Leading Through Fire: Damage Control, Faith, And Family

A single decision can redraw an entire life. Danielle Wiley walked into a recruiter’s office with a toddler at home and chose purpose over certainty. That step led from DCFN on USS Comstock to Chief Warrant Officer, from ER09 tag-outs and Halon head checks to carrier fire marshal authority, and finally to AIRPAC N7 where she now shapes how carriers train, certify, and fight. This conversation is an unfiltered look at what shipboard readiness truly demands—and the faith, humility, and loyalty required to sustain it for nearly three decades.

We start with family roots in service, the shock of boot camp’s communal grind, and the raw reality of early damage control work. Danielle explains how she turned DCPO from a dumping ground into a shipwide contract: departments own their spaces, QA is non-negotiable, and readiness is a habit, not a hero moment. At ATG San Diego she saw the fleet’s real baseline and learned to turn inspections into mentorship. Precom on USS Anchorage forged a Senior Chief who built rank and culture together, and commissioning brought the carrier crucible: IET musters, Zebra discipline, and direct lines to the CO when safety needed top cover.

From Essex she scaled DC rigor into maintenance management for an LHD: project plans, funding fights, 3M truth-telling. Lincoln added back-to-back deployments that show what resilience looks like on a calendar. Today, in AIRPAC N7, Danielle aligns TLOs, ATG teams, and TYCOM standards across coasts and Japan—and she recently helped overhaul the DC PQS by bringing every platform voice to the table. Along the way we talk parenthood across oceans, faith in waves, and the leadership choices that matter: listen before you speak, follow before you lead, and protect sailors with clarity, not just compliance.

If you care about leadership, damage control, Navy culture, or the way training becomes survival, you’ll find lessons you can use tomorrow. Subscribe, share this episode with a teammate you trust under pressure, and leave a review with the moment that hit you hardest. Your story might be the next one someone needs.

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Transcript

Welcome And Mission Of The Show

Gary Wise 0:27

Hey, good morning, Hafa Adai . How you doing? Aloha. And whatever else you say, wherever you're listening to the sound of our voice from. Thank you for spending some time with us on Words from the Wise, where we're going to come together. We're going to talk about leadership, people, and how we can all get through this life together and figuring it all out. My name is Gary Wise. I have the honor of being your host. And this show, as always, is sponsored by Wise Leadership Solutions coming to you from Ocala, Florida, where we work with companies, we work with people, we work with really pretty much anybody who wants to get in the leadership space to help provide you better options and/or advice and organizational leadership, mentorship, and assessments. We do that too, right? It's a lot of fun. Outside of that, I want to also shout out Church of Hope, South Oakala, Florida, where I'm a part of the congregation. Big things happening in Church of Hope. And in particular, I want to shout out at our 10 o'clock service, the Primetime, which is for sixth through eighth graders. Yours truly, I'm partnering with Pastor Katie Cummins, and we're going to be offering a ministry, if you will, for middle school age children because they deserve a special place to come in and worship. Outside of that, also uh Vanguard Navy Junior R O T C Vanguard High School, the Knights Battalion. I want to give them a shout out because they always take care of me. That's my day job. They pay the bills as well. And I'm glad to have all of them along for the ride. Now, today, today I have a special guest here for y'all. This shipmate. We came together in a float training group San Diego, but that was not actually the first time that we met. We're going to see if she can remember the first time that we met. I'm going to we'll see if she can remember that or not. But we met up a float training group San Diego, where I had the opportunity to see her go from a bad, bad, bad first, I mean a phenomenal, I was going to say the A-word, but you know, a phenomenal first-class petty officer to become a genuine initiated, you know, chief chief. We don't, I don't make weak chiefs. She was a strong Navy chief, and then she went on to commission and become a chief warrant officer. And we have not spoken in person since, I mean, when I left, she was still a chief. So I am super excited to catch up with her today and to just hear not only how she got to where we first met, but also how life has gone since we last saw one another. So without further ado, let me welcome to the stage uh Danny Wiley. Danny, how are you doing? Oh, can you hear me?

Danielle Wiley 3:09

Can you hear me?

Gary Wise 3:10

I can hear you now.

Danielle Wiley 3:12

All right, I'm good. How are you?

Gary Wise 3:14

I'm good. I'm good. It's good to see your face.

Danielle Wiley 3:17

Same here.

Gary Wise 3:19

It's been a long time. So when I I left ATG uh January 2010, uh when did you leave ATG?

Danielle Wiley 3:27

I left December of 2011.

Gary Wise 3:32

Yeah, so you were there. I was there for about a year ahead of you. You were there about a year, and I left early. I actually dropped papers and got up out of there. Uh well, you know, I got a phone call from a guy, right? Mark Weathers called me up, and and George Washington was calling, and I was like, he was like, Gary, get out of ATG, bro. You've done enough there, go do other things, and and away we go. So do you remember where we first met? It was a ship. Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 4:02

But I really I think I was on the Pearl Harbor.

Family Roots And Choosing The Navy

Gary Wise 4:06

Yeah, you were on the Pearl Harbor. LSD 52. Yeah, yeah. Everyone called the Black Pearl. Yes. One of my HTS was over there. Edwards was over there at the time. Yes. Yeah. He had been with me on board USS Ogden. We decombed Ogden. I went to ATG and he told me, Hey, Chief Wise, there's a DC one over here named Wiley. She reminds me so much of you. She's running ER09. And that's what I did too on board Ogden, right? And so I made it a chop. I got on a ride. I was just a team member, but I got over there to the boat, and that's where we first met. And then you would kind of fill me in that you were coming to ATG. Yeah. But you were D set, you were doing D set for a drill. And I remember you were just like, you were just like, oh Lord, we're gonna get through this drill. And look, you know, I had a I'm sure we're gonna have this conversation. Um, I'm passionate about the damage control community. I still am. I've always been an advocate for damage control men and for the community because even when I became a CMC, right? I I just the last I just had a god off conversation with another brother from Norfolk who's a DC chief retired. And I just don't think that the United States Navy truly understands the amount of work the damage control community has got to do. I mean, you we need they need to they need to add at least multiple of three for the sailor count for every division, or just get rid of man hours on PMS cards. Right. Because we know that it's anyway. I just I we're gonna have that conversation. I'm very passionate about it, especially after my aircraft carrier tour. Right. I wrote a paper one time where I essentially lobbied that the H P dailies should be done by all the end users, but not by the damage control division. Yes, I was like the Airedale should do all the dailies for the Mega Bay and the flight deck, the reactor guys should do all the dailies for the reactor space. None of my spaces had H PLF hose reels in them, right? Right? Same thing about that, and so I felt like the HP daily is like a setup, it's it's a setup check. Yeah, for real. How many spot checks have you seen fail because the daily? All the time, because it's mandatory-related maintenance for so many other PMS checks, right? And it's again, we work on we work on the whole thing, but typically a PMS is on a specific part of the system, but then you go fail me because I gotta do a whole ginormous come on, bro. Come on, you're gonna get into it, Danny. We're gonna get into it because I do care, and I I feel my heart goes out to all them sailors trying to do it right, right? They trying to do it right, and it's hard. Um so Danny, real quick, when you joined the where'd you grow up? Houston, Texas, H Town. Yeah, okay. All right, yeah, so born and raised Houston, all my life. So when you retire from the service, are you going back to Texas? Yes, I don't blame you, Texas and Florida. They got they're the best things moving. Texas and Florida.

Danielle Wiley 7:17

Yeah, for real. Not even that, just the taxes.

Gary Wise 7:21

Taxes, the people, the culture, like so many different things. Uh, I've got so many of our friends, our peers that have retired to Texas. It's incredible. Right. Um, okay, so Houston, Texas, born and raised. What made you decide, like coming through high school, that you wanted to possibly go into the service?

Danielle Wiley 7:43

So, my uncle, who was a recruiter at the time, he um commissioned. He was an AOCS, commissioned to Warn Off. And uh, I had the opportunity to like go live with him on a base. Um, in lack, I'm sorry. They were in Louisiana. That base is still there, and you know, he just I wanted to emulate him. Um, my aunt was secure in life, she didn't have to work. They had two kids at the time, eventually they had you know another daughter, and it was just life, it was easy. Not to mention, my father was in the naval, and believe it or not, my uncle that married my mom's youngest sister, put her brother in the navy, and those two served on board the uh midway together, and eventually, so it was just it's a military family, and that was it. Somebody had to go, either my brothers or me. So it was me.

Gary Wise 8:52

But you know, that happens so much, right? Like so many of us have a connection to the service through a family member that when we start to look at life after high school, it's like, well, I'm gonna just go do that because they found success there, and if they could do it, I know I can do it, and then there you go. And if you don't see people going to like technical schools or colleges or right into the workforce, then what you think is a good path is the military, right? Right. And that's a that that's a very, very common thing. So when you join the Navy, so you chose Navy because they was Navy, right? Okay, I mean there was that other people I talked to, they'd be like, Well, I went to the Army, but they weren't there. So the Navy guy got me.

Danielle Wiley 9:34

Nobody, nobody called me, like, you know, Army, Navy, I'm sorry, Army, Marine, Air Force. I went straight to the Navy recruiter.

Gary Wise 9:46

There you go. I'm sure that recruiter was like, Thank you, God. Like, that's awesome. She walked right in, fully qualified, right?

Danielle Wiley 9:54

And you know, at the time when I was trying to come in, there were few and far between, like they with a female. So you had to uh score over like 50. And I was like, that didn't sound like a lot at the time, but you know, I scored over 50. And he was like, You a shoe end, you just tell me when you need to come.

Gary Wise 10:16

Yeah, I mean, when I was a recruiter, what year did you join? 96. 96. So I came in 97, but I recruited three years later, and I will tell you, it was still they were still managing the amount of number of females that could come in because of beds, right? They don't have so many beds. Now it's a lot different, but back in those days, there was only so many locations and rates or all the things. I don't think so. We'll get into all that. Um, so you joined the Navy in 1996. Did you know coming into the service? Did you pick your rate out the gate? Did you pick your job?

Danielle Wiley 10:51

I did. I told them um I wanted to be, I you know, just talking to my uncle and my dad. And they were like, whatever you want to do, just make sure you, when you talk to them, you want a rating. So I said, I just want to do systems. I can even work with fire, hook me up. And he was like, Oh, I found a perfect job for you. You so um, this is what we got. This is a damage control man. Do you want to work with piping systems? I was like, not necessarily, but um, let me see what this DC about. And I, you know, of course, they give you these papers at the time and you read it, and I was like, okay, okay, whatever. That is, but then too, I was a little older because I had gone to college before I went to the Navy. And, you know, I was like, okay, maybe they could teach me some discipline, maybe not, but I know this job. And uh that was it. I mean, when I tell you it was his history, it was history.

