah, it's it's way up north by uh Mount Shasta. Basically, I can almost you know throw a rock and hit uh somebody in Oregon if I wanted to. Um, it's a small town. Uh that city I was in had a whole, well, I couldn't even call it a city, it had uh 900 people in it. Um, and that was spread out uh quite large area. Um, but I grew up along the Klamath River, is what it is up north, right there. My father was in the Force Service, so we bounced from station to station all the way uh along that river.

Gary Wise 4:01

So so as you were coming up as a young person, because uh look, a lot of my students listen to these podcasts. I'm very interested in parents and and helping adolescents figure out life. And I remember what kind of drew me to the to the armed forces or to join the navy. What was there going on in your life, like as a high school student, that made what were you looking at as your options? Were you looking at going to college? Were you looking at Forest Service like your dad? How was that looking for you?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 4:28

I was looking at college. Um, I was very interested in doing that because no one in my family had ever done that. Um, I also was looking at the Fourth Service, and my father was like, Well, you should go get a degree in whatever. I wanted to be a civil engineer, actually, um, because that's what he did. Um, the military side actually just kind of fell into my lap or for lack of a better term. Um, I really wasn't looking uh to join the military, it just happened one day.

Gary Wise 4:59

Like you walked into a recruiter, and they're like, hey man, why don't you come talk to us?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 5:03

Well, you know, I talked to uh a marine recruiter because they were the only recruiters in my town. Um, so I talked with him, and you know, I did not want to be a Marine. Um, I did not want to crawl through the mud, chuck grenades, shoot rifles.

Gary Wise 5:16

Yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 5:17

Um, and then a navy recruiter showed up at the high school, and it was like, okay, you can get out of this class if you go and talk to this individual. So I was like, Well, I'll go talk to the Navy guy because I don't want to go in this class. So I went and talked to him, liked what he had to say, and uh went home. You know, this is my senior year in high school, and told mom and dad that hey, if recruiter's gonna come by tonight, you gotta sign some paperwork so I could join the navy. Bada boom, bada boom.

Gary Wise 5:44

Yeah, the recruiter was good.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 5:45

Hey, yeah.

Gary Wise 5:47

When you were in high school, were you like into athletics? Were you into academics? Do you remember having an affinity for any of those things in particular?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 5:57

Yeah, I played uh well, I played high school football, but uh, you know, the I'm the smallest guy out there. Uh it's about four feet, four foot two. I played my freshman uh sophomore year. Um, I tried out for the baseball team my sophomore year and ended up breaking my thumb on a line drive. So that ended that. Um I ran track, uh, was the slowest kid out there, but I I ran some track. Um, but come my junior and senior year, I I got a job. So I liked making money more. So I I I focused on school, so my mom and dad would allow me to work after school. I had to have grades, uh, you know, A's and B's.

Gary Wise 6:40

Okay, so here you are at a young age, it sounds like, and you already found a you found that you enjoyed having freedom of having a little bit of your own money. Yes, okay. And I I find that to be a pretty common connection to people that want to join the service because they kind of like the idea of a little bit of independence with a security blanket, right? But a little bit of independence as they figure out this thing called life. And like you, when I was looking at the service, I didn't want to go shoot the guns and go crawling through the mud. It just wasn't what I was looking for, but I definitely was interested in that independent thing, right? And going somewhere else. So when you went to the Navy or when you went to MEPS, did you have any idea what you thought you wanted to do in the service?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 7:26

Um, well, before yeah, when I went down there, I had it some sense, anyways. My father served four years during the uh Vietnam War as a radioman, and uh so I had that in the back of my mind, but I really I wanted to be a civil engineer. So in the Navy, that's an EA. Engineering aid is the closest thing that they've got. Right. Uh when I went down there to the MEPS, uh, they said my algebra score wasn't high enough. I was only getting a C. Okay, I got it. Uh and then he said, and it's an 18-month wait. And I said, No, look, I graduate June 10th. I want to be gone June 11th. Yeah. So um I they threw out a bunch of jobs, you know. I had a signalman, a mine man, a torpedo man, radioman, and a few others. And I just went, Well, my dad was a radioman, so let's just go radioman.

Boot Camp In The Cold War Era

Gary Wise 8:17

Right. You know how interesting it is. Uh, so many people do something similar to that, which is their parents have like done something, and then the kids kind of follow a similar trajectory, right? And there's a sense of comfort in that. And my dad was also a navy veteran, Vietnam type, and he told me, you know, he's he was a corpsman. They said, Don't do medicine, right? Don't do and he said, Don't become an engineer. Well, I didn't listen to that part, right? No, right, but but I could see where that correlation being an acceptable path to go forward while you figured out all the other things you didn't know, right? And then when you first came into the what year was that when you enlisted 85. Woo! Yeah, long time ago. I just had my 40th reunion, third grade. Yeah, good for you. Look at you, you're strong, bro. I love I go to the gym. Whenever people are like, Master Chief, you're 48 years old. I'm like, Yeah, I'm 48. Like, the navy take keeps you young, man. Keeps you young. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Okay, so 1985. Oh my gosh, what was that like going to boot camp in the mid-80s?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 9:28

Whoa, it was well, you know, I grew up in a pretty strict household, so I was ready for the you know, the scolding and the yelling, you know, you're you're not gonna hurt my feelings type deal. Um, it was just the the confusion kind of overwhelms you at first, you know, because you see these people for the first time and then they come back and they you're expected to recognize them and go where they're at, you know. So I don't know if I'm going over here, if I'm going over there, you know, it usually takes me a couple weeks to get my marriage straight. So, you know, I muddled my way through and managed to keep up, I guess.

Gary Wise 10:05

Yeah, I yeah, no, I think that's always an interesting experience because you're with about 80 other people and you're all kind of sharing this moment in time, right? Trying to figure it out. And when you went, so you're you come from Northern California. Did you go to San Diego for basic training?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 10:19

Yes, I did. Yeah, okay.

Gary Wise 10:21

And back then they had the rifles, they had it was the Cold War. I mean, it was the Cold War.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 10:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 10:29

We had the rifles, had to carry them things around everywhere. And boot camp was, do you remember how was it 12 weeks then? Yes, yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 10:38

Uh no, nine, nine, sorry, nine.

Gary Wise 10:41

Nine, nine weeks long. Okay, got it. Uh, so coming out of basic training, and you're you're a radioman already. Do you remember where your schooling was going to be for your first school?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 10:51

Yeah, it was there in San Diego. So I went to boot camp and then Radioman A School is right there.

Gary Wise 10:56

Okay, so how was that, right? Here you are, a young American just graduated basic training. Now you got some paychecks in your in your bank account. You're in sunny San Diego. Was that like on where would that A school be at? Was that over there, like on the dry side?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 11:12

No, that was on 32nd Street with the uh boot camp. So basically it was across the bridge. So it was nice. We've been on that side because that's where galley five is. That's where they had the good food at. So uh, whenever we cross that side of the bridge to go eat, we're like, Yes.

Gary Wise 11:30

So that's down by like Point Loma and all that, right? Down by like where the airport was at, or is it yeah, yeah, it's down from the airport.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 11:37

You can see the airport from well, where where my barracks the my barracks are actually still there. Uh the firefighting in San Diego uses it for uh training right now, but uh the rest of where 32nd A schools and stuff that's all housing and shopping centers now.

Gary Wise 11:54

Oh wow, okay. I I always think it's interesting to kind of hear people's first experiences of their first school because there's something about your friends at your first few Navy schools, right? You got you don't really have like families yet, it's just kind of you can't meet some new buddies, you're all classing up, and you're all gonna go out and get out in town and get something to eat. Does how long was A school?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 12:17

Uh that one was let's see, two about three months.

Gary Wise 12:21

Three months, and did they class up pretty quick?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 12:24

Yeah, I basically rolled right in. I had the weekend um kind of off, but I rolled right into A school.

Gary Wise 12:30

Okay, so did you have that um experience? Did you make some quick friends and have some good Liberty buddies right away?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 12:37

Yeah, yeah, we had a good time exploring uh uh San Diego area. Um, a couple of them I ran into uh throughout my tours of duty, uh bumped into them along the lines, which was nice. Um even some of my boot camp shipmates. So um actually uh you may remember. Oh, now his name slips my mind, but the GW, your um damage control officer, DCO, I think. Clos. Yeah, he was uh my bootcamp uh RPUC.

Gary Wise 13:11

I actually remember him telling me about that. Yeah, I actually remember him saying that. And he because he was prior enlisted, then commissioned, and went on his on his path, right? That's that's awesome, man. You know what I remember going through boot camp. I I was the guy that was quiet, never in the never really got a lot of attention. I that was kind of my strategy, and then through through I didn't really do a school, I was undesignated, I just kind of got got thrown out to the fleet. But when you went through A school, do you remember it being a fun experience, or was it just something you wanted to get through to and just enjoying the ride? How was that for you?

A-School And First Orders To Pacific Beach

Shaun Brahmsteadt 13:46

No, I to be honest, I had a blast because I was learning, you know, new stuff that I ain't never done as a kid or even heard of, you know. HF transmitters, I love the heck out of those things. Now they get cursed out because nobody likes them. But I was like, I could do the heck out of this thing. Let's go. Yeah, um, so you know, that whole piece uh was a huge amount of fun for me. Um just that learning something new uh kept me going really hard.

Gary Wise 14:16

And so coming out of that three-month school, do you remember when you found out where you were gonna go next for follow-on orders?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 14:24

Yep, I do. Uh so they they give us, you know, here's the list, and then you look across, you find your name, look across where you're going. Uh and I was extremely disappointed. Were you were you going to San Diego? No, I went to uh Pacific Beach, Washington. Where is like Washington State? Yeah, Washington State. It was a shore tour, and I wanted a ship. I wanted a USS.

Gary Wise 14:55

Where's Pacific Beach, Washington? Is that near like the Seattle area?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 14:59

Well, no, it's uh it's on the peninsula, so it's by oceanside, ocean city. Um, it's on the coast, uh, not in like Seattle is, it's not in the harbor.

Gary Wise 15:12

Okay, and you wanted a USS, you wanted to get underway and do some underway communications, and the powers that be said, no, no, you're gonna go to Pacific Beach, Washington. Is that is it close to where you grew up at? Or I mean you're very close to Oregon, so Washington's an old state away, I guess. But it's when I've been to Pac Northwest, all I've ever experienced was like uh Banger and Bremerton.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 15:37

Yeah, so near it's west of there. Keep going down that highway. Um, now I can't remember what the highway is out of uh Tacoma and I mean not Tacoma, uh Olympia, and just keep going west, and you'll run into it.

Gary Wise 15:51

So, what was the United States Navy doing with a bunch of RMs there?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 15:56

Well, there wasn't a bunch of RMs, basically, we were just support communications. Um, it was an OT base at the time, so it's a subchaser.

Gary Wise 16:05

Oh, okay. So what did you think of that when you first got up there? That mission that you were gonna be a part of, because it's not what you thought you were gonna do, but I'm sure there were some interesting things happening in that time of the war in that timeline, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 16:21

Yeah, one, it allowed me to learn to be a communicator at a little slower pace than I would have had on a ship, um, which was fine. Um, but to learn, you know, what the OTs do, um, and the CBs. So there was a CB, a small CB unit there that supported them to, you know, taking care of the grounds, fire, ambulance, and that kind of stuff. So uh they allowed me to kind of I would go into the OT shop, I'd be asking them questions, they show me what they're looking at. I don't know how anybody could do that job. They're looking at scribble marks all day. Right. Um but uh the CBs took me under their wing, you know, when I started standing watches up there on the quarter deck, and uh they let me be an ambulance driver, so yeah.

Gary Wise 17:08

So is is that base? Is it was it a base? Like is there an actual installation?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 17:16

It's still there, but it's uh it's a um a resort type deal. You can rent the the housing that used to be for uh the base. The barracks that I stayed in is like a hotel room, but uh it's for military members uh for relaxing uh relaxing and stuff. So pretty sure.

