Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman Jr. became the Navy's 60th Chief of Naval Personnel June 3 in an office ceremony at Naval Support Facility Arlington, Va., a milestone which also saw him pin on his third star in the process.
Cheeseman relieved Vice Adm. John B. Nowell, Jr., who has held the office since May, 2019. Nowell retired hours later in a ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard presided over by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday.
"As I stand here in a historic location, blessed by good weather and good friends, I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world," Nowell said in his farewell remarks.
"I have been fortunate to serve in the greatest Navy in the world during historic times, and I just want to say thank-you to each and every one of you and to many others, for what you did to prepare me, teach and train me, and support me and my family in a journey that we have enjoyed every minute of."
The COVID-19 Pandemic dominated much of Nowell's tenure as CNP as he skippered the service through uncharted waters that required massive changes to personnel policy all designed to keep Sailors safe while keeping war fighting commands properly manned.
Key to those critical missions was keeping the Navy's personnel "supply chain" up and running during the pandemic. This included creating an unprecedented "bubble" for training new recruits to making sure that training and transfers could continue to happen around the fleet.
Those efforts resulted in more than 85,000 recruits being assessed into the Navy, trained and delivered to the fleet since the pandemic started.
After an initial "all stop" of permanent change of station moves, the Navy quickly put plans and policies in place to prioritize and safely move Sailors and their families around the world.
These and many other temporary policy changes were unprecedented in the Navy's history.
Another large part of his tenure as CNP was Nowell's overseeing of Task Force One Navy, the Navy's six-month deep dive into its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies as well as service climate and culture. The Navy's effort was launched in the wake of national unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota during the summer of 2020.
"The power of leveraging a diverse team with inclusive leadership is not something that the Navy recently discovered, but rather something I saw in action across so many ships and commands at sea and ashore," Nowell said in his retirement remarks.
"The results were always the same, better performance, warfighting readiness and lethality."
In January 2021, the task force sent a list of nearly 60 recommendations to Navy leadership, based on Sailor and Navy civilian feedback. These included reviews of Navy instructions and manuals on everything from uniforms, promotions and recruiting to identifying potential barriers and eliminate anything considered offensive, biased, or that hampered inclusion.
Nowell's 38 years of service began at the U.S. Naval Academy where he graduated in the class of 1984. A surface warfare officer, he served at sea on five ships, commanding the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG-78). As a flag officer, he also commanded Expeditionary Strike Group 7, forward deployed in Japan.
Vice Adm. Cheeseman was commissioned in 1989 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps after graduating from Penn State University and is also a career surface warfare.
Cheeseman commanded Carrier Strike Group's 10 and 2 in Norfolk, Va. as a flag officer. He also commanded the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) and guided-missile destroyer USS Bulkeley (DDG 84).
No stranger to Navy personnel, Cheeseman has served in a variety of manning and manpower jobs throughout his career. This includes a tour as deputy for Manpower, Training and Strategy at OPNAV N96 and as director, Surface Warfare Assignments (PERS-41).
The MyNavy HR Team, comprised of more than 26,000 dedicated professionals stationed worldwide, attracts, develops and manages the talent that ensures our advantage at sea while providing exceptional HR service to our Sailors and their families. We affect every aspect of a Sailor's career from recruitment to retirement. Along the way, we develop our Sailors' minds, bodies and spirits to thrive in the face of personal and professional challenges as we turn recruits, officer and enlisted, into Warfighters. We train, educate and assign Sailors to ensure the Fleet is manned with the right Sailor, in the right place, at the right time, with the right training. Together, we leverage diverse teams to innovate and win by advancing inclusivity, respect and open communications to foster a more creative, competitive and operationally effective Navy that can out think and out fight any adversary. Throughout, we seek to provide unparalleled HR service to our Sailors and their families who proudly serve our nation and Navy.