Gary Wise 11:54

So let's thaw back real quick. What was college like? What was what did it call was that like a community college? Did you go to a US?

Boot Camp, A School, And Early Lessons

Danielle Wiley 12:01

It was communicated college. I was almost done, believe it or not. And my mom was like, Why are you going to college?

Gary Wise 12:13

What? Why would I do it?

Danielle Wiley 12:17

Yeah, but after that, I was even um I had my oldest daughter before I went into the Navy. By the time I went into the Navy, she was about two, almost two, and that was like the hardest separation in my life ever. And uh, but the end result was of that was I was I had purpose. I knew I needed to take care of this child, and if that sacrifice was what it was, then that's what it was.

Gary Wise 12:49

All right, on that note, I'm about to pray for us right quick because we're about to do it. We're gonna pray. You mind if I pray? Please, Lord, it's Gary and Danny.

Danielle Wiley 13:00

We're here.

Gary Wise 13:01

We came together to talk. Uh Lord, I just ask that, you know, number one, thank you. Thank you, God, for giving us air and air in our lungs. Thank you for all of the things we've gone through in our lives to make us who we are today, for the blessings, for the gifts, and for the for what we know is to come. I just ask you, Lord, that you just bless us as we have a conversation, that the words that we talk that we use, people can hear it, they can feel it, they can find some value in it, and it can help them as they work through their own life journeys and just help us to know that we're doing this in our faith, and that we just thank you for the opportunity. And I take these things humbly, and then they realize Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Savior. Amen. Amen. Hey, you know, today I woke up and I was just like, Man, I gotta start making sure everyone understands what team I'm on, right? Like, I'm over here, I'm not for everybody, I'm not for everybody, right? Keep that, and I just and everyone's story is so powerful, and I think that I had meant to actually, I mean, I forgot I got carried away getting into the conversation with you, and then as you were bringing up the sacrifice of what you you was about to change your life, yeah, right? I could just hear, like, oh my god, like here you are, this young lady, you got a daughter, might be living with your parents, still might not went through junior college, got yourself through that somehow. Mama saying, Why you going to college? Like, right, you're not respecting my grind to get to college. I'm I'm a little bit disappointed. Come on, mom, like, come on, mom. Like, I would be super happy, proud of you doing that. But then you're like, now I'm gonna jump out the plane without a parachute and go join the navy. And what was it about wanting to join the navy? Like, did you just feel like no matter what the college, no matter what that was going to give you, that was not gonna be enough for what you had to do?

Danielle Wiley 14:54

No, because the purpose was my daughter. My daughter was not, even though I had to sacrifice, she was not gonna want for anything, anything. I could not tell you if I had money in the bank, if I had what was next, you know, like tomorrow. I literally on a Sunday, my mom drove me to the recruiter, and I said, I'll call you when I get to where I'm going. And when I said I left, all I had was God. My baby was with my mama, and that was it.

Gary Wise 15:34

So, did you have to do like a family care plan where like your mom was like the primary person for you while you were gonna deploy or whatever it was? Okay, because I I've known quite a few of my friends throughout this throughout my service that had that challenge, right? And unfortunately, a lot of them were women that had they were single parent households and they had family care plans, and there was a lot of separation from their children as they had to do things. And so I can only imagine. I mean, I we all understand separation, yeah. When you're leaving home to go to basic training and you don't know when the next time you're gonna be stable enough to be connected again, that's gotta be a lot, right? For sure. For sure. So when you get the basic training, are you are you composed once they leave and you drive away? You're like, all right, I got this. I'm gonna make no.

Danielle Wiley 16:26

I still cry to this day. I still tell my oldest daughter that um I'm sorry, but you know, she keeps saying, Mom, why are you apologizing? Because I have two degrees out of this, and I am super proud of her. She actually works for NASA. She builds these suits that the the astronauts go into space with. She's got a master's in kinesiology. She um has a side house. She um professors at her alma manar, uh, Texas in here kinetics. She's smart, very smart. And of course, I had the baby after I oh no no, before I left, ATG. And um, she is super mad.

Gary Wise 17:14

We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. We're gonna get to that one. We're gonna get to your second shot because uh that is gonna be an interesting part of your story, I have no doubt, right? And I think you had just gotten, I think you just started letting people know that you were possibly you were gonna have a child, I think, when I was getting ready to leave ATG. Okay, and that's always a complicated conversation, too, for women, unfortunately, in our service. So we'll talk about that. Okay, um, and then I think one other time I do want to shout out your family for holding you down with your daughter, say that supporting you for going to the service, right? Like, I I guy, and I would do the same thing for my kid, like for sure, right? Let's hold it down, be family, right? So, shout out to them. All right, so when you get to boot camp and you're a little bit so when you say you're a little bit older, what are you like 22, 21? I was 22. 22. So you get to boot camp, you're 22 years old. Uh what are you thinking about that experience? Do you remember it?

First Ship Life On USS Comstock

Danielle Wiley 18:12

It was kind of humbling at first because bunk bands was not a thing. Living with several other girls coming from different walks of life, yeah, it was humbling because I'm one of three, but I'm the only girl. I got girl cousins, but you know, it's like sleepovers, sleepovers, but living in the environment of all these women and understanding different attitudes, needs, cultures, yes, oh man, all day.

Gary Wise 18:52

You know, I'm I'm blessed to be in a multicultural relationship, and my wife will always be like, See, that's something I would never do, and it's just because we were raised in such different households, yeah. Right, and and it doesn't mean they're wrong, it's just they're different, right? Right, and so yeah, when you were boot camp, you were packed in there, and uh yeah, so that was the big that was the biggest thing was getting acclimated to a bunch of different, especially women close, close together and getting through this problem. Okay, other than that though, it was not that hard.

Danielle Wiley 19:28

No, it was good. I mean, the exercise was the exercise because that's what we do. I mean, even in high school, I was an athlete, so it is what it is, and I'm short, so I'm okay. But uh the disciplinary piece of it was was okay because my mother was a disciplinary, yeah, and I just took it as okay, it's discipline, and it got to a point in boot camp to where I didn't have to stand a watch, I knew how to write the log. And it was just that simple. I had a B1 at the time, beam one brown, I still remember his name. He was like, You are the only one I can read this log, like you're you write locked style, you got it. So you ain't got to stand on mid watch, and he was like, Yeah, oh, you ain't got to stand on watches, and I was like, say less.

Gary Wise 20:23

And hey, and you know, and that's a cheat code, right? Once you firm find that there are things that are so valuable in this organization that they will make you respected and or privileged, there's going to be opportunities. There's always blowback. Yes, there is because you know the deck plates will always have their piece to say, right? But there will be opportunities. And look, at the end of the day, I would much rather deal with the deck plates blowback while I'm getting the opportunities vice covering up my gifts. I'm trying to get along with everybody else, like period, right? Cool. So you come through the boot camp, you go to a school right there in Great Lakes, right?

Danielle Wiley 21:02

No, I went to A school in San Diego at Treasure Island. No, in San Diego, right at the uh across the TSC.

Gary Wise 21:10

I didn't know they had an A school there.

Danielle Wiley 21:12

Yes, that was the last SC school they was having here in San Diego. Then they moved it back to Great Lakes.

Gary Wise 21:19

Okay, because I I never I always heard about Treasure Island. I never heard about San Diego A School, yeah, and then how how was A School? Was that easy?

Danielle Wiley 21:30

It was fun, it was a lot, you know, like through the water holes, yeah, a lot, yeah, but uh while with home tired, and it was good, it was fun because it was something different. I was learning something totally different, yeah.

Gary Wise 21:47

Okay, so then you get through with A school. Where'd you get your first opportunity to be on a ship?

Danielle Wiley 21:54

Or just right here in San Diego, San Diego 32nd Street. I was uh USS CompSA, LSD 45. Oh, baby, ain't no joke.

Gary Wise 22:06

I love amphibs. I'm a I I was talking to the last uh the last guy I was talking to. I was like, bro, there ain't no one out there like us in this world having these kinds of conversations because amphib sailors were just a little bit different, right? Yes, um, it's just our ships ain't sexy, they're not all you know, they're not Corvettes, they're not aircraft. We coming.

Danielle Wiley 22:29

Yeah, it is dusty space. You've been painted over like oh man, yeah.

Gary Wise 22:36

I was I did my CMC tour on board LSD 48 Ashland, so I know the LSD platform pretty good, right? And then I did an LPD, so I get it. So when you get to the Comstock and you're DC, are you DC FN or are you DC three already?

Danielle Wiley 22:51

I was DCFN. Okay, I got there December of '96.

Gary Wise 22:57

But you came in an E3 because of college, right? Right. Good. So you're gonna get to the ship. How is the ship when you get there?

Danielle Wiley 23:06

I didn't like the smell of it. It was a whole nother vibe. Uh the smell of it, um, you have to get acclimated to another like culture of people. And back then we were doing we were doing uh PME's paper. We turned that stuff in.

Gary Wise 23:32

Yep.

Danielle Wiley 23:34

Um, the Debo, the DCA, my first chief was a DCC. She's a female. Awesome, Suzanne Pike. And I learned a lot from her, and then eventually, you know, of course, she PCS, and I got another master chief. He was horrible. But that's the difference between female leadership and male, sometimes male leadership. He was a master chief trying to retire. But the ship was good. I didn't get like C sick, it was just another job, another watch. We had 13 DC men in that one ship. That was a lot of people, a lot of PMS, but I learned a lot. And I left that ship like a second class e-squash and went on.

Gary Wise 24:33

So you were on that ship, got there in '96, early '97, right? And how long were you on board that ship?

Danielle Wiley 24:42

Uh five years. Five years. June 2020. I left.

Gary Wise 24:47

Yeah. So and I was gonna that matters because see, I I did four deployed my first ship. Well, so I only did three years on my first ship. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah, I was an assassin boat, my first ship on the on the Bellowed. But for state-sized sailors, they'll do five years on the first ship, and that's really actually good because they get a lot of corporate knowledge on that platform, right? They get a lot of experience. Um, and I was looking to see that when you left, so you left right before 9-11.

Danielle Wiley 25:17

Yes, okay. So you I was checking into uh new command, believe it or not. I went to MAA school to work with the MA's and not that it was a lot. Was it brig duty? Uh no, it was driving the boats in the harbor.

Gary Wise 25:37

Oh, before 9-11, right? They would have other rates doing those jobs, and that was considered a standard D seamen shore duty back in those days, right? D seamen would get these physical security jobs on shore duty at that had nothing to do with damage control, right? And and then that, but that was part of our rotation, you know, and then you'd come back under the fleet. And what they should where the navy really did a disservice was you should have gone to like Sima, like a door shop or a valve shop, right? Something along the boat, not to go do physical security, but then after 9-11 and they ramped up all the MA's. Well, that changed the game, right?