Gary Wise 17:33

So at some point they consolidated that mission set somewhere else and turned it into another thing. Brother, I just because I don't know what was an OT.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 17:41

OT is an ocean oceanographer technician, so they're the I I think it's Sonar, I can't remember who's doing it now. Maybe it's the OS's, but basically they're just tracking submarines, it's mainly a shore station billet at the time.

Gary Wise 17:58

Okay, so yeah, probably the STG type people or whatever it is. Okay, OT, but that was it, that's what they were doing. Awesome. So here you are, young sailor going there, and how what was the closest metropolitan area? Like what was the closest big city to that part of your town of your uh your location?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 18:17

That would be Aberdeen, about an hour southeast of us. Okay, we would uh either take the bus or some people would have a car and we kind of carpool in.

Gary Wise 18:29

Yeah. I'm just trying to think about here. You are a young 18-year-old RMSN, RMSA, up there on this beach in Washington, driving the bus, making all these friends on base, but then pretty much staying on base a lot, it sounds like, unless you get that car ride to the Aberdeen.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 18:48

Yep, yep.

Gary Wise 18:49

Right.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 18:49

Actually, that's where I met my wife. No kidding.

Gary Wise 18:54

Yeah, she she was in Aberdeen, or she was in that area by the base.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 18:58

She's she's from Aberdeen, so you know, we used to Friday, Saturday nights, there'd be a skate rink and then a dance afterwards. So, you know, that's where all the young kids would hang out at, you know. And I'm seven, 18 years old, just turned 18.

Shore Duty Lessons And Meeting His Wife

Gary Wise 19:11

So that's awesome, man. You know, tailor's oldest time, right? Tail is old as time, young sailors going out on liberty, meeting a local person, falling badly in love. And sorry, mom and dad, I'm never coming home again, right? It really is. It really is. That's awesome. And so when you first met your wife, what did she think about you being in the navy at that time? Because that's early to meet your wife, too. Like, let's be honest. Like, I met my wife when I was a third-class petty officer, so and we did the majority of my career together. It's and you and your wife are still together, and so I will tell y'all, you know how it's hard. Like, we're we are not the typical family, right? Unfortunately, right? And our line of work, it just it's hard to stick with that. How what was your wife's thought process when she first kind of met you and recognized, hey, you're in the mil, you're in the military.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 20:04

Yeah, she's she was very inquisitive. Um, so asked a lot of questions. Um, we talked about, you know, we we weren't too serious at first, you know, but you know, after a couple of years of dating, you know, what's what's next? You know, what do I do? Right. You know, how do we go by the whole you know process? I moved her uh down to San Diego when I got stationed down there. So and she, you know, Aberdeen's not that big of a city, so cultural shock, right?

Gary Wise 20:35

Cultural shock. Yeah, so that was what's what was next was San Diego, it sounds like from after you were there. And you were probably dating already, so you were already kind of decided you wanted to do a couple more years in the navy, or did you already know, like, hey, this is what I'm gonna stick with for the long haul?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 20:53

Actually, uh the the base closed down, so it decommissioned while I was there. So I transferred, I only spent like a year and 10 months there, and then got transferred to San Diego for the final two years of my my four-year hitch. Um I brought her down to San Diego. She moved in with me down there, and then you know, one thing led to another, we got engaged, got married, and then um, well, I brought her down to San Diego, then I went on deployment, so I left her there after just moving her there for like two or three months, and then I left her.

Gary Wise 21:28

This is how much she's put up with. You know what, but I I I can't, but I I share very similar stories. You know, I took my wife to Japan, was there for two weeks, and I was gone for six months, right? She's yeah, she's in Japan, like, what the heck, you know? So I can relate a lot of us can relate to that, right? And your wife, those are the moments that probably strengthened her and gave her the ability to help other spouses navigate the challenge, right? Yeah. So you went from being on a shore duty up there in Washington to them closing. That down and they put you on a ship next, yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 22:03

Yeah, I went to a nuclear cruiser. That's how old I am. Okay.

Gary Wise 22:10

Okay, so a nuclear, I I you know what I've heard a lot about those nuclear cruisers, and they've all been good things. I've heard nothing but good things about those ships. I wonder why we got rid of them. I'm not really sure why we did maybe because it's just a lot of nukes to keep around, you know. I don't know. Um I mean that that's the nuclear navy is a tough navy to stay in. And so if you were to keep the SWOs and the cruisers and the carriers, they might have gotten nuts. They might have gotten nuts. Yeah, you know. So, but did you get a choice to detail into that, or did they just slam you with orders and tell you that's where you were going?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 22:45

Uh, the choice was three ships and told me to pick.

Gary Wise 22:48

Awesome. And you get down there to San Diego, 32nd Street, when you deployed, or was it like a Westpac?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 22:57

Yeah, yeah. We we went out to the Gulf.

Gary Wise 23:00

What was that like? So it sounds like about 1988 you were heading out to the Persian Gulf or you're doing a Western Pacific deployment. What was that like as your first time underway in the Navy?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 23:12

Yeah, that was uh that was a bit different, um, especially you know, pulling into the foreign ports because I had never been out of the United States until then. So um you grow an appreciation for what you have that uh you know a lot of people take for granted. So um not that anything wrong with those ports, but you know, you there's just a different lifestyle in each of those countries that you visit. Um, and then you know, there's a lot of underway days, so it is literally just work and sleep. Um, there's not uh much time to to play. You might get in a car game, uh, maybe you know, while you're giving up some sleep time, but um it's just non-stop going, so you don't have a lot of time to uh I would say think or dwell on things. So, you know, as your experience, having that spouse at home that can, you know, independent take care of themselves is a huge uh benefit.

Gary Wise 24:13

Um 1988, way before the technology really hits the ship, you know, you're not dealing with emails and messenger and and this constant relentless question for more information on the inverse. You're like you have no information, right? You're waiting for letters. Um, were you do you remember? Were you standing six on six off at that point as a radio man? Because I can't 12 on 12 off. 12 on 12 off. The RMs are are typically 12 on 12 off or six and six, one of the two. 12 on 12 off. And are you working in radio at that time?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 24:49

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I worked in radio until I had to go do my mess cranking job, but yeah.

Gary Wise 24:59

So when you went mass cranking, were you you were you you were not a third class yet?

First Ship, First Deployment, And Life At Sea

Shaun Brahmsteadt 25:04

Yeah, I I was a third class, so I only had to go 60 days. Okay, yeah, and and I yeah, I had the benefit of I I don't know why or how, but the mastered arms was a chief petty officer who kind of ran all the the those pokes, and he said, Um, you're coming with me. He took me down to the chief's mess and said, See this bathroom? I want it beetle gunned, I want it primed, and I want it painted. And I said, Well, how much time do I got? He goes, How many days are you here? I said, 60. Well, then you got 60 days.

Gary Wise 25:37

Awesome. He just gave you a project and let you work on it, huh? Yeah, that's awesome. You know, I just well, what an interesting experience to be a young person, young American on the seas, late 80s, going out to imports. What were your what was your first port? Do you remember? Was it Hawaii?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 25:55

Uh no, I joined the ship late. I had to catch up to it. So my first port was actually uh Diego Garcia, and then we went to Mombasa, Kenya.

Gary Wise 26:04

Oh, that's an interesting port call.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 26:07

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 26:08

Okay, awesome. So, and are you on that ship now? For you do two years on board that ship you said.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 26:14

Yeah, I did two years.

Gary Wise 26:16

And so, do you leave that ship a second class petty officer or a third class petty officer? A second class, second class RM2. And had you and your wife already gotten married by that point, by the end of that ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 26:29

Uh, we got married at the end of the first deployment that we got on. So I was a third class when we got married.

Gary Wise 26:34

Okay, so you got married and then at the end of the deployment, got home. Uh, are you did you did you enjoy the ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 26:42

Uh yes, I I like shipboard life. I don't know. Uh something like only weird, but I I like this.

Gary Wise 26:50

I do too. I really do. I I I love nothing more than cover, I love being a coveralls and being on the ship, right? I there was everything I need is port and starboard forward aft up down, right? I don't gotta go nowhere. I there is a lot of peace to it, you know. I was a base master chief my last tour, and that was like just pulling out your hair, you know. It was uh misty on the ship. Okay, so when you're leaving the what was that ship again? The USS Truxton. Truxton, okay, got it. And what where are you what are you thinking about doing after this ship tour? Are you up for another ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 27:26

But yeah, so I was going to get out. Um, but uh, you know, in the letter writing to my to my wife, you know, back and forth, I I had mentioned, you know, I'm ready to get out, I miss you, uh blah blah blah. And she sent back a letter and said, you know, simple words of, Are you having fun? And I sent back, Well, yeah, I'm having fun, I like it. She sent me back a letter, then you ain't getting out.

Gary Wise 27:49

So it's very sage of her to know that, right? And and and Sean, let's be honest. Now, what a blessing it was to stumble into something that we really enjoyed doing, right? Yes, yeah, I have that same uh thought all the time, and I tell that to my students quite often. Like when I joined the Navy, I I never thought I was gonna wake up one day be like, Man, I'm really good at this. Like, I actually really am good. It's almost kind of like I was meant to work with people and meant to do like firefighting or whatever. So and that's awesome for your wife to recognize like if you're enjoying yourself having fun, why quit?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 28:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, I needed two more years at sea. Um, so I started asking, you know, okay, what kind of ships do we got? And they transferred me to the east coast on another nuke cruiser.

Gary Wise 28:42

Wow, coast to coast.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 28:45

Uh yeah.

Gary Wise 28:46

What was that detailing process like back then? Would you would you just get on a phone with the guy and talk to them?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 28:53

Or yeah, you can get on the phone. It was very hard back then, so you'd have to continually try. So it was one of those, oh thank god I've got the mid-watch, so I'll be up early enough that I can make that phone call before everybody else gets uh kind of doing it.

Gary Wise 29:07

Right.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 29:08

So it could take several days to get through.

Gary Wise 29:11

Okay, but but once you got him on the phone, and once he said, All right, ship mate, I got your name, I got your number, that can make it all happen. That right there could be it, huh?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 29:18

Yep, yep.

Gary Wise 29:20

I'm not gonna lie. I so that's kind of how it was when I first joined the Navy as well. Uh there, I I kind of liked a little bit about that negotiation process. I'm not gonna lie, yeah, yeah, they would tell you what they had, and you'd say, Okay, I take I'll take that one, and they said done, right? Right. I always had at least three options, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and when you got to go to the east coast, was it Florida or was it Virginia?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 29:47

Virginia. I went to Norfolk.

Gary Wise 29:50

Did you guys drive across country?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 29:52

Yes, because by then we had a little baby boy, so awesome.

Gary Wise 29:56

So you're leaving San Diego with the family now. You you have you got a baby, you got a wife, you've got a car loaded up, and you guys are driving coast to coast.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 30:06

Yep.

Gary Wise 30:07

Um, how how much different was it settling into Virginia by San Diego? Was there a noticeable change?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 30:15

Uh for me there was. Um, and that's because you know, in in the Navy, we've got that East Coast, West Coast sailor thing. Um, and I did notice a bit of a difference, and one of them is um I don't know how to they're they're more formal on the east coast, I would say, at the time, uh, but that's because that's where all the big wigs are at, though. You know, all the big admirals are all over there and all the all the bosses. Um, West Coast is a little more relaxed because yeah, it's a lot of heritage, you know.