Danielle Wiley 26:20

Right.

Gary Wise 26:20

Okay, so back to your first ship, right quick. How many deployments did you do on that first ship? Do you remember?

Danielle Wiley 26:26

And I did two two Westpacs, yes. And my first deployment, believe it or not, was on my baby's third birthday. I was going through it, nobody knew about it. Nobody knew about it.

Gary Wise 26:41

It was her birthday when y'all got underway.

Danielle Wiley 26:43

Yes, oh yeah, and I was like, Oh, I don't know if I can handle the day, but I'm gonna just go through it. And when I tell you that's when God was like, Danielle, I got you. Yeah, I got you.

Gary Wise 26:57

Was your baby still in Texas at that time?

Danielle Wiley 26:59

Yep, with my mother.

Gary Wise 27:01

Man, okay. That's that's got you know, you just gotta keep telling yourself, I'm doing the right thing, I'm doing the right thing, I'm doing the right thing.

Parenthood, Faith, And Separation

Danielle Wiley 27:09

Okay, sacrifice is gonna make it, it's either gonna make me or break me. I'm not strong. I mean, I'm strong, but I'm not that strong. So that's when your faith hits it kicks in, and you're like, Yep, ain't nobody else uh but me and him. This is what I'm walking in. This is what I decided to do.

Gary Wise 27:29

That's it. And oh, by the way, you're currently I mean, you're on the first contract, so you committed to four years to get whatever. I mean, you might think you don't know what's gonna happen at the end, but as of that moment, it's four years. I gotta get through four years, right? Um, looking back on your first ship, how were those first two deployments? Because my time before 9-11 was completely different after than after 9-11, right? Right. But for your first two platforms or your first two years, your first two deployments, I mean, how were those deployments as far as like port visits? Were did you get some ports?

Danielle Wiley 28:02

They were awesome.

Gary Wise 28:04

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 28:05

Every uh my first deployment, of course, we go to Hawaii. That was my first time ever being in Hawaii, and it was beautiful. I mean, you mean you've been there, it's beautiful. And then I went to been to Malaysia, India, Bahrain. Where else did we go? All over the place. Like it was a port after a port.

Gary Wise 28:30

Well, and you got the Marines too, right? So the Marines want the port too, right?

Danielle Wiley 28:34

Right. And before you know it, we're back in Hawaii, or we're back in Guam, and then you come home, and that was six months.

Gary Wise 28:42

Okay.

Danielle Wiley 28:42

And then the next one, basically the same thing. Malaysia, uh, Middle East, that kind of stuff, and then come back home.

Gary Wise 28:50

Well, that's how it was back in those days, right? It was just there was almost like a cookie-cutter routine to it. It was all about training and readiness and press, right? And I mean, we had some little things happen here and there, but it was nothing like what was gonna happen after the coal got hit and everything else started happening, right? Um, you remember your first ship? Like, what was your first big casualty on board the Comstock as a DC Man? Did you did you have one that stands out to you where you were like, oh, this is actually it can get active?

Danielle Wiley 29:21

Um not necessarily a casual, it was just that that going into those tanks. That was a lot. It was a lot for me to handle, yeah. And to the point where we would, of course, we I came in the Navy with OBAs, them things was horrible. Yeah, they don't make they they was a lie and just realizing spaces and going above the nose of A triple F tanks. That was a lot. I was like, I'm not cost claustrophobic, but uh what if I get stuck? It and who's gonna come get me? And you know that two-man rule works, yeah. You know, that stuff it was real, it is real.

Gary Wise 30:09

I have had the unfortunate privilege of extracting three people from a from a confined space extraction throughout my career, three actual casualties, they were broken, bleeding, hurting, bad, and I had to extract them. My first one, we lit, he was in a shaft alley, and this is 1998. I had we had no idea the rules. This kid was supposed to be climbing out of the so they're in shaft alley on an LHA, right?

Danielle Wiley 30:36

I know exactly what you're talking about.

Damage Control Reality And Leadership

Gary Wise 30:38

The needle gunning, right? And so they closed this the scuttle to stop the ventilation from blowing down because they didn't want all the dust blowing everywhere. I mean, when I got down there, you couldn't even see this kid's skin. He was covered in dirt so bad, right? Just from needle gunning. So they're getting ready to leave the space to come back to the pit because I was in the pit back then, half pain. And this kid threw a couple air hoses over his body, hung a needle gun on him, and goes climbing up the ladder to get out of the shaft alley, realizes the scuttle's still closed. So this dude pushes the scuttle up with his head, puts his hands on the knife edge, steps up and falls. And the knife bam! Yep, catches him on all his fingers, he gets back up, pushes it off of there, falls off, hits the shaft, late in the build. They call us. I'm in the console of the pit. I'm the messenger. Like, hey, this kid's jacked up. Y'all gotta come get him. He's hurt bad. Blah blah blah. So me and the MM2 climb all the way up the escape truck from the pit, run down the little walkway, climb all the way down, and sure enough, this kid's in the bit, his fingers are just snap, tack, tack, tack, tack, right? We're like, well, we gotta we gotta get him out of here. He needs help. So we tie a rope around him, and they tie a rope around me, and I'm going up the ladder, and I'm pulling him. And the MM2 behind me got this kid on his shoulders climbing the ladder. So I'm pulling the kid through the through all the we don't even drop the dang nets, right? We're dragging the kid through the nets, right? I remember this kid is just crying, why is I'm doing it? Why is I'm doing it? I'm like, Yeah, man, you're doing good, bro. We're gonna get you out of here, bro. And we're just ramming this kid up a damn escape truck. Now, years later, when I learned there's actually gear for this kind of stuff, and like right, I remember I would teach when I taught at Swas at DK's. I taught at that was my last uh job for the raid. I taught at DK's in Norfolk, right? And I would teach these DCAs like, look, y'all, combined space rescue is a thing, right? Y'all gotta understand this. These ships can go from being safe to killers in a heartbeat, and we have equipment, we have gear, and then if we don't have the equipment or the gear, you need to figure out how to safely make it work. And so I think back to you talking about the tanks and the voids. And I mean, I've I have fallen in those ballast tanks before and thought about how they go get me out of here if I gotta get it. Somebody gonna hit me, yeah. And so I I feel that for sure. All right, so you're on, and real quick, I want to hit on you said the chief, the first chief was a very good leader. The master chief was not a good leader. I appreciate the road program, right? Which means he just wanted to retire, right? You're a master chief going to an LS, he just wants to stay in San Diego. That's what happened there. I let's be honest. Um, but was there anything else besides just his attitude that made her a better leader than him?

Danielle Wiley 33:45

She was in the weeds, weeds with us. What I mean, it was like reading a PMS card. Do you understand it? She had that question and attitude. Um, she cared about us, you know. Y'all have sleep, are y'all studying? Yeah, what are you doing? How you doing it? Are you getting home safe? Are you talking to your family? That kind of thing. She always asked. And it was just, you know, you could depend on her. And she would talk to us about advancement and all that other stuff. So when I got to the ship in December, I took a test in March and I made it. I was a DC3 already. And she was like, just whatever you're doing, keep it up. But make sure you give yourself at least an hour to study. I don't care what it is. Tech manuals, MS, how to do this, life skills. And I was like, okay. And she left.

Gary Wise 34:46

The DC Central Watch was my favorite place to study. Yeah, I got so much studying done on that watch space. All the people be down there just doing all kinds of dumber stuff. I'm a studying. Yeah. Like, all I gotta do is do good on that test. I get paid no money.

Danielle Wiley 35:00

That's it. Say left.

Gary Wise 35:02

Say left. I didn't even understand evals and risk and PMA. I mean, it's just none of it. Good on the test. So, okay, so you get you're getting done with the first ship. And why do you decide to stay in the navy? Right?

Danielle Wiley 35:21

Um, it was fun, it was a lot of camaraderie. Okay, you know, at the time it was in the shop, it was 13 of us, and we were tight. We didn't go, we went on liberty nowhere, like we didn't go anywhere with RG or the other. So it was a liberty thing. It was, I'm gonna take care of you if you need some help, that kind of thing. So I just was like, okay, ain't nobody, everybody at home doing the same thing. My brothers are off doing their thing, so why not?

Gary Wise 35:56

Okay, so you decide to save the Navy, and where do you get your next job?

Danielle Wiley 36:02

I went to A School, like I said, I went to inmate A school, yeah, went to CNRSD, like um here in San Diego. They asked me if I can swim. Yes, yeah, because you had to swim in order to get on the boat.

Gary Wise 36:20

Yeah, yeah.

Danielle Wiley 36:21

So I was like, Yeah, let me do the boat thing. I don't want to stand at the gate. Yeah, and that was it. It was history from there. Until um I found out, like, one of my the guys that I used to work with, he was smoking, and the senior chief that was there was an MA, so it was covering for him. So I was like, no, no, no. I cut this short. I re-enlisted over there, I cut store duty short, and I went to the Pearl Harbor.

Gary Wise 36:55

Okay. And was your daughter still in Texas, even when you were on the shore duty?

Danielle Wiley 37:01

No, no, she had actually come back to uh San Diego. Yeah.

Gary Wise 37:05

Okay. So and I'll tell you, when I was a base master chief, I got to know more about security. And their rotation was tough. You know, they would do like three days on, two days off, two days on, three days off. Were you doing the same thing then at Harbor Security?

Danielle Wiley 37:20

At first, yes, it was shift. And I started at night because I had um a friend of mine that I went to church with. She said, Yeah, just bring it here in the night when you get off work, pick her up, and then uh she's ready for school. Yeah, because she was going to school at you know, elementary school at the time. So it was cool, and it worked out for us. And I was like, it's too much happening in this command. I gotta go. And I decides in my mind, I was stuck. I was a DC2 already, and I said, No, I need to get to that first class so I can keep on pushing. Because my tests were like, you miss it by one, you miss it by five, and you're like, no, I don't want to be stuck like that. So I'm going back out to sea, and this is the go.

Gary Wise 38:13

Yeah, it was hard. I mean, when did you make DC one? Do you remember? 2005. I we might have made it the same time. I remember when I made it, there was only like seven or nine of us that made it in the Navy, right? Right, and I remember I so I I think it was that because I made chief in 06, and I was only a first class for like 14 months.

Danielle Wiley 38:38

That's yeah, because when I made first class, it was like six percent. I was like, What?

Gary Wise 38:44

Crazy, and I I remember I came in that morning, my boy Ian Two Clark was like, Hey, wise only like six people make a DC one. I was like, Well, dang, there you go, bro. And then I picked it up, but you had to get like a I got like you had to get like a 97 percentile on dang, you have to smoke it, bro. That was a tough one for sure. So you go to the Pearl Harbor, you go in there as a DC two, you just terminated short duty early. How different was the Pearl Harbor vibe from the Comstock vibe? And oh, by the way, you're not reporting in as a first-term sailor who gets to be a part of the shop and work your way up the food chain. No, no, no, no, no. You're coming to us as a mid-range sailor that we need to leave something, manage something quickly, right?

Danielle Wiley 39:29

Right? Um, it was good, it was good. It was the same setup, you know, shipwise in the shop. We had about the same full, same folk folks, uh, but uh senior chief Odom, he was like, he was tough, you know, he still cared about you, but he was tough, and it got to the point where he was like, Because I kept saying, I can't do this, my daughter, I want to go home, and we had a whole conversation. Heart to heart was like, Listen, when you get out there or you get home, same people doing the same thing. Now you got to do this nine to five. You're working double, you know, double, you know, hard just to take care of your daughter. What are you gonna do? Here it is, maybe pays you. Oh, then you do have to show up on time. They give you uniforms, they feed you, you stay in your watch, you're still learning. You're doing your craft, you're still learning.

Gary Wise 40:34

When you were in the Pearl Harbor, did you keep your daughter in San Diego or did she move her back to Texas when you were going back to the ship again?

Danielle Wiley 40:40

No, she was still here in San Diego, San Diego with me. My uh uncle that they had had bought a house in Temecula, and my aunt was like, Y'all can come stay here.

Gary Wise 40:53

That's awesome. So it does take a village, but you were commuting from Temecula to San Diego as a DC too? Yeah, like that's something you don't typically see people do to they're like a chief, an officer, they got that gas money.

Danielle Wiley 41:09

I was ready. Anything for her, it was it.

Gary Wise 41:13

And then the other thing is, you know, going back to the ship, you know, you're gonna get them. Was the hours different on the black on the Pearl Harbor than on the Comstock?

Danielle Wiley 41:21

No, because you know, we engineers, we worked long and hard, right?

Gary Wise 41:25

So it's the same, you long? Hey, but LSDs are a different beast too, because those are engine men ships, right? Those diesels. When I first got to the Ashland, I really didn't understand that engine men. I mean, I met them at ATG, but I didn't really know they got down like that, right? Yeah, I I knew Steam, right? That was my main friend and butter. I kind of knew gas turbo from riding them at ATG, but for me, those places was like air conditioned, right? But when I got to the Ashland and I really got to know those snipes that was Injumid, like y'all down there getting it. It's freaking, they were working down there, yeah, for sure. Um, so when did you get the opportunity? Like, what was your job when you got to the Pearl Harbor? Did you just work some of the super out of the way of the men general shop?

Danielle Wiley 42:13

Or did they have different jobs the the senior chief, senior chief Odom was like, You're the only one in this shop that don't mess up the PMS. Meaning, Halon, I was writing the text, right? Yeah, that kind of thing. And once you're done, you know you got to check the heads and stuff. I ain't got to tell you. But he was like, I don't, you're the only one that I don't have to go back to and recheck.

Gary Wise 42:36

And then he said, I need you to real quick. Hold on, Danny. Before you so, what she means by check the heads, right? Halon is this compressed gas in this big cylinder. And what we would do is take these hoses off of there, and we would send carbon dioxide through these hoses to make sure the plungers would push down, and then at the end of that, you have to vent off all that carbon dioxide and push those plungers back up. And if you don't do that, you're gonna tighten that up and you will hear when they're rumble like hell is coming because they all think they're gonna die because it's halon, right? And and it's a big problem, right? You gotta change out a cylinder, you gotta explain it to the boss. We just depleted the ozone layer, evidently. We did it in Japan one time on the Bellawood, they were so mad they had to like write a letter to Japan and say we are sorry for depleting the ozone layer of Japan.

Danielle Wiley 43:31

Oh my gosh, it was a lot.

Harbor Security Shore Duty And Return To Sea

Gary Wise 43:34

So that's what she means. So when she's saying the senior chief trusted her to be the one because I used to have there was a time when I was on George Washington, like my guys, I was going down verifying all the hands as the senior chief because they did me dirty once. Yep, that's it. DC one, DC two, y'all gonna be looking real silly while I'm down there checking all this for y'all. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, yeah, you know, to get the point. So I think it's very cool that he already registered that level of trust in you and your ability to say quality assurance-wise, and then oh, by the way, tag outs, yeah, we're not using computers to do tag outs at that point, right? You are pen and ink, yes, all right. Just to make sure if everyone understands and listening to us, because that's some real damage control stuff, right? That really is okay. So he sees, so he puts you essentially in a leadership role. Are you like a mid-level leader? Like, is there a first class working over you at the time?

Danielle Wiley 44:37

Um, there was until she left, and he said, I don't need you in the gender workshop, I need you in ER09. Lo and behold, I was like, if I keep showing them what I'm doing, I'm not gonna work myself out of none of that.

Gary Wise 44:58

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 44:59

But that was it, and it got to the point to where the DCA was like, if PMS isn't done on Thursday, I need an email. I need to send it to me so I can send it to the rest of these departments. And if they're not done on Friday, then they have to come or stay. They can come on the weekend. I said, sir, I don't want to be here on weekends. He said, You're not. They'll be done. Sure enough, we were done.

Gary Wise 45:30

So you were running the kind of a damage control petty officer program where the departments were doing their maintenance. You were just like the facilitator and the manager. Those are the best kind, let's be honest. Those are the best kind. I I hate when I see these shops full of temporary assigned people that and I and I've made great progress with those sailors, don't get me wrong, but it's a management fiasco and it's not right. Like ultimately, the department heads are responsible for the readiness of their spaces, right? Right to the CO. So that's good to hear, right? Because a lot of some people uh they don't get that, they don't get that. I I had to actually so when I got to Ogden, I was I got put in DCPO right away. I didn't even get no, don't stop or go, don't collect $200. I got set up by the other DC ones that were there before I even got there. That was DC two. They were like, Why is this going to ER9? But luckily, I had been a DCPO on my first ship as a requirement. So I knew the maintenance for the most part, right? And then when I figured out, okay, reading through the books, talking to other people on the waterfront, because I'm emailing other people, trying to hear how they're doing there, how they're I'm networking already, you know, trying to figure it out. And I'm like, wait, I don't have to have all these knuckleheads work for me. Man, I got instructions from other people. I remember the XO came down and did a spot check, and he I only had like three people in my shop because I fired everybody else. Fired. I didn't even care. Y'all gone. I don't need you. And the XO was like, DC2, how many people work here? And I said, uh, the instruction says 11, but I have three. And he says, How does the instruction say 11 and you have three? I said, because they didn't give me good people, so I fired them, sir. We're doing just fine. He was like, No, DC2, that's not just fine. We got to figure that out. And my chief had already told me, he said, You fire those people, that's fine, wise. You ain't getting no replacements. Okay, I don't care, whatever. Yeah, and so then uh the XO was like, Well, what would you do differently? I said, as a matter of fact, I have an instruction here that here's what I would do. I give him the instruction. He comes back down the next day, swings by my shop, and it's like, Hey, we're doing that, right? He's like, let the DCA and the chief know how back, how bass awkwards is that, right? For sure. I go up to tell the chief of the DCA, I'm all excited, like, yo, he said we could do this. I I wrote the instruction where every LPO on the ship worked for me. Like, yeah, yes, and the the DCA was hype. He was like, Oh, wow, that's awesome, DC2. The chief was angry. Oh, he was mad. Because you know, now I know now looking back on it, he got to go deal with that fallout in the mess, right? Who's this DC? Just got all my all my first classes working for him. Because even the CMC was like, he came to see me. He was like, What the hell, DC2?

Danielle Wiley 48:29

But hey, oh, you pick a choose.

Gary Wise 48:31

I shot my shot, man. But I had my work. I had gotten, I'd gotten the instruction from somebody else, I plagiarized it, made it work. And again, I don't know no different, I don't know what's I'm just trying to make it work better, right?

Danielle Wiley 48:45

Right.

Gary Wise 48:46

Um, and get it done. And then when I came to ATG, and and you know, it was it's a shame that for a long time, and even now, the DC community, those chiefs are like one of the most fired rates in the Navy, right? And when you look at it, whenever I hear DCC gets fired, unless it's illegal, unethical, or immoral, right? It's probably the direct result of command climate and not really value and damage control.

Danielle Wiley 49:12

Yes.

Gary Wise 49:12

That's that's probably what it was. And then as soon as they fire that guy, they're gonna give somebody else all the love and attention in the world to fix it, right? Right. And so I used to always teach DCCs like, bro, you gotta you gotta you gotta be screaming, right? You cannot allow that to happen to you, otherwise you're gonna you're gonna be feeling real bad. And I saw that a lot at ATG, right? So uh when you make DC one on board the Pearl, did you want to go to a float training group San Diego next?

Danielle Wiley 49:45

It was um option. Um, I was just trying not to move around too much because my daughter needed some stability, school, and it was like either ATG or go to another ship because you know, once you got a skill, the you know, you didn't hold on that skill, you want to go to another LSD.

Running ER09 And Owning Readiness

Gary Wise 50:05

And I was like, no, no who those are hard duty, yeah. That's hard duty, especially as a young sailor. Yeah, it's a hard duty, like you got every the LS it's good preparation though, because you get it to touch every kind of system there is that right, that's that's huge. Um, but it's but they're not easy, like it's it's not an easy ride, it's not an easy mission, it's ballasting is whole, you know, it's a whole that's a thing, right? Yeah, um okay, so you get to a float training group San Diego, which is the essentially with the inspection in the we'll say the trainers for the dance for the fleet out of San Diego and inspectors, right? What did you think you got there? Did you I mean that you haven't had short duty, it sounds like yet, really?

Danielle Wiley 50:53

No, I would it was it was good. Yeah, it was on friendly people, it was a senior command. We didn't have to deal with all the other stuff that comes with the junior sailor. Yeah, it was good, it was and then the first classes, you know, take care of themselves if they had issues, you know, they were like the junior sailor, but it wasn't a lot of that.

Gary Wise 51:20

Really, it is a very senior command. You're right. First class was about as low as you can go for riders of ships, right? And I mean, I think you had a great tour at ATG. I remember I mean you made chief there, you were doing good things for the first class mess.

Danielle Wiley 51:35

Yeah.

Gary Wise 51:36

When you went through Chief's initiation, when you picked up Chief, were you surprised when you made Chief, or did you kind of know it was it was about that time?