East Coast Shift And Comparing Ship Cultures

Gary Wise 30:46

I think I I also did Norfolk and I also did San Diego, and and I was San Diego just has that southern California vibe, right? Let's go surfing, let's get outside and go on Liberty. And in Hampton Roads, it's kind of like we're all going to work. Like we're here to work, we're gonna work, we're gonna work, and we're gonna work, we're gonna we're gonna talk about working when we're not working. Yeah, yeah, and and it's like the other thing about Virginia, I felt like everybody was either passing through there or was transplanted there, but very few people were actually from there, yeah. Whereas in Southern California, there was tons of people from there that all wanted to be there, right? Um, but yeah, I agree. There is a little bit of that culture. That's why I was curious to ask you because we did seven years in San Diego, then we did two and a half years, and and I love Virginia Beach. I did, but there, but it was just the traffic was different, the the freeways were different, right? And yeah, um, how was the ship? How was your second ship in contrast to your first ship? Was there a notable difference there for you?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 31:50

For me personally, yeah. Um, as in I I felt that my prior ship was better trained for one reason or another, uh, than the the new one that I was on, because um I not toot my horn or anything, but as a second class, if I'm out knowledging the two first classes, what kind of training program is going on around there? So, you know, I was training the first classes on how to do stuff so we could get things done during deployment, right?

Gary Wise 32:21

Wow, that's interesting. And I always I always ask that question because you don't really have a frame of reference on your first ship, right? Then once you get one or two under your belt, you start to recognize like these tells or these symptoms or these indicators of like things that you're gonna like or things that you're not gonna like, and um that makes a lot of sense to me. But and then on the contrast, your first ship, you're like a sponge, you're just learning everything. Whereas on your second ship, you kind of already have a bunch of isms already in your mind of how things are supposed to go, and you gotta act on it either to what they're doing or figure it out. So okay, and and you were there only for two years on that ship, yeah, just to fill my uh C time. Did you end up doing a deployment on that ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 33:04

Yeah, uh, Caribbean drug operations is was our deployment.

Gary Wise 33:08

So much different than going on a Westpac, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 33:11

Yeah, yeah. I thought they had some nice ports, but yeah, much different.

Gary Wise 33:15

Yeah, I mean that I think that's one of the the big differences that people, when they think about either the east coast versus west coast, west coast sometimes we'll get to go like to Mexico or Alaska, but typically you're going to the Persian Gulf, right? Typically you're going left, right? Whereas on the East Coast, they almost split the difference, right? Half will go to the Med, half will go down to new Caribbean drug ops, and and like you said, those are some good ports, those are those are some ports you know that are that are an interesting place to go as a young person. Um, and did did you do the whole off of Guantanamo Bay training cycles and all that on that ship at all?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 33:51

Yeah, most definitely spent a lot of time down there.

Gary Wise 33:54

Okay, so do you remember, was that different than what you saw in San Diego? Because San Diego ships did not go to ref trade on Guantanamo Bay, right? And everybody in the Navy, it's like if you didn't train on Guantanamo Bay, you don't really know what's going on. Like that was like a big deal. How much different was that, or was it very similar to what you saw in San Diego for training?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 34:17

Uh, I would say it was different, as in you know, you're you're underway basically in San Diego. You could be tied up at one of the piers or off of North Island somewhere around in there. Uh, when you go down to Guantanamo, you're only pulling in to maybe get supplies or refuel or some meeting that the captain's got to go to in person or something. Uh, but you're doing everything underway, so you're concentrating just strictly on rough trade.

Gary Wise 34:42

Interesting. Okay. I uh I always thought that was interesting that they had this big ref trade presence, but then what did they have for the West Coast employers, you know? And I was an ATG San Diego guy, so I was I was always a little defensive of what we did in San Diego, you know, in contrast. Uh, but we didn't have Guantanamo, right? Okay, but that was not a facility we had at our disposal. Uh, end of those two what's what was your second ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 35:07

Uh that would have been the USS Mississippi.

Gary Wise 35:10

Mississippi. Okay, so here you are. You're at the end of your second ship. Is now time for short duty?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 35:16

Yes. Well, yeah, we went to Italy.

Gary Wise 35:20

No kidding. You guys got Italy on for short duty. Was that an easy yes for your wife to say yes to?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 35:27

Was that uh yeah, kind of, you know, she was okay with it. I I went up because we were on the east coast, so I went up to the detailer in person, so I had to call her and say, Hey, you know, this is what they've got available.

Gary Wise 35:42

Okay, so you actually got into the room with the detailer and communicated and Italy was that Naples? Yes, yeah, and so what was that early 90s?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 35:53

Yep, uh 90 to 93. No, 93 to 96.

Gary Wise 35:59

What was that like going on an overseas tour at that time period? Because again, for me, frame of reference, my I went to Japan in 1997, so I understood I got there before email. I remember email came out, I remember the calling cards and the and the phone boost to call home, and all we had was like AFN. Is that how it was for you guys over there in Italy?

Italy Tour, NATO Work, And Six-Day Breaks

Shaun Brahmsteadt 36:23

Yes, AFN. We lived in base housing, the towers is what we call them. Um so uh, you know, there's like eight, eight or eleven towers, I can't remember, but it's all just military members.

Gary Wise 36:38

And where were you working at on base? Were you working like at a communications shop or kind of?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 36:44

I actually worked for a NATO uh communications staff command, is what I did. So I stood watch with an Italian. Um, so we were on ship together. Um my LPO was an Italian uh Russiano uh sergeant major. Um, and then I had an army major and an air force uh uh chief uh chief sergeant senior sergeant.

Gary Wise 37:11

Wow, so it's it was not so it's not just a joint American Italy base, but it's also a joint armed force. Yes, yeah, very cool. That had to be a lot different coming from the fleet to go to that culture.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 37:26

Uh yes. So you know, in in the Navy, where you know, you if you get a 96 hours of liberty, you've got to break that up with training or something like that, right? So I I show up at Italy and I I figure out they show me where I'm gonna work at and everything. So I'm talking to them and I said, So what's my my duty? They go, You're gonna work four 12-hour shifts, two days, two nights. Okay, then you're gonna have six days off. And I said, Six days off. Well, do I gotta come in for training? Whatever. No, you're gonna have six days off. Wow, I was like, uh, what am I gonna do with six days off?

Gary Wise 38:05

Yeah, I'm gonna be broke. I got my money, man. I mean what? Six days off. Oh my gosh. Hey, you know what? You gotta go. Hopefully, you guys got did you guys get to travel?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 38:20

Uh you know, we went up to Rome, we explored Naples, you know, we learned we could understand Italian, we weren't very good at speaking in necessarily, but you know.

Gary Wise 38:30

Could you drive? Yeah, we drove. Okay, so you got you were able to get like a status of forces, driver's license, and have a car and all that stuff.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 38:40

Yep, they drive crazy there, but we did.

Gary Wise 38:43

And it was just your uh you just had your wife and your son at that point in Naples.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 38:48

Well, uh, by then we had our second son, so okay.

Gary Wise 38:51

So you had two kids at that point, so you had little ones, though. So that's a little more complicated to get out of, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, me, but still, it's just a probably a beautiful country to go check out. And is it Italy where they take naps like in the afternoon and then they do late dinners? Is that Italy?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 39:06

Yep, fiesta, yep.

Gary Wise 39:08

Yeah, okay. I never got the chance to go to Europe, man. I always wanted to. My wife and I are talking about it, so that's awesome. You guys got the chance to go for it. And so many people, I feel like, especially their younger age, are afraid to take that jump and get out there and just give it a shot, right? So, kudos to you guys for doing that. Um, so it's a three-year hit in Naples?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 39:30

Yeah, yeah, three years.

Gary Wise 39:32

And do you leave there a first class petty officer?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 39:35

Yes, I left there first class and went uh back out to seat.

Gary Wise 39:39

So when you were coming up through you know the petty officer ranks, what was there were you getting a lot of mentorship from people on what you should do to promote, or were you just kind of taking tests and figuring it out?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 39:51

Uh no, I would say I was getting some hidden mentorship, uh, what I'll say, because um I wasn't realizing I was being mentored until I came test time, and then I was like, oh wow. Um, if it wasn't for Lieutenant Young, uh I probably wouldn't be able to answer all these questions on here. Uh, you know, my first tour of duty, for example, he's the watch officer, and he would always in the bunny tube send over messages going, Hey, what does this mean? What does that mean? Why always got this? Blah blah blah. And then when it came test time, it's all the stuff I told Lieutenant Young because I had to look it all up. Yeah.

Gary Wise 40:27

Awesome. You know, I I that's one thing when I look back on my career, especially as a young petty officer. I I I wasn't really, I was gonna go look at the bib, go look at the bib, but there wasn't really anyone telling me or teaching me exactly how to study or what to study or what or just it kind of almost felt like what do you study? There's so much to study, how do you pick what to study? Right, there's so much stuff, but it's I was curious about that experience for you as a young guy, especially you know, in the in the navy of the 80s and into the 90s. I don't know, I didn't know if there was a lot of mentorship conversation happening at that point, or was that just kind of like you said, a byproduct of some good leaders? You got the opportunity to be around, correct?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 41:10

That was mine, you know. I I had some bad ones too, but you know, you you learn from them too. Um, you're always in a learning mode. Um, yeah, thankfully. Um, so I was lucky enough to have a few good uh leaders that you know kept me pointed in the right direction and had to how was it going back to the regular navy after leaving Naples and leaving that joint force?

Gary Wise 41:33

Because you know, we saw a lot after Iraq and Afghanistan when guys would get with the army or with the marine corps, they would kind of get into their culture a little bit. Then when they had to come back to the regular navy, they would almost like chafe at it, right? Like this is this sucks. Like I miss being a soldier or whatever. Did you have a challenge? Was that a challenge for you to come back to the regular navy?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 41:54

Uh no, actually, um that's what I wanted. I wanted to come back to the regular Navy because uh it was just it was just too slow-paced for me. So I knew what I was getting back into. Um the wife asked to go to uh the west coast. Um, technically I was up for shore duty, and I said, Well, the only way I'm gonna get to the west coast is to take a ship. She said, Well, take it. So that's what I did.

Gary Wise 42:20

Yeah, well, take it. So, what kind of a ship did you go to next?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 42:25

Aircraft carrier. I went to the uh Kitty Hawk.

Gary Wise 42:29

Wow, okay. So the Kitty Hawk was in San Diego.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 42:33

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 42:34

Okay, so you had two cruisers under your belt by this point, and now you're going to a C to a CV, a steam aircraft carrier. Um, and that's probably what 1997-1998 time frame.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 42:49

Yeah, from uh 96 to 99, somewhere around there.

Gary Wise 42:54

Were were warfare pens already happening at that time?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 42:58

Yeah, they weren't mandatory though. So I earned my warfare pin there on the nimets. I didn't earn it on the other two. On the nimits or the on the kitty hawk wing? I mean, yeah, the kitty hawk, sorry.

Gary Wise 43:09

Like, no worries. Now, does kitty hawk go to Japan around that same time?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 43:14

Yeah, I left as she was leaving to go to Japan.

Gary Wise 43:18

Okay. I only had to do a two-year tour, so oh, because you just came from overseas, yeah, yeah. And back in back in those days, overseas got a little bit of special love. I remember that when I first joined. Okay. Um, what did you think of the aircraft carrier versus your previous experiences on the cruiser?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 43:36

Now that that was a learning point right there because one, it's noisy, and the radio shack and the birthing is up off of cat two on the forepart of the ship. So, and my rack was right underneath the catapult. So it was right, yeah.

Gary Wise 43:55

Understood a hundred percent, and and there's A bunch, but there had to be a bunch of flavors of Radiomin at that point, too, on board that ship, right? Because that was during the RMDP merger time frame, and that is our ship they were separated still.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 44:14

Um so I was actually um because of the rumor mill and everything going around, I couldn't I couldn't get DP knowledge type stuff, knowing that I was gonna have to learn that stuff. So I actually got DSs when we still had those out at sea, and they taught me a bunch of stuff that allowed me to pass that test.

Gary Wise 44:36

Right, got it. I mean, that was that's always a challenge with a rating merger, right? Start incorporating the different pieces of it. And my buddy was an RM and we got to the Bellowwood in '97 together, and he ended up becoming an IT and that merger piece. Um, when you were on the aircraft carrier, uh, did you enjoy it compared to like your experience on the two cruisers?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 45:00

Um, yeah, I did. Um, there was a gym on there that's uh was more uh equipped than the cruisers, and then one of my favorite pastimes, anyways, is there was always a galley open because there was two of them and there's always one of them open. That's right. I could always eat.