Danielle Wiley 51:45

It was surprising because the number was low.

Gary Wise 51:49

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 51:50

And the numbers being low from my career on is it became a pattern. So it was 24 of us when we made chief of all the Navy. And I was like, why just 24?

Gary Wise 52:06

Yeah, that's low.

Danielle Wiley 52:07

It was a lot, that's low.

Gary Wise 52:09

That's low. Yeah, we we had Brian Nelson when we got there.

Danielle Wiley 52:12

Oh my god, yes.

Gary Wise 52:14

I'm trying to get Brian on this show. I already hit him up once, right? Brian Brian Nelson saved my career, man. Right? People don't know Brian Nelson saved my career. I was not supposed to go to the DC shop at ATG. What are we supposed to go? ATFP. I had I'd never even been there, I never had an AC until after ATG. So I was riding ships as an ATG inspector with no DKs, no, no, no 4805 spool, no. We couldn't tell. Huh?

Danielle Wiley 52:50

We couldn't tell.

Gary Wise 52:51

People can tell. And uh, I remember we did a ATG, like a modernization and an alignment thing. And I'm up, I'm the facilitator because at that time San Diego was like the mission area function lead for DC, right? Okay, Devon Wilmore was remember DJ, remember Dewan Wilmore?

Danielle Wiley 53:09

Do I anyway?

Gary Wise 53:10

DJ was there, right? And I ain't seen DJ forever, but he was there, and I'm in the front modern facilitators thing, and all these mass chiefs are like, they gotta have all these schools, all these NECs, and DJ laughing. They're like, Why are you laughing? They're like, Because Wise ain't got none of that crap, and he over here just you know, he knows it. But as DC man, you can learn it on the deck plates, yeah. I mean, that's where I learned it. I I never went to I went to Fort Lenawood as a chief, I went to Smash as a chief, right? Yeah, and out to George Washington after I left ATG. Oh my gosh. True story, and it was Brian because so I was a DC one on Ogden, Taylor of the Year, and I had orders to go be in RDC at Great Lakes, and they denied me because of my tattoos on my arm. They denied me because of my tattoos on my arm. Well, at that same time, the housing bubble burst, right? And I couldn't afford to sell my house anyway. And so I was like, bro, we I made chief that year, and I was like, hey, let me get another ship in San Diego because I just made chief. I'm doing good. I think let me keep going. He says, No, you're gonna be a Navy recruiter in San Diego. I was like, no, bro, I already been a recruiter, I don't want to be a recruiter again. So then I got ATG San Diego, but I had passed around and got force protection qualified. Oh wow. I was on the force protection training team on the ship. So they sent me to ATG under force protection orders. So I ran over to ATG and I went to the DC man. I went and found and I met Brian and I was like, man, I am a D seaman, I need to be with the D seaman. And and he he hooked it up, man.

Danielle Wiley 55:07

That's cool. Are you there?

Gary Wise 55:09

Yeah, I'm here. I'm sorry. Yeah, so Brian, Brian had the juice, man. He just made a phone call, and luckily, Ryan Rupp, remember Ryan Rupp?

Danielle Wiley 55:18

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 55:19

Ryan was a DC chief. We made chief the same time. Ryan was coming from Sears School and he wanted to be a force protection guy. So Brian was like checking out Rupp can go over to Force Protection, Wise can come over here to DC and game over. And that was that was good. That was that was God. That was God. That was God in the form of Brian. Yes, that I that's I messed with Brian, like Brian. I need you to get on this podcast. I need to give you your flowers, bro, because you changed you saved my career. And uh yeah. So I remember I remember when you got to ATG, and you were never on my team. We might have done a few things here and there, but you were like on Ben Andrews' team, I think it was. But I remember everyone, I had Hughes, who was your running buddy, right? You guys were you guys were my guy. I'm trying to get him on the show. I just talked to him the other day. Wow. Right? He's a retired chief now up in uh he retired, he's living in Virginia. And uh, but him and him and you were always kind of talking together, like figuring it out what y'all was gonna do, keeping each other with the energy. Yeah, and so then when you made chief, of course, I know for him it was just a little bittersweet, but he was on a different path, right? Uh and when you made chief, did you see I just did the a podcast with six? Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, yeah. You had a good group that you made chief with. Yeah, it was uh it was good, it was a strong group. When you look back on your initiation process, um what did you think when it was all said and done?

Danielle Wiley 56:58

First with that group, because it was only 10 of us and it was strong. Those tools, you kind of when you get to the ship again, you kind of use them, and then that's when that like-mindedness comes in when it comes to the DC or networking with the other one, or I need a boastmate, or we need to work together, we get this done and go from there. And within the command, at the time we were there, that was a good group of people.

Gary Wise 57:33

Very good, very good. A flow training group San Diego, that year group, like 2007, 2010, 11. Yeah, there is heavy hitters in the in the fleet now from that group, yes, for sure.

Danielle Wiley 57:46

Yeah, it was good. So I'm glad I'm I was in a company of smart DC men because you know you're either smart or you're cocky.

Gary Wise 57:56

Yeah, hey, we need a little bit of both to be successful in that community, man. Let's be honest. Ain't no one everyone tell you you're good. You gotta figure it out. Yeah, look in the mirror, you can do that.

Danielle Wiley 58:10

It was good, and we got along and we worked it out. If we had an issue, not just with them amongst ourselves, but if there was a like something we had to work out on the ship, we would talk about it and we come to a solution. Like we didn't come with problems and just leave it as a problem. So it helped me when I say I stopped at ATG and all those tools, training on the ship, um, knowing how the ship would do it vice on the training side of it was a lot.

Gary Wise 58:41

It was it was a lot, and learning, I think for me, the biggest thing was seeing what the fleet was really like, yeah, right? Because you only had your own experience on that ship, and you always thought, like, we must be the worst ship in the navy, right? We must be the worst ship of the you start riding these ships, you'd be like, yo, it's pretty wild west out in some of these places. Yes, I don't want to be here. You go to your next ship. I mean, when I went to my next ship, I was able to give my whole chain of command a brief on the on the average damage control readiness in the navy. Here's why we're gonna be okay, right? Right, yeah, and then they could trust. So let's now let's go to your to your daughter, right? So when you and your husband, you when you have get pregnant with your daughter, was that did you plan for that? Was you like, I really want to have another baby, and this is the time for that?

Danielle Wiley 59:30

Okay, this is touchy because of the separation anxiety I didn't realize was going through with my first one until I realized they were sixteen years apart. Well, they are sixteen years apart. And he was like, Can we have another baby? I'm thirty s I'm thirty six five at the time. And my husband is nine years older than me.

Gary Wise 1:00:02

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:00:04

And I was like, okay, Lord, you know how what I went through the first time. Your will. And sure enough, I was geriatric pregnant because you know after 35, that's what they treat us as geriatric presence pregnancies. And she came here nine pounds, 22 inches. Wow. Yes. A lot. Tore me up. And has not started growing yet. Yet she is 14. She plays a trumpet. She sings. She's an outstanding kid. She does academic excellence all the you know every year. She just had um what do you call it? A scholarship award from seventh and eighth, eighth grade. So yeah, she is excelling.

Gary Wise 1:01:01

Very cool.

Danielle Wiley 1:01:01

She does math with no calculator. I need a whole calculator.

Gary Wise 1:01:09

But it's a different technology, right?

Danielle Wiley 1:01:11

It is this this whole generation.

ATG San Diego And Making Chief

Gary Wise 1:01:13

Yeah, it's just different. And you know what's cool is after I left ATG, I went to the George Washington, and your husband would be out there doing the training for the ships. And so my sailors would work with him. I'll learn how to do like the SOPBs and all that stuff. So that was always real cool for me because I never knew him in the States, but to get to see him over there, that was kind of dope.

Danielle Wiley 1:01:33

Yeah, it was cool. He's smart too. Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:01:39

Well, but he's an electrician. Calm down, Danny. And not like you, let's not play games, ma'am. You pretty freaking smart. So you here you are pregnant, having a baby, have your baby. Do all your you do all your pregnancy stuff at ATG?

Danielle Wiley 1:01:55

I did.

Gary Wise 1:01:56

Okay.

Danielle Wiley 1:01:57

Remember Captain Bailey? Huh? Remember Captain Bailey? He was. I don't know if he knew that I was married at the time, but he had asked me, what are you gonna do because you're pregnant and you need like this whole support system? And I said, sir, I got a husband, I got another daughter. He didn't know my personal life or nothing.

Gary Wise 1:02:23

Yeah, and uh, were you married when you joined the Navy or did you get married later? Later, later, okay.

Danielle Wiley 1:02:30

Yeah, okay.

Gary Wise 1:02:32

Do you remember what you get married about?

Danielle Wiley 1:02:35

Huh?

Gary Wise 1:02:35

Well, did you get married when you were at the MA duty doing the harbor security stuff?

Danielle Wiley 1:02:39

Or I was I got married when I was on the Pearl Harbor Harbor, Harbor, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:02:45

I mean, because you were always somebody that had boundaries, right? You didn't always let everyone know your business, right? And so I 100% when I first met your husband, I did not put that together. He put me into that, like he let me know. I was because I didn't recognize okay, Wiley, I got it, right? I was like, Yeah, ATG as that. I said, Oh, you know, Daniel? I was like, Yeah, I know that's my what? Who are you? That's my girl, and then and then it was, I think we connected on that part, right? But yeah, you did a good job for whatever y'all reasons, right? So I could see where people are assuming, right? Because you kept your stuff tight, and there you go.

Danielle Wiley 1:03:24

I just didn't want my personal life to enter, you know, like people bring personal to work and work to personal. I knew I gotta separate that.

Gary Wise 1:03:35

Yeah, it's tough, it's tough, especially when you gotta be uh you get judged a lot when you enter the leadership arena, right? You know that. Yeah, and you want to protect the people that are in when I went to the CMC program, that was one of Erica's biggest concerns. She's like, I'm not expected to do anything. Am I? I was like, No, like do what you want to do. But let's be honest, right? There's some unwritten rules. I've got friends that are in the CMC community that they got told they couldn't get a job either because they were single or because their wife was not involved.

Danielle Wiley 1:04:10

What? That's a laugh.

Gary Wise 1:04:13

Yes, because they got this whole well, the spy your wife needs to do whatever. No, she's not in the military, bro. He's not in the military, bro. Those the service members in the military, right? You they have these little unwritten rules, and so I could see that, right? Um, so there you are, ATG, you've been there probably four years, maybe five at that point. When do you decide to drop a warrant package? When does that happen?

Danielle Wiley 1:04:39

When I was at H E G. Yeah, nobody knew about it. Nobody knew about it.