Gary Wise 45:18

Yeah, but I love my carrier time, and I and I'm a gator sailor too, but there was just something special about being on an aircraft carrier, you know, just almost and just the amount of people that you have. It's and there's never enough people. I don't care where you go, pick your pick your ship. There's never enough people, but but it kind of felt like there was a lot of help if you ever needed some help, right? There was there was no shortage of people to help you out, you know. Yeah, um, okay, and then how was that warfare pen experience? So you got your e swast on board the kitty hawk.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 45:51

Yes. So um I actually hooked up with an engineer uh down in the uh engine room one. Um, and he almost every day I was down there during my off time, and we were going through stuff. I mean, it was a steam-powered ship, so I could tell you a drop of water wherever it was at, whenever it was at, doing what it was supposed to be doing or not be doing.

Gary Wise 46:16

So no, kitty, yeah, kitty hawk is a very, very uh, I'd say popular, historic, traditional ship for the West Coast, especially for like the Japan guys. That that was the last steam carrier that was over there, and then everyone would talk about the the the pit, the main faces of those steamships. And you know, I was an LHD LHA sailor, so I got to see those, but then when I went to the CVNs and got into the reactor spaces, I was like, I can only imagine what this would have been like with boilers, yeah, right? Like man, that had to be cool. Okay, so you get your warp and up. Do you make cheap up for kiddio?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 46:56

Uh well, kind of. So I got orders um because back then we needed recruiters. So CNO said next 400 saters they call are going recruiting. And I happen to be one of those 400 saters. Um, but while I was in recruiting school, found out I made chief petty officer.

Making Chief And The Realities Of Recruiting

Gary Wise 47:16

So it was because of the kitty hawk that you picked up chief. Now, yeah, did you when you were a first class petty officer, did you have like was it a goal to become a navy chief? Because I gotta be honest, man. When I was a first, when I was a DC one, I really wasn't thinking about picking up chief. Like, it wasn't like, oh my god, I gotta make chief. I wasn't like awake every night praying at the altar of the navy, like I gotta figure this. It wasn't like that for me. Um, I remember when I put my package in, I didn't know what I was doing, right? Me and a couple other first classes put them in, and I didn't know. So, do how was that experience for you as a as an RM1? Did you have did you have a lot of energy towards promoting the chief, or were you just kind of like it's whatever happens, happens?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 48:03

No, I had a lot of energy. So I spent the time to study. Um, I had a goal by 20 years. I wanted to be a master chief. Oh, so I had things kind of mapped out. I gotta be a chief by this time, I gotta be a senior chief by this time, so I could be so any hiccups along the way. I was like, Oh boy, I sweaty.

Gary Wise 48:22

Okay, so you'd already had that figured out. Like you were like, I'm gonna become a master chief. Awesome. You know, I didn't figure that out till I made cheap to be like going through initiation, but truth be told, I was I took the test for LDO purposes my first time. I did too. I did it so I could cheat and see what was on the test. That was what I did too, right? And then the CMC was like he put a pay put in a waiver something for cheap, and I made cheap, but all spoiled it as well, right? Yeah, yeah, right. Okay, so how was did you enjoy recruiting duty?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 48:57

Uh no, no, that's that's the that's the one Navy job I hated. No, no. I mean, I like talking to young people talking about the Navy. Um, and I remember my rink. Uh, you know, back then the rink, they're the most knowledgeable ones. So I'm brand new chief working for an E6 because that's who the rink was. Um, and I got this individual at my desk, and he goes, So, really, tell me what my life in the Navy is gonna be for my first year. And I look back at my rink, and he gives me that look like, Don't do it, don't do it, because he knows exactly what I'm gonna do. I told the kid the truth. You're gonna get the crap duty, you're gonna have to go mess cranking, you're gonna be chipping, you're gonna be painting. But you get this rank, then you're gonna move up in the year, then you're gonna start to study, and then boom, and then bam, you're off. And kid got up, said thanks, walked out. Oh, the ring chewed me out so bad. I for a first class, he didn't hold nothing back to achieve, so he would chew me out, but it was very respectful. Um, said that kid will never come back. I said he'll come back. He came back the next day, brought five of his buddies with him. I put in six people that day.

Gary Wise 50:06

That well, it's it's the same thing in life, right? People appreciate authentic leaders, authentic communicators. They people don't want to be lied to. Where did where did you go recruiting?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 50:16

It was in uh upland, California.

Gary Wise 50:19

Okay, is that close to home or no?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 50:22

Uh no, you know, I said I want to stay in San Diego if you're gonna send me recruiting. They said okay. Upland is like three, four-hour drive from San Diego.

Gary Wise 50:32

I I also did it, yeah. I I did a tour as a navy recruiter, so I can relate, man. And I I really struggle with the career recruiters, yeah, because I just felt like not, you know, I appreciate that they have their own rate or whatever it is, but man, I was I'm on short duty, bro. Like, this is my downtime, and you got me here all hours of the day. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go back to the ship. Yeah, but but but I'll tell you, recruiting helped me a lot with communication. I will give it that. Yeah, yeah. Um, how was it going through chief's initiation on recruiting duty?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 51:08

Uh, so you know, we I had a uh a chief that was in charge of the zone that I was in, so he would do some things, but once a week we'd all meet in San Diego, okay. Um, and then go through whatever it is that they wanted us going through back then a lot more than what we can do now.

Gary Wise 51:26

But sure, sure, sure. And it's just again, it's a different, it's a different culture, right? I I've got you know, you you've got your all these years of experience now that you can look back on and like you know, like you, I've done initiations on ships, I've done it with aviation side, I've done it with with expeditionary forces now, I've done it in short duty underway. So I've seen it done a variety of different ways, and all all good things, right? All good things for me. I've never found I've never really seen anything I didn't care for, you know. I just as long because I felt like everybody was trying to do the right thing, which is hopefully to develop strong leaders, right? So there you go. Correct. Um, yeah. So recruiting duty, did you do the whole three-year recruiting tour?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 52:08

Yeah, I did the full three years. The last year, though, I wasn't recruiting. Um, they found out on the kitty hawk is when we started getting computers. So as a radio man, we had to run all the cat five cable out there to connect all these computers. So they saw that I had installed the local area network and decided I would be their uh uh systems administrator. So yeah, so I installed actually many um networks in all the recruiting stations for San Diego. Basically, they were just you know cable TV or DSL access and allowed all the computers to talk to each other.

Gary Wise 52:48

Awesome. Were you worried? Because here you are, you're this young guy that you had a goal of I want to make master chief. Were you worried when you were on recruiting duty as a chief that it wasn't going to do good things for your career?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 53:03

Yeah, I I was worried about that, but um, I tried to get out of it. Um, said, Hey, you know, I I just made chief, you know, you you need me at C type deal. Um basically CNO was no, they're they're staying.

Gary Wise 53:15

So yeah, I I I remember hearing that from a lot of people when I was out there that what they weren't finding success on recruiting duty because they were getting ranked behind, like the career recruiters or the ones that were not going anywhere, and then they were they were worried about you know going back to the fleet and not being as prepared, I guess, as they thought they needed to be. So, okay, and so when you're going back to the fleet, where you where do you want to go to next? Then where do you go? Like, did you get what you wanted?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 53:46

Well, it was it was see, I was very, you know, Radium and had a seashore rotation, basically was three and three uh for my entire career. So I stuck to those all the time to my wife's chagrin. You know, if I was up for sea, that's where I went. So yeah, um, I was supposed to go to sea, so I took an amphib ship out of San Diego.

Gary Wise 54:06

Which one?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 54:07

The the Duluth.

Gary Wise 54:09

Oh, yeah, that's LPD. Yep. I was on Ogden. Oh, okay. LPD5. Okay, so you go there, you're going there as a as the chief.

Learning To Be A Chief On An LPD

Shaun Brahmsteadt 54:19

Yeah, the chief. So you know, and the only chief I know is being a recruiter. So technically, I'm a boot chief showing up there because I don't have no regular expensive experience.

Gary Wise 54:30

Yeah. And you're going from you got cruiser experience, you got carrier experience. And look, I love all those other ships. I'm a I love my gators, but they're they are their own animal. Like oh yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 54:43

Oh yeah. I got eaten up a couple times, especially by the engineer. Master Chief was oh, oh my goodness.

Gary Wise 54:50

Yeah, they're they're a tough beast, you know. They don't, they're just they don't they don't have all the bells and whistles, and yeah. Was the chief mess on the Duluth? Was that forward center line, like right across was the mess right there, and then the birthing was like right off to the starboard side. Is that how it was on Duluth?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 55:07

No, the Duluth Chiefs mess was more aft.

Gary Wise 55:11

Oh, really?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 55:12

Okay, no, it's no forward, you're right, you're right, you're right. I'm I'm thinking wrong direction. Sorry.

Gary Wise 55:18

Yeah, no, no. I remember because I made cheap on Ogden, and that was such an awesome mess, man, because we was like right across from the birthing, we had our own galley, it was a closed mess, and that was that was awesome, you know. So when you got to Duluth, how hard was that for you to get up and running? Was that complicated for you, or were were you quick to get jump right in and go?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 55:41

I would say I get I jumped in to go, um, but I hadn't learned to be a chief yet. I mean, I I lead the Radio Shack, no problem. Um, leadership that wasn't the issue. It was you know, being the the chief, you know, more um strategic thinking, bigger thinking outside of just my little Radio Shack world. Um so luckily I had a good uh SH uh senior chief, kind of took me under his wing, kind of taught me some things. Uh the Master Chief uh EM was well is brutal. Um, but I learned a ton from him. Right and the command master chief uh was pretty good when I needed, you know, that uh that extra little kick in the butt or you know, a little push in this direction, you know, uh was quick to kind of write my ship for me. So I learned a ton from that Chief's mess. They were awesome, Chiefs mess.

Gary Wise 56:35

Awesome. No, it it was one of my favorite messes too. This is a good size of crew, right? The crew size is about you know, about 300 or whatever, 350, but the ship's big, so you got a lot of room to maneuver, right? Yeah, it's great, great platform. It was that a three-year tour, you said three years, right? So and that was after 9-11.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 56:59

It was during 9-11, so I was still on there when 9-11 happened. I I remember when it happened, I was just coming off of duty, um, because I had duty the night before, and in the morning time, I'm I'm running around trying, you know, we're in the yard, so I'm trying to get a lot of stuff done. I can't find the combo anywhere, so that's making me upset. You know, we got stuff to do, and then somebody says, Hey Sean, you can you go go look at the news. I said, What are you talking about? Because I've been running around. Um, and then the then I opened up the the TV. It's like, holy crap! And that's when I found out that's what the combo was doing, trying to find his brother. And here I was fussing the poor guy out. His brother was fine, but yeah, yeah, his brother worked in one of the towers. Luckily, he didn't go in that day.

Gary Wise 57:43

That's scary. Yeah, and you guys were in the yards at that point.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 57:48

Yes, yeah. We were um a couple months into the yards, we were only gonna be there for about four months, so we were kind of trying to get things done so we can get out on time.

Gary Wise 57:59

And when you guys got out on time, did you deploy it all on that ship before you transferred, or did you transfer first?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 58:05

Nope. Uh, we deployed. Uh, I was the uh we dropped off the 11th Mew, which was the first Marines in for Desert Storm 2.

Gary Wise 58:14

Okay, so let's have that conversation real quick, man. How was that deployment in contrast to your previous deployments? Um, well, I've taken I've taken Marines to war a few times and come back with less Marines each time, you know. And so how was that? How was that energy on the ship?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 58:32

That that was the the rough part, you know, knowing you know these people that were driving over there, some of them probably aren't coming back. Um I I guess we got away with a little bit of a benefit, is in we didn't take the whole mule back, so we didn't know really who had who had passed away unless we started asking the questions. Yeah, um killed them.

Gary Wise 58:56

They were gonna be staying there and probably going back home on the jets or planes or something like that.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 59:01

Yeah, they started flying them home on the jet. So we we only took a small group with us, but um it was it was different as in, you know, I've been to the Gulf before, um, been there during a combat situation before, uh, but then this one was a bit different because uh once we dropped the Marines off, we were tasked to um guard those two oil rigs that are out there on the coast.

Gary Wise 59:24

Mills on cool, yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 59:26

Yeah, so had to go up and down that thing, those Iranian little boats come on out, you know. I I remember the captain going, uh one thing about the Duluth is I I wouldn't have made Master Chief without it, probably. Um the captain let me get my uh officer of the deck calls. So uh during that deployment, I was uh conning officer, um, even though I was OOD, but I spent a lot of time conning the ship. Right. Captain just goes, So senior chief, where you want to go? I said, I want to go over there, sir. Make it so.

Gary Wise 59:59

So you picked up senior chief on the Duluth.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:00:02

Yeah, yeah, I picked up Senior Chief, which was a big surprise because it was my first time uh eligible. So I was like, Whoa, holy moly, you know, I must have done something right somewhere.

Gary Wise 1:00:13

Do you think it was the success you had of recruiting duty with putting on their doing all that that DP stuff for them?

9/11, Combat Deployments, And OOD Qual

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:00:20

Yeah, some of that, and I was actually pretty good at recruiting. I mean, I didn't have outstanding numbers because well, the admiral she only asked me two bodies a month, so that's what I did. Everybody else in this shop got whoever I had left over because they're all fighting for rank. I'm I wasn't, like I said, I just made chief, so I'm not eligible. Yeah, I think it was beneficial, but I would never do it again.

Gary Wise 1:00:46

I get it, me too. I get it. What made you decide to get the OD letter? Was that just you really wanted to make master chief and somebody gave you the mentorship that that was a good idea?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:00:57

No, um, I had a Radio Shack uh when I inherited it. They were there a lot of um IT type backgrounds, so they all knew computers, they couldn't set up an HF circuit to save their lives, so it's me and RM1. I said, Arm one, this isn't gonna work. Um, so we're right here where all the schools are at for all these equipment that we have. Um, I don't care if there's an opening or not, you just have them line up there. There's always somebody that misses out and doesn't show up. Um, so I got them all trained. Um, actually, ATG in San Diego yelled at me because I was over-trained. Because literally every week I had people lined up at the door. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and they were self, you know, the RM1 was great HF, good people. So, you know, I I really didn't have nothing to do in the radio shack. So, what do I need to go do? So, hey, I want to get my officer of the deck call done.

Gary Wise 1:01:55

Right. Okay, and that's a great platform to do it, right? I mean, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's a great ship to go up there and learn how to drive on. I so I I'm a CMC of Ashland as an LSD, and my CO talked about what do I want in my car? I was like, No, I'm good, but I I could see I could I thought about it, you know. I I could see it being done. I think a lot better than trying to get on the aircraft carrier.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:02:18

Yeah, yeah, I tried doing that stuff on aircraft carrier. The wind, I'll figure, uh just give me the NPM tip.

Gary Wise 1:02:25

Yeah, it's a whole different ball game. Yeah, I so I I always ask people, you know, the difference of life in the Navy after 9-11 versus before 9-11. Um you've got pretty good frame of reference. Do you think the Navy? I feel like the Navy never dialed back down again after 9-11. I just feel like we just never slowed down, man. And do you have any ideas why? Do you think there's any answers why? I think we don't technology just kept throwing gasoline on the fire, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:02:58

Correct. The more technology they kept throwing at us, uh the the harder it just it got it got to us. Yeah, so yeah, it was you know, we we're pretty high strung. We were we were ready to go. The navy was ready.

Gary Wise 1:03:15

Yeah, the navy was ready. It's just it's an optempo thing, and it's uh it's hard for people to understand that, you know. When I talk to people about the people in the navy, especially the ones that are high performers, they're they're gonna come out of there a little bit shaky because they've been running like on a treadmill as fast as possible for a lot of years, right? And I and I I link it back to the war on terror because it's just everything's spun up, and then the remember were you guys boarding a lot of ships, like doing BBSS on a lot of boats out there. No, no, we strictly just went back and forth at three knots guarding at uh oil rigs because we we were doing that, but then we were also out there just doing all kinds of visiting, boarding, searching ships. It was there was just a lot going on, yeah. There was yeah during that period of time. You know, I was there when chaotic blew up. That's a whole different season. Oh that was an interesting day for sure.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:04:08

Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:04:09

So you come back off Duluth or you come back from that deployment. Do you guys come back empty? Like did the ship come back with nothing on it?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:04:17

Uh well, we didn't have any of their equipment, we just brought a few of the Marines back with us.

Gary Wise 1:04:22

Okay, got it. Um, and then how long after that deployment until you uh went to your next duty station?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:04:30

Um, it was about a year after that deployment, roughly um year and a half, because I was I got the ship ready to go on to its next deployment, but it was a quick turnaround. Um, and then I transferred to uh CalmDav Surf Pack there in San Diego.

Gary Wise 1:04:47

At that point, so here you are a senior chief, having a very successful sea tour on board an LPD, got your OD underway letter. Did you already have an idea at that point that you were considering the Command Master Chief program?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:05:02

Um yes, actually. Um I had heard rumors about the command senior chief program because it started coming out. Well, I ended up making Master Chief before it actually came out, but um I knew that it was being looked at thought process, anyways.

Gary Wise 1:05:17

Okay, so you were already interested in doing something different than doing radio.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:05:23

Correct, because the only place you know you make Master Chief radio men, you're only doing a surf pack, for example, or you're doing a carrier, and that's it. You're there's no other place where you go. Okay, and I didn't want to go to a nickdams, a shore side.

Gary Wise 1:05:39

I understand, man. I I was uh I was one of my least favorite things about DC Master Chiefs, and I was one, but was the guys who had been DC Masters for a long time and had no USS. For me, that was not what I wanted to do. Yeah, I just for me, I never I never looked up to those guys, so I didn't want to be that. Because I thought it was kind of like uh it wasn't what I want. So I I looked at the CMC program as a chance to get back on a ship and go to sea, right? Um, when you're leaving that ship, because I want to hit the Duluth one more time. Do you have any big major leadership takeaways coming off of the Duluth? Because that that seems like a pretty important ship in your career. Um, any major leadership lessons off that ship in particular?

Post-9/11 Tempo And Training The Team

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:06:25

Um, yeah, the couple of them. So one is you know, you you trust your guys and gals to get the job done. Um, there's a time um to show your emotions and a time not to show your emotions. So um a quick C story. You know, I'm up on the bridge, we're having problems communicating with another ship that's you know just off our starboard side, and I go back into radio after watching and say, So what's the status? Well, it's not us, we can't figure it out. I said, What do you mean it's not us? When's the last time you looked at it? Well, blah blah blah. I said, It's been down for like three hours, and you're just sitting here. Well, yeah, Steam Chief, there's nothing for us to do. And then I lost it. Get up off of your behinds, troubleshoot the circuit, troubleshoot, blah blah blah blah blah. Sure enough, it was our problem. Um but uh to have the show that emotion at the right time is tricky. Because they knew, okay, we don't want to see that again. Um which kind of really I don't want to toot my horn, but you know, Green C, for example. Well, Green E is what it was called, but uh, we had never won that on the Duluth for decades. And we won it back to back ears. Um just because I let the Radio Shack be the Radio Shack. I know the talent. Here's where you're prospering at, here's where you're weak. Let's let's just move on and you know, you get them ready uh for those type of situations. Um and uh you you gotta trust your Chief Smiths. Um no matter if you you like the guys, don't like the gals, whatever the case may be, uh, because everybody has got to understand what everybody's role is uh within that chief smith and on the ship, because you're gonna need each other. That's the only way that ship is going to survive, right?

Gary Wise 1:08:16

Yeah, that was always one of my biggest challenges as a CMC was inspiring everyone to care about everybody else, yes, right? Yeah, 100%. Especially my my my engineers, right? Because I was one, and but that whole there's only two kinds of people on a ship, you know, it doesn't always that's not always applicable, right? We we had to we had to be aligned and we'd have to get in there and have it out and talk about it and hug it out and thank god for initiation because a lot of times that process would bring us together, right? Um it was very therapeutic that we did initiation every year around eval time, yes, yeah. I used to always say like everybody can get that, everyone can get right and then figure they get their bad news later. Yep, awesome. So when you leave the Duluth and you go to Surf Pack, uh going to that's your first staff duty, yeah, right, and you're going there. Are you already a master chief at that point?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:09:15

No, I was still senior chief.

Gary Wise 1:09:17

And what are you going there to do? Are you going there to be like uh an issue? I mean, for the for the ships, or what are you doing?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:09:25

Kind of, yeah. So we had a master chief, and there was uh two senior chiefs, myself and another guy. Um, and we each had different type of roles. So one of my main ones was uh inventory, you know, uh the inventory on ships was a mess, uh, and within surf pack. So I'm going out to ships, you know, doing the inventory thing, I'm compiling the inventory at a surf pack level, you know, so that we know how many computers we've got, how old the computers, the databases, and things like that. So uh that's when all that kind of stuff started coming out. So it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but it was quite an undertaking to think.

Gary Wise 1:10:04

Yeah, and I'm I'm thinking what's that mid-2000s, like 05, 06, 07. Yeah, yep. Wasn't too long after that. They said we couldn't stick our USB flash drives in any computer we wanted to stick them in anymore, and then we learned a whole bunch about computers we didn't know. Yeah, so I'm sure that was an interesting time to be a surf pack and and just figuring out you know, computer integrity, data integrity, network integrity, just all was level. We were growing, we didn't know though, the navy didn't know. You know, we're still learning that stuff, you know, even today. Yeah, so but you make Master Chief at SurfPack.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:10:45

Yeah, yeah, I did. I made it first time up, so I made it right at the 20-year mark.

Gary Wise 1:10:51

So nice. So right at 20 years, you're at SurfPack, and so you achieved your goal, but by then you've already decided you wanted to drop CMC papers.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:11:01

Yeah, yeah, I already knew. So as soon as I made Master Chief, I tweaked my package and got it ready to go.

Gary Wise 1:11:08

Okay, and where did you what was your first CMC tour? That was the squadron, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:11:13

Yeah, so you know, I'd done surface navy for 20 years and decided I want to do something different, so I went on the aviation side.

Gary Wise 1:11:20

Man, I always have regretted not doing that. I'm not even gonna lie to you, bro. Like, I went to the USS because I figured I'd be the most advantageous to my CO, and I was in a lot of ways, but man, something about that aviation navy just is exciting, man.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:11:36

They just yeah, it was way different. Big learning curve. So was it a Hilo squadron? No, I went to uh VFA 14, so we had uh 18s, fixed wing. Oh yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:11:50

So those are the those are the four vets of the aviation world, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:11:53

Yeah, yeah. So a black shoe joining the brown shoe navy. That was uh yeah, yeah, I had a good time.

Gary Wise 1:12:01

But but were they out of North Island?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:12:04

No, La Moore, California.

Gary Wise 1:12:06

Oh, Lamore too, yeah. How did how did you like La Moore?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:12:11

Um, I didn't mind. I was a geo bachelor in Lamore because uh the boys were in high school, so we decided we didn't want to move them, they were gonna stay there. So um they came up, I came down, you know, we we made it work.

Staff Duty, Making Master Chief, And CMC Path

Gary Wise 1:12:24

So, I mean, I I can see where that's actually probably not too bad of a deal, especially your first time as a CMC. There's a lot that comes with that, you know. Correct. Did you do the whole thing where you just bought brown shoes right away, or did you wait till you got your wings and then you got your brown shoes?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:12:39

I waited till my wings. So I got I'm walking around in my black shoes. One the first time I show up for a fawn walk, then I still got my ribbons on. So you know I get ribbed on that, but plus they send a bunch of E5s over to me, you know, to kind of de-fawn me. Um, but uh I I gathered the cheese mess together and said, Look, I I get it, I'm a black shoe, okay? I'm gonna continue to wear black shoes though. And you know, instantly the the senior chief, he goes off on a D-band, like, what do you mean you're gonna wear black shoes? You're not gonna say, Wait, wait, wait. I'll put on the brown shoes when I do you the respect of learning your rating at least. So when I get my wings, I'll put on my brown shoes. And then he was like, Huh.