Gary Wise 1:04:44

I didn't know, but I mean, was that something you had already been thinking about before you even made chief? Was that something you were considering?

Danielle Wiley 1:04:53

Well, yeah, I you know, the goal was just to be a chief, and then um I was like, my uncle over here is like the man, and I want to be like the man, not realizing, um, of course, sacrifice, but just knowing what you know and how to use it and articulate you good. So the first time I did it, I was at ATG, and then out of ATG, I had the opportunity to pick the ship that I wanted to go to because I was in the scheduling of you know where the events were, and I saw all the pre-comps come up, and I said, Yeah, let me, I want to go to Anchorage and call Detailer. I want to go to Anchorage, and sure enough, I met them in they was at maybe the second level of pre-com. We were in a building, and I sent me the package there, did you? And by the time I got off Anchorage, no, no, no, this was during the Anchorage, and I had a chain that said, You're senior chief already. Um, you the only DCCS here. What are you gonna do next? And I was like, I don't know, sir. He said, I see you done sub, you know, like you submitted packages. What are you gonna do? And I said, Well, I don't want to be an incense. He said, No, you ain't gonna have to do that. Just wait till you're out of that window at the time, and then just submit for 7330.

Gary Wise 1:06:39

So hold up real quick, go back. So you picked up singing chief when you were on board the USS Anchorage. You picked up seeing Chief because of ATG, right? I mean, let's be honest.

Danielle Wiley 1:06:48

I know it was me too.

Gary Wise 1:06:50

I made singing cheap out to ATG too. Everybody was like, How the hell you make singing chief? Uh-huh. You don't understand that's a large mess. A lot of my competitions right there. If I found success there, but then everyone's like, Well, you gotta go out, you can prove it on the ship. Blah blah blah. I'm gonna prove it as a senior chief, bro. That's all I'm gonna do. That's it, that was it. That's it. That was it. You know what's funny when I got to ATG, the generation before my generation had a much different energy, right? So I think I think, like, at least for the DC shop, I think Brian's leadership, I would say Ben, I would say me, I would say a few other people. We really kind of changed that energy, the swagger, if you will, of that shop, right? Because when I got there, all they told me was, Welcome to the boneyard, the DC men don't get nothing here. We're the worst in the in the blah blah blah, right?

Danielle Wiley 1:07:44

We have everything.

Gary Wise 1:07:46

Uh that's but this is what they're telling me, right? And Brian had just became the LCPO, and he was like, Wise, don't listen to that. That's we're gonna be all right. And my my team leader at the time was named Greg Green, and Greg was a very quiet man, but Greg was like, they don't know this, wise, but I'm the number one chief of this command. He's gonna be all right, blah. So I was like, but that was just Greg, it wasn't the whole thing, right? We went to go on a run of Boston or that Joker, we went to because we was all health again, DC Miller, healthy, competitive spirit. We're going to all be a little bit aggressive, energetic, uh, arrogant, if you will, because we're gonna be pushing, we gotta push that line. And then a lot of us came out of there making rank relatively quickly, right? Which is perfect, right? So I can see where you followed right along on that pattern. You did the work, you did the job, and yo, okay. I got I have a baby here, and you probably kept right on grinding, making them money, whatever you did, whether it was helping out Henry, whether it was whatever, Mr. Kim, remember Mr. Kim? Mr. Kim? Yeah, oh my god. Yeah, he used to get fired up, man. I used to love that guy. He would get fired up, and so I could see you making senior chief on and what's anchorage, that an LPD-17 class? Yeah, okay. I could see that, and so you're how was it being a senior chief for you on the ship?

Danielle Wiley 1:09:14

It was the same. I was the only DC. DC, I had two DC1s, shop full of folks, and you know, those ships that's still ER09 and ER-4. But the good thing about that was when I made Senior Chief, the DC2 made DC ones, there were both DC ones. Everybody on that pre-com in the engineering world and the DC world specifically, yeah, all ranked everywhere. Yes, and it was good.

Gary Wise 1:09:46

What and it was good. I love that because I mean that the George Washington was my ship like that, the Anchorage was your ship like that. Where before them, I mean, I went, I mean it was second class a chief on Ogden. So I never, I mean, was not the same as when I checked on board as a chief, right? And then made me a chief. And so, yeah, I mean that's where you can really plant your flag and be like, look at my team. This is my team, right? My people. So what was it about? So the warrant was really just because of your uncle, and because of your you looking up to him, you just wanted to go do that.

Danielle Wiley 1:10:24

Kind of sorta. I mean, I've never really ran in. I take that back. I ran into one other warrant, Darl the best, female type, but um I didn't really enter or see like the warrant side of it. You know, the LDO, they're all everywhere. And it was just like, if you're gonna be a leader, you're gonna be a leader, be a leader, yeah, for sure.

Gary Wise 1:10:52

Well, and I think to your other point, that Darla Vest lady, um, I've never met her, never was she a D seaman as well? Was she a she was a HT. About to say, because I've never seen very many female warrant officers in the engineering world, right? Right, so you're definitely gonna be a unique part of that landscape character, short, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Okay, um, so you get warrant off of Anchorage. I did. Okay, and and so, of course, you know, you never been to sea before as a warrant officer, so I guess you gotta go to sea again.

Danielle Wiley 1:11:30

And I ended up on the TR.

Gary Wise 1:11:33

I think I remember you emailing me, and you're like, bro, I'm gonna need some help with the scary.

Precom USS Anchorage And Senior Chief

Danielle Wiley 1:11:40

So when I got there, he was Jeff Shipman. I never forget him. I still talk to him every now and then, but he was the best changed as an officer to me because he received what I would needed, and he would give me feedback, he would give me some mentorship, and that was it. And it was me and a friend of mine, Travis Ramsay. We came from MCG together together, and uh, we ended up on the same ship. So I learned a lot when it came to war drum stuff, because the war jump sees you. They really don't know you like your background or none of that. It's just uh oh she define myself, she define myself. Whatever five must have says, that's what it is. And if you got it, you can't agree with that, then go talk to the chain. But nobody talked to the chain because the chain was saying, Whatever she said, that's what it is, and it was good, it was real good.

Gary Wise 1:12:47

That's good.

Danielle Wiley 1:12:47

I didn't have to go to school before that, I just came in as the SME.

Gary Wise 1:12:53

That's I'll tell you, that's the best case scenario for at least if I would ever go on warrant officer, right? Because I mean, I never really wanted to be an MPA or nothing like that. Like going fire marshal and aircraft carrier, that's that's my that'd be exactly right. At least to warm up to the closed room and figure it all out, right? Yeah, uh, you know, when I went when I went to CMC, I chose an amphibian purposefully because I wanted to go somewhere I felt comfortable as a sailor while I learned how to do some of these other things in that community, right? Right. And so I could see where at least as a fire, but the thing I think it was awesome. Your Chang was involved, but what I don't understand is it goes from fire marshal to the captain, right? We really want to play that game, yeah, right? This is a command safety program. And I just tell my fire, I would tell my fire marshals that, you know, when I was a senior chief, I'd be like, sir, you are the QA to all these other organizations, right? So as much as I love the DCA, if he's not doing his job, you got to throw flag on the plate. Yes, right. If the Chang ain't doing his job as the damn control officer, you gotta throw flag on the plate. Yes, right, because your job, if the if the XO ain't doing his job as the D set leader, right, you gotta throw flag on the plate. Your job is to go to the captain and say, Captain, our damage control organization is solid. And that was a lot of fire marshals that didn't have the damage control background that I had, were they were against that, right? Because they were not that they wanted to hide, they they didn't they weren't ready to do that. But as these seamen, we always was right there in front of the captain. Like, yes, it is what it is. So, and so you said Theodore Roosevelt, it was that how long were you on board that ship? Was that two years?

Danielle Wiley 1:14:36

That was uh extended tour for me because the prior, he was a prior M M. He didn't have the school that I had already because you know we go to TCA school before, and he had to have the school. I got there in 2015, I didn't leave till 2019, and that was because my relief needed to go to school, but that was a good command, that was a good deployment. We did an eight-month deployment, and when I tell you when I came home, it was good, it was good, like it was camaraderie. We saw ports, not too many, but we still saw ports, and the crew was you know this when it comes to sailors, if they don't like you, they vote you off the island. Yeah, it was hard work. I was standing watch on a bridge, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:15:34

Yeah, yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:15:35

I was standing, I got my swap in on that ship, and that was a lot because you know, as a DC man, when we go to the bridge, we dropping off the draft. That was it.

Gary Wise 1:15:45

Getting drill package signed.

Danielle Wiley 1:15:49

And when I tell you, um I had to separate like compartment type compartment lines. This is the bridge. You get on the second deck, this is the job, and on the bridge is a whole nother world. Yeah, oh, ding, conning the ship, that big old ship, and I had to stand on the box just to look out the window.

Gary Wise 1:16:11

Yes, yeah, yeah, I seen it. I said I again I did my CMC tour, I stayed on the bridge. I was like, Y'all don't understand how cool this is for me to be on the bridge because my whole career was in the plant or at AC Central, yeah, or like you said, dropping off the draft, right? Never did I get to just be up there and see how cool that whole thing was, the interaction and like the formality and the processes and procedures. Like, so I think a lot of sailors can benefit from getting a little more exposure to that world and see, and then also having a little more grace for the JO that has to go up there and get their qualls while the chief is like, I need you to be down here being Dvo too. Like, no, bro. I was always like, Go get your qualls, go get your world, whole different world, right? So, how was that for you going from being the senior chief that had all the sailors to now being a fire marshal and you got an assistant fire marshal, a DCA, ADCA, Divo, Chief, senior chief? Like, you got a lot of layers of leaders there. I mean, I remember on board GW, I would get all my leaders together and I said, look, all roads lead to me. Yes. All y'all, I don't care what you think you want, you need you call me, I'll get you the manpower. Because I can't have y'all power struggling over who's gonna get what done because they all got responsibility, they all have different roles, right? Right. Did you have that same challenge on TR?

Danielle Wiley 1:17:42

Not much so a challenge, but you know, all leads, all roles lead to me. So it was a conversation of if you got questions, concerns, I'm here. I don't want you out here on the ship, and the cake is just talking to you crazy. If they need to talk to you because you feel like you're speaking for me, they need to come talk to me. That was it.

Gary Wise 1:18:04

Yeah, well, because you had like your duty fire marshals. I mean, that was another big one. The duty fire, the IET musters, yes, still IET musters and set zebra. Those were the two biggest headaches for I think everybody, you know. And my fire marshal, there was a period of time that my fire marshal would be at every duty fire marshal, duty muster, and to make sure the IET was solid, and they would not let the off-going section go until the IET was good. Yeah, that's and that's common now, that's not new, right? Yeah, yeah. All right, so when you're on board that ship four years, right? So like three and a half years. That's a man, that's a long ride. And what are you thinking about doing after that? And how many years did you have in the navy at that point?