Gary Wise 1:13:23

Okay. Yeah, they're very proud, you know. Oh I I'm I on the carrier was when I got to know them the most, and just their culture. They're very, they're very proud of their wing, they're proud of their squadron, they're proud of their whole community. Like, it's such a thing that I don't know that we have that same level of uh pride in the surface navy. We we we have our facets of it, but not to the same extreme, you know. The submarineers have very similar, yes, yes, they do. They really do, right? They really do. The submariners are another I got to serve with them on Guam, and they just they were very inspiring because they they but man, they they love they know their boat. Oh, yeah, oh yeah. They they're freaking, yeah. Okay, so you were did you how long were you at that first squadron?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:14:13

Um, I did almost three years with that squadron. Okay, about three and a half.

Gary Wise 1:14:18

So two and a half GB the whole time?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:14:21

Yeah, yeah. I actually I did uh four about four and a half. Well, just about four geobachelor, because after there, uh I put in for the uh the the wing uh position and was selected for that. So I didn't really go anywhere but got promoted up.

Gary Wise 1:14:39

Stayed in Lamore. What carrier did you guys embark on?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:14:43

The Nimitz, that's why I mentioned that is the Nimitz.

Gary Wise 1:14:48

Okay. When you embarked on the Nimitz, how was that being part of an embarked team?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:14:55

Yeah, yeah, that was uh that was a bit, you know, because I was on the other side as a black shoe, so I kind of knew what was gonna come. And sure enough, you know, that's kind of what what happened. You know, the ship seems see, I'm top dog around here, so you do what I kind of say. Uh I love the guy, he was he's a he's a great guy. I picked his brain, he mentor, although I won't meant that to his face, because you know, we we butted heads at first, so that's a long story in itself. But you know, I I I picked his brain, you know, and and got some very useful stuff from him. Um, but he was a very much, you know, it's it's my ship, so you'll do what I say.

Gary Wise 1:15:34

Yeah, I've I've seen both, you know. So, like your career path, when I went to the I wanted to be on a uh an amphib as a CMC because I wanted to practice embarking people because I eventually wanted to go back to the big deck and be a CMC and knowing that hey, I got embarking experience because when I was on the GW, I remember like giving gas masks to all the air wings, right? And having to really have customer service and like wanting to not have friction, and like they were working really hard to give us the gas masks on time and do all the things they were supposed to do, but but then it was like you'd have those friction points where you're just like ah, but you're sailors too. They're like, But we're in the air wing, you know, yeah, yeah. And it's there's different times, and so I could see where you're having that experience from the gator, from being ship's company on the kiddyock would be advantageous for your air wing to have you in their back pocket because you speak sailor fluently, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, you could you could call you could kind of call the flag on the play and say, Hey boss, that's not really how it has to be, right? Yep, um, awesome. Did you end up enjoying that the tour with the BF Squadron? Like when you look back on that, was that a fun tour?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:16:52

Oh, yeah, one of one of my favorite tours in the Navy. Um, got a lot of huge respect for that community. They live out of a seabag, literally, because uh we spent more time in Fallon, Nevada and on board the Nimitz than we did in Lamore, California. So my wife went to see me anyway.

Gary Wise 1:17:06

So they had a lot of hours, yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:17:10

Yeah, yeah, it was a great time. They let me do things that uh I would have never dreamt of doing. So um I got my plane captain qual. So I'm up on the aircraft carrier sending these jets off um to combat. Um so it was a great time. I I remember I I turn around, I got my six chains on, you know, my jet just took off, and I turn around and there's CO Nimitz coming right at me, and I'm like, oh shit, oh you know, oh no, oh no. And he just comes up to me and goes, That's awesome, Master Chief. Come see me when I come back down. So he went off line.

Gary Wise 1:17:53

That is awesome. So, how did you like going from the the squadron to the airwing job? Was that a difficult transition?

Crossing To Aviation And Earning Wings

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:18:04

Yeah, it was a difficult. If I in hindsight, I probably should have, if I was gonna do it, gone to a different one. Um, because you know, I seen my replacement come in and I seen a change in the squadron um that I didn't like, and you know, I took it out on the detailer type thing, you know. So yeah, I would have been better served if I gone somewhere else. Although, you know, having the sailors that that know me, they're all you know, welcome me around on the on the ship. CMC when you're gonna launch your next plane, you know. They're there they took great care of me because they already knew uh what I what my background was, but right that was a little bit of a rough transition. Yeah, I always wondered that when I see people kind of stay in the same area, and because as a CMC, you have such a huge impact on the command, and then what what yeah, I could see that for sure, and that's the first time in my navy career that I've stayed in the same um you know realm, whatever, right? Do you agree? Yeah, when I had ships, I moved from coast to coast. I never I never did the same class back to back unless I moved to coast.

Gary Wise 1:19:17

Did you have the bright idea to take that job, or did somebody kind of give you the idea like, hey Sean, maybe you should throw your name in the hat for this job?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:19:26

Yeah, no, Captain Batchelder was already, you know, my CO, uh Commander Pelquin and uh exo commander Cause were like, Hey, you know, Cag is wanting you to come up to be his CMC. I was like, No, I'm not doing it. No, I'm not doing it. Well, you know, about a week and a half later, they say, Well, you know, Cag wants to talk to you. I said, Okay, but I'm not doing it. So I sat down and said, Cag, I'm not doing it. Let's just talk, man, Steve. So we just talked, and then we went up by the time I got up, I said, Okay, I'll do it.

Gary Wise 1:19:56

It's an honor, right? Like I wanted to, I would say one job in particular, I kind of got Shanghai that way, and I took it because I felt like it was an honor. And then looking back, I was kind of like, I should have probably not taken that one. You never know. But hey, but it's really nice, it is a nice gesture when somebody really wants you to come work for them, you know. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you get done with that CAG tour, and you don't go to the George Washington right after that, do you?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:20:29

No.

Gary Wise 1:20:30

Okay, where do you go for the CAG tour?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:20:33

So, Jim DeLogier, another one of my uh mentors that I knew back when I was uh a chief and senior chief. Yep, um, said, you know, Sean, we gotta find a spot for you. And and I know I'm asking a lot, um, but I need a representative at the CMC cop course. Um, we we don't we don't have a surface navy guy over there or anything, they're all submariners. Literally, they were all submariners. So I said, where's this at? He goes, uh Newport, Rhode Island. It's like uh, you know, I talked to the wife, you know, hey, once we go to Newport, Rhode Island, she's like, Well, that's where the Navy wants you to go. Um, luckily she fell in love with Newport, she loved it out there. Yeah, um, but I I went out there um as a uh instructor for the CMC Cobb Corpse.

Gary Wise 1:21:19

Nice. So I I love Newport too. I've I've been there, you know, CMC Cobb. I went there for Clisted Academy. I can only imagine what it's like to live there. I mean, you get all the seasons.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:21:30

Oh, yeah, it snowed four feet the first year I was there at one time.

Gary Wise 1:21:35

Yeah, I bet it did. Uh how was that being in that realm of like you know, that the Navy leadership and ethics world? How was that?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:21:46

Uh it really was um at first it was awestruck. Um, because now you know I I'm seeing Mick Bond every other week, Massachusetts of the Navy, you know. So um, and they want to do a bunch of stuff with the school. So I was seeing all kinds of people, and you know, we were getting to experiment with around, and then getting all these new CMC cops um in and talking to them and you know, going, you know, sharing my experiences. I'm gleaning from their experiences also, you know, and just you know, uh trying to let them know that you know it's okay, don't be overwhelmed. This will be the best job you ever have, it'll be the easiest job you ever have. Um, if you just listen to the people around you, because yeah, we're leaders, um, but we don't do anything without the team, right? So that was kind of my message to those folks. Um, so it was a great experience. I mean, Mick Pond Stevens at the time. Oh, that guy got me into reading because every time he came up there, what are you reading, Sean? Well, you know, I'm reading my Lewis Lamar Western book. No, Sean. Here's a book. Read it and we'll talk about it when I come back.

Gary Wise 1:22:59

Yeah, that's awesome. You know, I I would I would when I when I got became a CMC, I almost felt probably about as close to being a pastor as I've ever felt, right? Because you got this flock that you have all this responsibility for, but you have no actual control over anything, no, right? And the minute you think you have control is the minute you are you are delusional, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:23:25

Right, you're failing.

From Squadron To Air Wing Leadership

Gary Wise 1:23:26

No, no, the chain of command is not. I mean, on my opinion, I people would always disagree with me. I tell them, look, the CMC is not the chain of command, I am over here as an advisor to the commanding officer. You guys work for people that are directly in line with the commander, but if you listen, I might be able to help save everybody some pain. Yep, I can I can help prepare the groundwork for your boss to get a pat on the back instead of getting kicked down the ladder. Well, you know, like we can make that all work out. But I but I definitely that was something that I had to learn. Was it was it felt very much, I would say, pastorly, very much tending to the flock, caring for the people, which was much different than from being an LCPO and you're in your like owning a radio shack or owning a damage control division, right? When you have just a whole bunch of stuff you you you owe to the boss to get done. So I can see uh that being a really fun tour and helping to give people that hopefully those insights. And again, you've got the background now from already being having been a CAG, having been a squadron CMC. Did you know while you were there? Like what you've already at this point, you're what 25, 26 years in the navy already? Yeah, okay. So, did you what were your aspirations? Did you have aspirations at that point beyond what you were doing?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:24:50

Yeah, I wanted to be a carrier CMC.

Gary Wise 1:24:55

Love it, I love it, man. I love everything about it. Um, did you just you did you have any preference or did you did you just uh you went any carrier anywhere ready to go?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:25:06

I put in for everyone that was open.

Gary Wise 1:25:09

Good for you. Oh man, and you got the George Washington. What did you think about the GW getting the G the G dub?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:25:18

So yeah, uh that one kind of uh I would say, even though I went through the whole process, I would say was probably forced on me. Jim DeLogier again said, Yeah, I got this aircraft carrier, Sean. I need you to put in a package for it. Jim, I told you I don't want to go to Japan. Well, I don't care, Sean. I expect the package on my desk by Friday. So, you know, I I I put in for it. Um, the wife was up for it again, so uh went through the process and I get out to the GW. Um, it was a little scary at first, I'm not gonna lie, because I had to go to Jim DeLogier's office first on my way over there. And the first thing he told me was, Look, the CAG and the ship's CMC don't get along. So you go there and you figure out how to get along out there. Okay, I don't care what it is that you gotta do, but you guys need to fix that. So, you know, I had marching orders, so I already had kind of a you know black and dark image of what I was getting into. I like Marty out there, he was a good guy. Um, the CAG, I can't remember the CAG CMC's name at the time now, but um um he was okay to deal with too. Um but you know it once I got my feet settled in, once got Marty off of the ship, I didn't like that he stayed in Japan, but once I got him off the ship, um I knew who I could count on in the mess and who I would have to kind of keep an eye on because they were still Marty followers, uh, which is to be expected because they're right there still, you know, buddies for a long time. Marty has been a Japan sailor for a while. Oh, yeah, big time. Yeah, um I will tell you, you know, yeah. I I mean Marty and I communicated a lot after you know he got he left, I left and and whatnot. So, you know, we're we were we were communicating off and on.