Danielle Wiley 1:18:54

I was at my 21, maybe 22 year in the mark, mark in the navy. Call the detail there. He ship, of course. But he was like, What do you want to do? I said, I don't care.

Gary Wise 1:19:13

Of course. What do you mean, of course? You just said four years on that dang aircraft carrier, ship, of course.

Danielle Wiley 1:19:19

I don't care. Whatever it is, I do know this. I want to stay in San Diego. And um he said, Okay, I got the Essex. What is the Essex? What are they doing? What are they at? He was like, No, it's a steamship. This is what we're doing. I said, Okay, I go. But when I got to the Essex, I was the maintenance manager. Oh, DC maintenance saved my life when it came to doing the maintenance manager business because all we do is D use, all we do is maintenance. That was all it was.

Gary Wise 1:19:59

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:19:59

And keeping up with uh Port Engineer, the chain was okay, but in that position you work for the admin side because you have to report to the XO.

Gary Wise 1:20:11

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:20:12

And it was a lot of maintenance because LP, I'm sorry, L H D. A lot of maintenance.

Gary Wise 1:20:19

Yeah. And you're doing the maintenance for the whole engineering department.

Danielle Wiley 1:20:23

The ship. Whoa, stop playing. I'm not messing around. What are you the release? You were the three and low. Uh yes. No, I had a a senior chief that did the 3M stuff, but I was still the 3MO and the maintenance for the ship.

Gary Wise 1:20:41

Yeah, but you know what? I agree. DC saved your life for sure. And that's project management, right? Like D. Yes. You know, it's okay. That, but that's a lot. Yeah. And I I gotta I hate that damn 3M program, but uh all those jobs, managing all the money, managing who's gonna get what, kicking back what jobs ain't written properly, all be mad because you deleting the jobs, and I'm like, the department has has to like approve that, otherwise, it's gone.

Danielle Wiley 1:21:16

You got seven days, period.

Gary Wise 1:21:18

Yeah, well, like you said, Chang was all right, but you didn't like you said, you work for Chang. That's you're you can't be an engineer department per se, fully in charge, because there's got to be a check and the balance, right? Right, there's gotta be a check, even though the Chang usually is also the manage maintenance officer, right? It's yeah, it's just like D set, right? Chang is not supposed to be part of D set, but they always involve because the XO's involved, right?

Danielle Wiley 1:21:44

Yeah, always, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:21:47

So how and you it's a man, that how long is that tour?

Commissioning To Warrant And Carrier Life

Danielle Wiley 1:21:52

That was two years because I got there 19. I left in 21 on deployment. Here's the interesting thing about that because I left on deployment for Essex August 12, 2021. I left Essex in December of 21, got on Lincoln, came back home because Lincoln was on deployment August 11, 22. I was gone. The longest year of deployment, my family's still intact. I got good support system with my husband because he understands the Navy. He's retired, so they good.

Gary Wise 1:22:36

Yeah. So you went from the Essex to the Lincoln, like damn near cross-decked, background on another deployment again.

Danielle Wiley 1:22:44

Yep.

Gary Wise 1:22:45

Why did you go in the Lincoln? Just to kept putting you on. Was it because you don't want to stay in San Diego, or there's just no short duty for warrant officers?

Danielle Wiley 1:22:53

It just that's it is what it is. We stay out to see her. And you know, with being engineers, we farm between. So when I get to Lincoln, I'm supposed to work with the SMBM. The changes like, no, I don't care what you came here to do, but I need you to be my fire marshal. I bet I can't walk out of it. And uh the rest is history.

Gary Wise 1:23:23

Well, I mean, here's the deal, right? There's a lot of people that struggle in that job, and if they don't have a strong DC chief back like presence, like people helping support them, they're gonna be set up for failure because that and unfortunately in the damage control community, at least in my you're either really, really good or you're really, really not good. Right. And no, there's really no in-betweens in the chief rank because it's hard, right? And so I could see where the chang is like, oh, you already done the warrant officer tour thing once, and you understand what it's like to be a fire marshal, you understand what it's like to manage all the IETs, training, all that. Oh, yeah. I so what are you now like a CW04? Yeah, okay. So how many years you got in the Navy now?

Danielle Wiley 1:24:10

I'm at 29.

Gary Wise 1:24:12

Shut up. 29. I guess I would be too if I'd stayed in the Navy, right? If I had not retired, yeah. Um, so are you still on board the Lincoln?

Danielle Wiley 1:24:23

No, I left Lincoln at 23. I work at AirPec now. The captain that was on Lincoln with me was my exo on TR. And when it would come time for me to transfer, he says, these are his words. He said, I know you want to stay on deployment because I was gonna extend and go on deployment with them. But he was like, Nope, I need you to go change the naving. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He said, You're going to N7, right? That's the training piece of it. Training piece of it is all the carriers. Okay, sir, I got it. I still work with ATG.

Gary Wise 1:25:04

Yeah, that's who I worked for when I was at ATG San Diego. No one else understood what I was doing. I was driving the AirPac, working over there with them guys, putting together the airport train manual, all that other stuff. So hold on. You were on Lincoln before you went to AirPac. Mm-hmm. Okay, got it. So you were on all right. I don't want to get my carriers mixed because I messed around with Theodore Roosevelt a little bit once upon a time. You didn't do it then. Okay. Um, so you're at AirPac now doing their N7 stuff. Is it only for the Pacific Fleet or are you doing it for all the fleet?

Danielle Wiley 1:25:39

All of them.

Gary Wise 1:25:40

Okay.

Danielle Wiley 1:25:41

But that N7, I'm the N72. So the N72 resides with the big guy, the three-star over here in it. So in the storm, well, the responsibility of things, we take care of Lant, Tech, Pacific Northwest, which is Japan. So we fly, I take care of the maintenance base, basic base, then turn them over to the ISIC and the CSG.

Gary Wise 1:26:08

And do you still get the floating training group people to come be like your little eyes and ears and do all that? But you're like the TLO, if you will, or you're like the head inspector?

Danielle Wiley 1:26:17

Yeah, the inspector. We represent Tycom. So we work with the TLO, they bring the DC teams over, and um history, it's just history. Training is training. Yes. Yes.

Gary Wise 1:26:38

Oh, I remember that mess.

Danielle Wiley 1:26:40

It's a whole mess. So now they're trying to switch it over to the nipper instead of sipper.

Gary Wise 1:26:46

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:26:48

Whatever. But it's still the same training. And we hit them all. I recently just up we just updated the DC PQS.

Gary Wise 1:26:58

Yeah.

Danielle Wiley 1:26:59

That was a whole fiasco.

Gary Wise 1:27:01

Was it? Why is it what was what all the even though it was a naval message, there was one DC message here, and I'm trying to hold together that tried to speak for every other DC master chieftain in the Navy.

Danielle Wiley 1:27:23

Didn't give them the opportunity to put their inputs, none of that. So as a Tycoon, I knew that PQS was gonna come prop come across my desk. And I was like, okay, I'll wait. Sure enough, I reached out to everybody, SurfPat, LCS, Phil, um, all of them, and we retracted that PQS gave our input, and now we reach all platforms, all training, all sailors.

Gary Wise 1:28:02

Right. So is Hossel still over at Surfak? Yes. Is Ben Andrew still over there too, or is he with you at AirPac?

Danielle Wiley 1:28:12

Uh uh Ben's over there with uh Hossel.

Gary Wise 1:28:16

They've been linked together for so dang long. Forever. That was his guy before when he first got to ATG. He was with I think before Hossel went to the 3M team or something like that. Yeah, uh yeah, they've they've been together a long time. You know what's funny? I did the DCPQS once upon a time. I know. Did you see my name? I see them all. Yeah, I did that working group in like 2015, I think, 2014, whatever. It was a dog and pony show, man. Like, I remember doing it. Like, why do we have all this 100 series, 200 series that nobody does? Like, it's such a lame thing. No one does it. Yeah, yeah. Y'all keep y'all keep fighting the good fight. So you had 29 years now. Yes. What's gonna do next for you?

Danielle Wiley 1:29:05

I'm trying to retire. My youngest is in high school now. Okay, and I'm not missing nothing. Nothing of high school. Nothing.

Gary Wise 1:29:14

Yeah, you missed a lot. You missed a lot. So if you do drop papers and retire, when would that when would that be, do you think?

Danielle Wiley 1:29:24

My um 30 years mark in the navy, May 1st, 26th. And with officers, you know, we have the statutory retirement date. Um, I'm done. Yeah. Yeah, because I don't want to miss no more life, I don't know. No more of marriage, no more of the kids, you know, they grow too fast.

Gary Wise 1:29:51

And it's amazing after you retire. I'm not even gonna lie to you. Like, and we can talk offline about things to do to prepare to retire because. I mean, I learned a lot, right? I did I retired off of Guam, no VSO, no none of that. I did it all myself. And it ain't rocket science. It can be done.

Danielle Wiley 1:30:10

Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:30:11

Because I look at a lot of these veteran organizations like a bunch of churches sometimes, right? And it's like they all trying to get to services. And so you just and they all trying to try to explain why they should be the next best one to get all your time and energy. And so really the information is online. You can find what you need, and then you go out there and get preparations. What do you think? What do you want to do after you retire? Do you know yet? You just gonna take it easy for a little while, or you're gonna Yeah, I'm gonna take it easy.

Danielle Wiley 1:30:40

I need to like maybe three to six months to get out of this, you know, that mindset, learn how to sleep again.

Gary Wise 1:30:50

Good luck. Let me know when you figure that part out.

Danielle Wiley 1:30:54

Yeah, that's another whole conversation.