Gary Wise 1:27:07

You know, I will tell you so uh I got to the George Washington as a chief petty officer, and I left the show to the master chief three years later. But that first two years, and before you got there, because you were there for like my last year, eight months a year. Um, but that first two years was tough. I'm not even gonna lie to you, man. That was there, can there could be some books written about that two years, right? From the earthquake to the CEO that Marty had to deal with to just whatever. Yeah, and then the other thing is I do think that especially in Japan, you got a lot of that culture of people going, you have it everywhere, right? You have it everywhere. People in San Diego, people, but that bolt fishbowl of Japan is smaller, right?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:27:53

Oh, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:27:53

Especially if you're a carrier person, right? If you're an Aredel, you're only going to the squadrons and the carriers. You got that, that's where I think you get that animosity, right? Because they were going Atsugi to Yakuza to Atsugi to Yakuska. They had that. Um, yeah, but but I think the CO was also a big part of that. Because I remember Marty. Marty, he did a lot of good for me in my career. I'm not gonna lie to you. Like, he really did, but number one, was he he was strong for me when I needed strand strong, and then when I needed help, he would actually be there to help me as well. But I remember we had a conversation one time about the leadership he was under as the CMC, yeah. And and and I and I would say, you know, like I know, as a CMC, you gotta kind of play the role your boss needs you to play.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:28:43

That can be tough, man.

Gary Wise 1:28:44

That can be tough.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:28:46

He he had a rough. I mean, I had to work with him for a year. Uh so I know I know, yeah. I was like, oh, I know what Marty's coming through.

Gary Wise 1:28:55

So you had you had that CO for a year after Marty. Awesome. Okay, you do know then, okay. Because I didn't remember when Captain Fenton came in.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:29:04

Um yeah, he came, uh I had Captain Fenton two years.

Carrier Tour On GW: Culture Shift And Turnaround

Gary Wise 1:29:09

He hadn't have been a breath of fresh air. Oh, huge.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:29:14

He would listen to me, talk to me, you know. We communicated, we talked baseball, we talked football, you know, it was huge, it was night and day.

Gary Wise 1:29:23

I couldn't imagine. I was just telling you from a ship's company perspective from just the the out the cheap seats, it was a breath of fresh air. I remember with that first CEO, we were doing an out brief of ATG, and he was like, damage controls are cancer, and we're gonna eradicate it. And I was like, But we did good, we did good. Tell him we did good. Yeah, yeah, he was high to the right, man. Bing, bing, ping. Um, but then when Captain Fenton came in, no, no, it was just night and day, yeah, for sure. He was just but that dude, he just but he was also a fixed wing pilot. Correct, correct, right? He just he it's just a different, just different mindset, different DNA, different leadership coming up. Um, so when you got to the carrier, and yeah, you had that challenge of uh pockets of people who maybe are not receptive to the new style or to different things, or a CEO that was a challenge, and an XO that was kind of a challenge, right? Um, because that's how I remember it. They were both kind of tough.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:30:26

Um, yeah, he actually mellowed out after the other one left, after the CO left, he kind of, yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:30:33

I'm sure I'm sure I remember once I'm at XO man, I came in early to take kids to a fire school, so I was in like a 5:30 in the morning to get kids to fire school. You remember back in those days, we were doing like uh we were doing khaki calls in the hangar bay, and he would sit on the quarter deck to bust the khaki that was coming in late, right? Yeah, walking up the brow, he's like, Senior chief, we're we're we're where you're coming from. I'm coming from the fire school, sir. I've been here since God, right? Because I yeah, that was a tough time, man.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:31:06

Oh, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:31:08

Would you say that year was one of your most challenging years as a CMC?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:31:14

Yeah, yeah, I would say I really tested my skills, you know. Am I really as good as I think I am?

Gary Wise 1:31:22

I bet, man. I bet I've I have I had one and a half CEOs that were really tough. I never had any bad XOs. My XOs were always solid, you know, they were like always team players, but the CEOs can be a little spicy, right? Yeah, and that was always complicated, you know. So okay. Um, when you look back on your GW tour, uh, what were your biggest takeaways from that time?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:31:52

Uh the the teamwork theme. So, you know, I always prided myself that you know I I could get a sailor to do just about anything that I needed them to do by just telling them what I need them to do. So uh at every orientation, I would come out there and I say, Okay, let's talk about what we do here on the GW. And I would call out every rating. I say, What rating are you? What rating are you? I have them tell, you know, this is what I do in the Navy. Then I go rank. This is what I do in the Navy and rank. I put up an E5, I pick out an E6, I pick out a chief if there's one in the stands or an officer. Uh have them tell that. And I say, So why did I have everybody kind of talk about this kind of stuff? And they're like, What? I said, because I want a battle E on the side of the ship. And the only way we're gonna get that is if we all work as a team, we all have a role to play on this ship. If we all do that role, we can get the battle E on the ship.

Gary Wise 1:32:45

And you got it back to back, back to back. Back to back. I'm telling you what, I was so proud of you guys. I was in Norfolk when they came in, but I remember we turned that ship from the ship that had caught on fire to the back to back battle E winner. Yeah, I remember look that and it was not by accident, it was over damn work, man.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:33:08

That was yeah, I no, no, you guys the Chief Miss really stepped it up and came through. I mean, they worked together on that. I was very proud of the Chiefs miss.

Gary Wise 1:33:18

Yeah, no, no, I love that mess too. It was uh you know, I was about ready to retire after that ship because I gave it all to the George Washington. I was exhausted. Um, but I will tell you what, it gave it back to me in a lot of other ways, you know. It really was very, very, very, very, very, very good ship. And I think it's still uh it's set a lot of records, you know. A lot of good chiefs in that mess have gone on to be, you know, like me going on the CMC. A lot of them. You I have a buddy, Rory, uh, his name's Rory Bacon. He I did a podcast with him, and he kept a copy of my old damage control training team brief, right? I had the listing of everybody on there. He's like, Gary, do you realize the talent? LDO, Master Chief, Master Chief, LDO, like just that was the level of talent we had on that team in the leadership positions, right? Um, it was a lot of yeah, it was really cool. Uh, after GW, um what's next? Are you are you looking to take a knee? Are you like, hey man, this is big route. Are you at 30 years at that point after GW?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:34:25

Yeah, yeah, I'm at 30 to be honest. Um, I had a goal to go as far as I could go from there. Um, because uh Mkpawn Stevens was like, you know, Sean, you're kind of my guinea pig, you're in that year set because he wanted you know a command master chief's time in to align more with an admiral's because an admiral can go all the way to 40 or more years, you know, and we're stuck at 30. So he wanted to stretch that, you know, experience-wise. Um, so I was kind of falling in his experimental age group type thing. Um I just happened to be there at the school when he was talking about it. So right, right, right. Um, so I said, okay, well, I'll go as far as I can go. So I went to um Calm Nav Air Length, but not the aviation side. Basically, it was the uh test squadrons out of Patuxent River, Maryland.

Gary Wise 1:35:16

Uh that's right. I remember you going there. Okay, so in the back trip.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:35:20

Yeah, so uh there basically all the new aircraft that was coming through, we were testing it out to include the people uh firefighting gear and all that kind of stuff, too. So um it went through us for approval before it went out to the fleet.

Gary Wise 1:35:35

So how was that after after your carrier too? Because I mean, I gotta be honest with you. After a carrier, that had to have been like doo-doo, like what are we doing?

Winning Back-to-Back Battle E

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:35:44

It's like it's like running into a brick wall, brother. I I got an office on the front floor, I can look outside. Uh something to do, you know. I had to go to meetings. Uh it's like, oh my gosh, you know. What I remember one time we're talking about the F-35, and and I've raised my hand and the Emma goes, Yeah, Master G said, sir, why is it taking so long to put the F-35 out when we've been working on it for years, almost a decade? Why so long? Yeah, he's like, that's a good point, Master G. And then they just went on with their meaning, you know, because I'm just some some dumb sailor, you know, I don't know, but it's like, you know, I throw those in there every once in a while, you know, be that uh, you know, reality check. Look, you know, people want this stuff.

Gary Wise 1:36:34

But it was great. I'm I'm sure it was a it was a good decompression tour, it was a good chance to get you into that area. Uh, because it was the after that you went to Transcom?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:36:45

No, I went to uh DLA, Defense Logistics Agency. So uh, you know, that was way outside my realm because it's like um it's the supply world for the all the military services. Uh I'm not a supply guy, I'm a rating man. I know how to fill out the form to request something, but that's it.

Gary Wise 1:37:04

So was the Pax River tour? Was that a flag tour?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:37:08

Yeah, yeah, it was a three-star Admiral. Okay, and so is DLA.

Gary Wise 1:37:13

So, what did you think about being on the staff as a CMC? Was that what you thought it was gonna be?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:37:20

No, no, I kind of had to learn what is my role now, you know. In my opinion, not to sound bad or anything, but I'm more the cheerleader. But let me go out, talk to the people, let them know what we're doing, you know, who raw the command, uh, congratulate them on making advancement and that kind of stuff. But yeah, you know, that's kind of my role because I don't know all that other stuff that that they're doing. Yeah, you know, that's that's all the civilians, contractors, admirals, and stuff.

Gary Wise 1:37:53

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, no, I I got I got pulled up to a staff job, and I was just like, this is boring, man. Like, I missed being on the deck plates with the sailors, and luckily I had a lot of sailors on my staff, so that, but but they were none of them were they were all like information warfare dominance people, they were all like you know, the IS and the CTs and all that stuff that I'd learned all their things. I had to get my IW pin, but it was much different, and we were embarked on board the Blue Ridge, so that was a different. I got embarked, right? I got to be embarked, and there was friction. Imagine that, right? Yeah, there was when you were on the Blue Ridge.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:38:34

Oh, let's see. Well, no, this that would have been that'd have probably been after, yeah, that month.

Gary Wise 1:38:40

I got to the Blue Ridge, I was up there with them 2018. Yeah, okay, yeah, 2018, 2019. Uh, and they were moving back on board the ship from being off the ship for like many years and an upgrade for the ship that was very IT heavy, right? But there it was, it was a it was a hard thing, right? But it was it was a lot of fun, it was interesting. But I definitely got the chance to see what what the future could have in store for me as a master chief. I'm like, I don't know, that's what I yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:39:12

Staff duty is not for everybody, man.

Gary Wise 1:39:14

It's not uh yeah, it's not it's not for everybody. Um was DLA your last tour before you read that?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:39:21

Yeah, that was my last tour.

Gary Wise 1:39:23

Um all in all, how many do you was it 35 years total?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:39:28

35 total, yep.

Gary Wise 1:39:30

For you, bro.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:39:31

Almost 36.

Gary Wise 1:39:32

Almost 36. Yeah, it's about a month shorter. Did you just wake up one day and like, hey, I know I'm done? Or was it a higher tenure thing, and you're like, I'm not getting any more jobs, and I'm just gonna retire?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:39:45

How that goes it's mixture. So one, um, I'm done. 35 years, I think is enough. Uh, two, there's no place for me to go to. Um, and three, uh, the MCPON at the time and I didn't necessarily see eye to eye, so I knew I was not gonna be going anywhere else.

Flag Staffs, Test Squadrons, And DLA

Gary Wise 1:40:02

So I get that, man. And I think one thing about our Chiefs mess, especially the CMC community. One thing that I get frustrated by is the impact, like like Jim DeLogier was making phone calls to get you to maneuver, right? And I love he was a DC man, right? I've known him because he was CMC of the Reagan. He probably doesn't remember me anymore, but I knew him then, right? Um, but it's like we Master Chiefs have a lot of impact on other Master Chiefs' careers, right? Yeah, and that kind of frustrated me a little bit as a CMC. That's kind of what I chose to retire because I was like, I don't need some other Master Chief that's not even near my area saying what's gonna happen to me and my family, bro. Like, oh thanks, I'm gonna go do something else. Take my ball going home. I'm out of here. So I could I could hear that, and I could see that, man. I'm sorry to hear that, but also, like you said, 35 years, that's a long run. And yeah, so when you retired, how hard was that transition for you coming out of the service? Did you did you jump right into a job right away, or how'd you do that?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:41:08

Uh, I did not have a job right away. Uh, and I retired in Nebraska. Uh, so there's you know, not a lot of contractor jobs. Um, I didn't get my first civilian job until December, so it was about three months after I had retired, two months after. Um, I wasn't necessarily worried. I just knew that I didn't want to retire, retire yet. So I wanted to do something. Um, I thought I was getting into the HR world at the civilian job as actually Kellogg's that I was working for, uh, but it was just a scheduler role. So I did that for about 10 months and then got hired by another company that I was actually an HR person, which is kind of similar to what we do as command master chiefs, you know, take care of people. And you know, I had a great boss, two of them, uh, that let me be a command master chief at at their civilian job. Right. So I really enjoyed that part.