Fire Marshal Authority And Carrier Training

Gary Wise 1:30:57

Look, you don't do 30 years of your life uh like energetically. I don't want to say aggressive, but I would say assertive aggressive. Well, yeah, but but I would say assertive because aggressive for me is like I'm angry. No, no, I'm not angry, I'm intentionally doing this, right? And but I'm but I'm constantly foot on the gas, and I know you like that. And so then when all of a sudden you get done, you start to like the layers, it's like weird. The layers come off. It's almost like grief, right? When you go through hard grief, yeah, and it comes in like waves, and you're like, damn, like that hit me hard again. And and then you're gonna go through at least it's my advice, you're gonna go through identity crisis, like who am I now? You will, you will, I mean, I received it. I got it. You're gonna my that's just my you're going to like once I tell my wife, I said, you know, I used to be really good at something, and I'll never do it again, right? I guess, but going warrant also prepares you for that because going CMC also prepared me for that. I left damage control behind, yeah, and you can work with people anywhere, and that's why I love working with the kids in the school because I get to work with people, right? And you can find that at church, you can find that at your daughter's school in support groups and parent groups, you can find that a lot of different places, but you're gonna find you're gonna have to. My advice, you're gonna want to find things to fill your cup because you don't just get off the treadmill and your body's still like it really is, and and of course, all the all the heart and soul you put into everything, right? Right. I mean, again, I'm still very passionate about the damage control community and what they're dealing with out there in the fleet because I feel like I know how much work they gotta do to keep everything up and running. Yeah, and you know, and I know that there feels like there's certain systems that are designed for them to just be non nonsensical, right? Right, and so I just I I'm glad they got people like you, I'm glad they got people like Hasso, people like Ben that can hopefully inject some sort of reality into it.

Danielle Wiley 1:33:14

Yeah, it's real, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:33:17

Because I would when I was there, I would be in the rooms with those people, and I would just be like, Who is that? Was where I met my first ever Master Chief DC man when I met Master Chief Mark Brothers. I had never met a master chief DC man before, and we were doing the GW investigation. I'll never forget, man. We were over there. I'm a little baby chief just in the corner, and I remember Mark was like, If y'all are just here to fry people, send me back to Norfolk because anybody can say what they could have, shoulda, would have done. The fact is, we need to learn from this and go forward, and that for me was very inspiring. Seeing a master chief step up and tell everyone, quit pointing the blame at everybody. Because unfortunately, a lot of especially in the line officer community, that's kind of their MO, right? You know, you're fired, you're gone, you're out. Somebody else in. So, all right, D. I think we're getting ready to land this plane here, sister.

Danielle Wiley 1:34:12

Uh, don't be a stranger, don't let me be a stranger.

Gary Wise 1:34:16

You ain't gone yet. I gotta ask you some questions real quick.

Danielle Wiley 1:34:19

Okay.

Gary Wise 1:34:20

All right, here we go. I will not be a stranger, by the way. And oh, by the way, we could we could talk again offline, and we if you want to talk about preparations for retirement, because you only get one chance to retire. Right? You might make sure you got all your I's and cross all your T's and make sure all right. So here we go. What do you think? Uh, and make these, don't try to overthink these answers. Seriously, just go ahead and fire. What do you think is the most valuable leadership lesson you've learned so far in your adult life?

Danielle Wiley 1:34:56

To be a good leader or just lead, you gonna know how to follow tool.

Gary Wise 1:35:03

Yep, period, period. That's it. There's always someone to follow, whether it's God, whether it's your spouse, whether it's your teammate, whether it's your people, whatever. Yeah, okay. Next up, what do you see as the biggest leadership challenge then that's facing teams today?

Danielle Wiley 1:35:22

The smartest person in the room. Or not even they think they're the smartest person in the room. Silence does not meet or equal ignorance. When you speak into it and they don't receive it, whether it's black and white or or not, they still don't receive. That's a problem.

Gary Wise 1:35:53

Right? People are ignorant and they just being loud, right? And there was a saying about just because the donkey making a bunch of noise don't mean he's making sense.

Danielle Wiley 1:36:02

Thank you. Thank you.

Gary Wise 1:36:07

Hey, ding ding, right? I would have loved to have been on a ship with you. We would have been great together.

Danielle Wiley 1:36:12

Yeah, we would.

Gary Wise 1:36:13

Oh man. All right, how can parents how can parents use leadership skills to connect with their teenage children? You know, because a lot of my viewers are my students, a lot of my viewers are their parents, and I will tell you, outside in the civilian sector, outside of the military community, I mean, teen raising teens is hard in today's society, right? So, I mean, you've done it, right? How how how can parents use leadership skills to help them communicate with their teenage kids?

Danielle Wiley 1:36:46

For me, um, I've been a teenager before, so sometimes you got to put yourself in their shoes and understand from an emotional standpoint, because these kids these days are emotional, more emotional than we are. And sometimes, and just understand the emotion and speak to them, you know, like a 14-year-old, sometimes you gotta give them the wisdom that you know to pull them forward, yeah, and not so they are stuck in anger or stuck in I don't care, it doesn't affect me because the ripple effects affects everybody.

Gary Wise 1:37:32

Yeah. Well said, well said. Uh, what's a piece of advice you would give to somebody who's struggling with like the team that they're in right now? They just don't feel like they're being seen, they don't feel like they're being heard, they don't feel like what they're doing is worth their time. But what would be a piece of advice you would give to them?

Danielle Wiley 1:37:53

Um just don't count yourself out. Don't count yourself out. You are here, you have purpose. Maybe your purpose is not in this circle or this moment, but eventually it's gonna catch up to you. And when you figure that out, because uh let me tell you, purpose is between you and God, yeah, and when you hear it in your spirit, in your heart, you move, move in obedience, and just keep going.

Gary Wise 1:38:26

Moving obedience, I like that one. That's a bar. That's a bar. I like that moving obedience. You have to. It's it's the weekend, you're on the way. Are you looking forward to pizza or wings? Wings, wings. I like it. Okay, yeah, I got two options. You want the birthing cleaners or you want the work party? Working party, yeah. I'm not even surprised. All right, we're gonna watch a movie in the shop. It's either gonna be a De Niro movie or a Pacino movie. Which one do you want?

Danielle Wiley 1:39:01

Um, Robert De Niro.

Gary Wise 1:39:03

All right, Robert De Niro. You can say neither. You can be like, you ain't watching no movie, but okay. Robert De Niro. Looking back on your life, what was your favorite duty station?

Danielle Wiley 1:39:14

My first on the Com stock.

Gary Wise 1:39:16

Hard to beat your first duty station. Those are the they're magical places for sure.

Danielle Wiley 1:39:20

I learned a lot, yeah.

Gary Wise 1:39:22

And and yeah, first duty stations are always great. Okay, looking back on your life, what was your best liberty port?

Danielle Wiley 1:39:32

Hawaii.

Gary Wise 1:39:34

That's a good one. People pay good money to go to Hawaii.

Danielle Wiley 1:39:37

Yes, they do.

Gary Wise 1:39:38

Yeah, I went for free several times, multiple times, multiple times, yes. Hey, yeah, and we get a man of the rails. There you go. Okay, looking back on your career, what was the hardest qualification you ever had to achieve? I think I know what you're gonna say.

Danielle Wiley 1:39:55

The swap in.

Gary Wise 1:39:56

Oh, I believe I believe that. Say that part. I thought I knew you were gonna say that. I remember they said, Hey CMC, you want to get your conic off squat? I was like, No, I'm good. I'm just gonna stand in front of the captain's chair and drink my coffee. There you go.

Danielle Wiley 1:40:12

No problem. That's that was that was a lot.

Gary Wise 1:40:16

Time speed distance, yeah. Driving those the SWOs, SWOs, they got they are underrated in what it takes to drive those big ships. Yes, all right. If you had the chance to do it again, would you recommend to a sailor to do an overseas tour or a stateside tour? If you or if you were talking yourself, both both. Oh, okay, good to go. Do you have a favorite movie series? Movie series, yeah, because they don't just do one anymore. Now there's like that, right?

Danielle Wiley 1:40:50

To be honest, not really, because I don't watch too much TV these days.

Gary Wise 1:40:55

Uh some of these questions I pulled up, like these are like mid-watch questions. We'd be talking about like what you know, we'd be ar we'd be down there arguing about the dumbest things, right? We argue about movies. All right, Danny, would you rather be independent or on a team?

Danielle Wiley 1:41:12

I would say I can do both. Only because in a team you kind of like you can go so far as the weakest link. But after we've come together and we've established the I don't know, whatever the task is. Now I gotta think individually. How can I help the team?

Gary Wise 1:41:43

Okay. So would you be independent or on a team?

Danielle Wiley 1:41:47

I would say on the team.

Gary Wise 1:41:49

On the team? Okay. Look, I the all the best leaders, a lot of people I talk to, we all can do either or. But I think it's always interesting when people come down to like at their core, right? I would be a team player. Yeah, yeah. I get it. I get it. Do you have a personal leadership philosophy?

Danielle Wiley 1:42:11

I wouldn't say maybe it is a philosophy. I mean, treat people how you want to be treated. It's a golden rule, it is what it is.

Gary Wise 1:42:22

It's a golden rule. If the world would be a better place if everyone just followed that simple methodology, right? Period. And then, of course, the greatest commandment, which is just love one another, yeah. Um right, yeah. I'm not saying hug everybody, I'm just saying we can have conversations without being loud. You can, or or like you said, be silent. You know what I'm saying? Be silent. If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing small. I don't mean go say to other people about that person behind their back, dog. I know my favorite saying is still that Denzel Washed the picture is like, don't tell me what was said about me, tell me why they felt comfortable saying it to me.

Danielle Wiley 1:43:04

Send it to you, yes.

Maintenance Management On LHD Essex

Gary Wise 1:43:07

Yeah, all right. We got deck plate leadership, institutional technical expertise, professionalism, character, loyalty, active communication, and a sense of heritage, right? Those were the mission, vision, guiding principles for the Navy's Chiefs. Mess. Which one of those is your favorite?

Danielle Wiley 1:43:25

Loyalty, sense of purpose, loyalty.

Gary Wise 1:43:30

I like loyalty. Okay, then uh last one is would you rather lead or follow?

Danielle Wiley 1:43:40

Follow.

Gary Wise 1:43:41

Okay, I'm okay with that too. Because again, we always serve it, right? We always follow him. So I accept that. All right, that is it. Do you have any save rounds or alibis?

Danielle Wiley 1:43:53

No, man. Um this was good. Next time I'm gonna pick up my camera on my computer, but other than that, we could I love talking to you. It's good to see you too.

Gary Wise 1:44:03

It's good to see you too. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to share. I look forward to my students getting the chance to watch anybody that watches this because we're we we're blowing up, right? We're doing good, but my students watch this. I got I got so many strong young cadets, and they then get the chance to hear these voices from the people that I served with not only reinforces you know all the C stories that I tell them, yeah, but then also they get to hear the stories of all these other people that went to serve the country. So thank you very much for doing that. It's gonna be a blessing for them. So thank you.

Danielle Wiley 1:44:37

I appreciate the opportunity for sure.

Gary Wise 1:44:40

Hey, everybody listening to the sound of my voice. If you like this kind of information, do me a favor, like, subscribe. Danny, I will let you know when you're when you're this episode's gonna air, okay?

Danielle Wiley 1:44:50

Thank you.

Gary Wise 1:44:50

Yes, ma'am. I'll see y'all later.