Gary Wise 1:41:59

That's what I mean. We're forced multipliers, right? Yeah. And if if the boss can recognize the value you're gonna bring to the organization, that means they're probably a pretty good leader because they can smell your talent, and then they can allow you to make the place better because you're gonna multiply everybody around you, and that's that's what I have learned. The real value of strategic people in those positions are right. You don't always have to be the guy that's in the actual chain of command as long as you're the one that knows how to go around and get everyone else to do better. Yes, that is game changing, right? That's game changing. Awesome, brother. Well, I hey, we're about to land this thing. Um, I really appreciate you sharing all this stuff with me. Um, uh, first question I got as I ask you some of these is do you remember a moment or the when you really were like, Oh my gosh, I'm really in the United States Navy now. Is there a moment that you had that? Holy crap, like this is the Navy.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:42:55

Yeah, um, so two of them one getting off of the bus at boot camp. Um, because you know they meet you at the airport, all nice and you know, welcome aboard, get on the bus, they close the gate behind the bus, it spins exorcism all over again, and it's totally different. Um and then in boot camp, also, uh, you know, the seals ran our PT session. Uh, and to get chewed out by a seal, well, one not as good as my dad chewing me out, uh, but still, it's you know, okay. This is a little more strict and a little more formal than what I'm necessarily used to. So I better start cowing the line a little bit, right?

Gary Wise 1:43:35

Right, right.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:43:36

Okay. So those were my two ones.

Gary Wise 1:43:38

Those are good ones. Do and looking back on your journey, and then of course, where you're at now in the civilian sector, what do you think is one there's I know there's several, but what do you think is one of the biggest leadership challenges you see organizations having to work through?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:43:55

Um having people in line that think because they're at the rank that they're in, that they're always right. Uh there's no, there's no give and take. Uh, there's no here, your side, my side, no flexibility.

Gary Wise 1:44:12

Yeah.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:44:13

Um yeah, I ran into that a couple of times.

Gary Wise 1:44:16

Oh yes. And it never goes away. And I think people just they they have pride and they feel like that, like you said earlier, emotion. And and look, I I'm I'm proud to be an emotional human being. I think God gave me some emotions, I'm gonna use them. But like you also said earlier, the time and place, right? Time and place, and don't let it take over custody of the of the day-to-day. How many kids did you end up raising? Do you guys have three, four, two? I have two sons. Two sons. Okay, so how as a dad raising your teen, your sons, especially when they were teenagers, do you think some of the leadership lessons you learned through your service helped you at home?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:45:01

Uh, it helped me communicate with them um when I was at home. Um, I didn't have to get angry. Um, and I learned, you know, because it was higher rank when they were were teenagers. So I learned, you know, I kind of, you know, mom is the disciplinary one in the house because she's the one with you 24-7 while I'm gone on deployments and stuff. So yeah, my role is to be more of, you know, I'll be, you know, the leader, whatever, but I'm not gonna be the one your everyday, I'm not your LPO, for example. Right, right, right. That's not my role in the house because that's being done by your mom.

Transition To Civilian HR And Mentoring

Gary Wise 1:45:39

Very similar in my house. You know what's funny though is it's like anything my boy, I have two sons as well, and anything my sons do almost never phases me. Because you know, there's stuff that we dealt with that we deal with, all the spoilers who do, right? I just laugh. Like, I just it's not the end of the world. My wife is like, Are you not as angry as I am? Like, I'm not really as angry as she but I've seen this before. You know, as a high school teacher, now I teach ROTC, which is god, it's so similar. It really is so similar to being back in the fleet. Um, and and just these kids, they think it's the end of the world, and you're just like, it's gonna be okay, guys. We're gonna be fine. You know, no one's gonna lose a birthday, no one's getting shot at. It's gonna be okay. Um, what's a piece of advice, uh, Sean, you would give to somebody who's struggling in an organization that feels like they don't have their best interests at time.

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:46:38

Yeah. Um one is to find that one person within the organization that they're comfortable talking to, um, and have that mentoring session because a lot of people won't do that, they'll just get in that I'm not fitting in routine when actually somebody else might be able to help them that's got eyes on that area. Um, and and two, you know, I had a I had a chief take over as command master chief for me when I left BFA 14. Uh, it was a great guy, um, but he struggled with getting the mess and the sailors, you know, to consider him, you know, the command master chief type deal. Um I I I told him, you know, walk around with a smile, do nothing, don't say hi, don't do anything, just walk around with a smile uh and let them come to you. He goes, That's not gonna work. Uh sure enough, he did that for a week and he came to my office and said, Hey, that worked. They come to me now, they're more open. I said, You've got to be open for these people to come to you. If you're closed off and feeling that one that you've got no say in the command, for example, um, you've got to open up a little bit, otherwise, people are gonna keep you shut out.

Gary Wise 1:47:52

Right. Nope, that's solid advice, bro. Definitely. Did you find there was a lot of receptiveness for your leadership skills in the civilian sector as a retiree?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:48:03

Um, at uh Verdeb, where I worked at, yeah, for the most part. I mean, there was a few that are, you know, just jumbo jumbo, you're just HR type deal. But um as the chain of command, like the uh uh shop supervisors, seeing what I can bring to the table on, you know, they came to me. What's what's the morale of the workers out there, Sean? I said, Well, you're the supervisor. Come on, let's let's go for a walk. Let me show you how this is done. So, you know, teaching them how to gauge how their employees are, uh, seemed to help a few of them. Um, they were very appreciative, and uh, I seen you know some of the lines turn around and start functioning better um because that supervisor, you know, was showing that they cared out there. Said, yeah, don't go talk work, go ask them about the football game or something.

Gary Wise 1:48:53

Yeah, yeah, awesome. Okay, we're gonna get a little more fun questions now. Uh Saturday night, we're on the ship. Are you looking forward to pizza or wings? Pizza pizza, I love it. Oh, yep. All right, I need somebody in the birthing or I need somebody in the working party. Which one would you like to have?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:49:12

Working party. Probably pizza.

Gary Wise 1:49:18

Yeah, probably pizza. Hey, we're gonna watch a movie down in the mess. Would you rather watch a De Niro movie or a Pacino movie?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:49:26

Oh my gosh, it would almost depend, but I'll go with De Niro.

Gary Wise 1:49:31

Okay, De Niro. All right, looking back on your career, did you have a favorite duty station?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:49:37

Oh boy, I knew you were gonna ask me that question. So I I had a couple of favorite duty stations. So my final one and the Duluth are probably my one in one.

Gary Wise 1:49:49

The final one?

Rapid-Fire: Ports, Pizza, And Leadership Mantras

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:49:50

Yes, yeah. I worked for a three star army uh general. Um he let me, you know, he had never been around in command master. Chiefs, so he's always asking me questions about the navy side, right? We used to do army navy game gig. You know, we would we just hit it off. We still communicate to this day. That's awesome. He was a great guy.

Gary Wise 1:50:12

That's awesome, right? And the Duluth, I have no no questions there. You you you you you left no crumbs, as the kids would say for the Duluth. You ate that one up. All right, what was your favorite Liberty port?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:50:24

Oh, Liberty Port. I love Singapore. Yeah, love Singapore. Good softball there, good stuff.

Gary Wise 1:50:33

Yep, Singapore is always a good time. All right, if you had a chance to do it again, or if you were talking to somebody, would you recommend they go overseas or stateside?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:50:45

Oh you know, they're so dependent on the person, but uh I would say stateside, but you're gonna have to go overseas once sometime during your career.

Gary Wise 1:50:56

Okay, you just got to yeah, it's it's a it's a I I love doing my C time overseas. I really do. I love doing short duty in the States and C duty overseas just because the commute was easier, right? Because yeah, yeah, almost 13-hour days, right? Walking home is not bad. Yeah, yeah. Okay, um, do you have a favorite movie or television series?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:51:22

Uh yeah, I'm a I'm a big I'm a comic book fan, uh, have been for decades. So Spider-Man is my favorite movie, and that's the very first one because you know that was the one to kind of kick everything off, you know, with Toby Maguire. But uh that and the color of money is my other my other one.

Gary Wise 1:51:40

Nice, those are good movies to have. Okay, would you rather be independent or on a team?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:51:45

Oh, team. I love the team atmosphere. I like working with other people to get things accomplished. Okay.

Gary Wise 1:51:52

Sean, do you have a personal leadership philosophy?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:51:57

Um, I I would say that the team is, you know, what I my theme always has been. Um, I always am saying, you know, I've signed thousands of charge books, uh, and I've always uh said lead or they will follow. Um too many times people get into a leadership role and they're not leading really, uh they're just kind of bossing people around. Uh people don't need to be bossed around. They did that at home. Uh they need leaders now, not leaders.

Gary Wise 1:52:28

Lead where they will follow. All right, in the Chiefs mess, we've got deck plate leadership, institutional technical expertise, professionalism, character, loyalty, active communication, and a sense of heritage. Those were our mission-based, those are our guiding principles, right? And I still use them often, even in my personal business and with my students. Out of those principles, which one's your favorite?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:52:55

Uh, I like the communications one because uh if they don't know, uh then they start to fill in the blanks themselves. Um, if you're giving them that information, that's why I hate it when Chiefs say, Don't ask me why. Yeah, come on, dude. Just take five seconds, tell them the why, and they'll go do it. Like I, you know, the orientation on the GW all the time. Why do I gotta go mess cranking? Well, one, I can't hire enough people in the Navy to clean the dishes or to serve the sailors or prepare or clean the tables. So somebody's gotta do it. Unfortunately, it's not me anymore because I have two stars. So it's going to be you. Yeah, all I'm asking for is 90 days. Come do that for 90 days. We'll get you back in the shop and you can start learning your rating and hit the road run.

Gary Wise 1:53:43

And truth be told, you learn a lot, Mess Cracking. A lot, you make a lot of connections, you get a lot of buddies you didn't know. Correct, a whole new game, and it's tradition. Like, let's be honest, that is a rite of passage. Yes, and I think it I I think it matters. All right, Ashot, would you rather lead or follow?

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:54:04

Lead. I I don't know. I I love being out in the front, you know. Uh I I bit on it early in my career as an E5. Um, you know, I took control of a radio check, and I just have not stopped. It's give me more, give me more.

Gary Wise 1:54:21

Yep, nope. I love it. As I tell people, nothing harder than chief in chiefs. And it's when you learn that everybody else in the room around you could do the leadership role, but they're choosing to follow you. That's an honor. Yes, that's an honor. Um don't take it lightly because they will have no problem leading somewhere else in a hot minute. Yes, okay, brother. That's it. Do you have any save rounds or alibis?

Final Lessons, Gratitude, And Close

Shaun Brahmsteadt 1:54:46

No, uh, I really appreciate the time, and I I really uh enjoyed working with you on the GW. Uh, you were you were great and inspiration, and and like you said, you should have left that ship before I got there, but you know, we're glad we got you go on. Not that we didn't want you to stay, uh, but but you needed a break. And so I really appreciate it and your your fine career and your continued service. So uh teaching those young kids uh in high school about the services. Um, I thank you for that.

Gary Wise 1:55:17

Thank you, man. I appreciate you for everything you did as well. And I will tell you, uh, working with these kids is is all is probably as much of an honor, if not more so, than what I did in the service. They are the differences, I think, you know, they don't get to go home to a barracks room and first, right? And they bring the energy every day, so it's it's it's exciting to be a part of and to feed it in my community. So, but hey, thank you, bro, for the time. Thank you for sharing your your knowledge and everything. And everybody, I hope you like what you hear. And if you have any questions, please hit them offline. And that's gonna be it, brother. I'm gonna let you go. Thank you very much. Bye, brother. Bye, bro.