[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 69 (Monday, May 23, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1062-E1063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING VICE ADMIRAL PHILLIP M. BALISLE, UNITED STATES NAVY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DAN BOREN

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 2005

  Mr. BOREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Vice Admiral Phillip M. 
Balisle, United States Navy, who is retiring after more than 36 years 
of faithful service to our nation.
  A native of Idabel, Oklahoma, Vice Admiral Balisle began his career 
in 1969 as a Seaman Recruit in the Naval Reserve while attending 
Oklahoma State University. After attending Officer Candidate School he 
was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy in 1970.
  During the years that followed, Vice Admiral Balisle accrued an 
impressive operational career highlighted by command of USS KIDD (DDG 
993), USS ANZIO (CG 68), Cruiser Destroyer Group THREE and the ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN Battle Group. Ashore he commanded NAVCOMMSTA United Kingdom and 
served as Director Theater Air Warfare and Director Surface Warfare on 
the Chief of Naval Operations' staff.
  Throughout his career Vice Admiral Balisle has been a visionary. 
Examples of his initiatives and contributions are the conceptualization 
for establishment of the Afloat Training Group, the Joint Theater and 
Air Missile Defense Organization, the Joint Single Integrated Air 
Picture System Engineer Organization, the Navy's Distributed 
Engineering Plant, the Distance Support Concept and the Navy Virtual 
Systems Command. He also was a leader in the development of numerous 
combat systems programs and initiatives, as well as developing the 
concept for the Navy's newest shipbuilding program, the Littoral 
Combatant Ship.
  In his most recent assignment as Commander of the Naval Sea Systems 
Command, Vice Admiral Balisle led unprecedented organizational change 
amid a historic time of overall Navy transformation.
  Initiating a multi-phased approach to continual command 
transformation, he directed an unprecedented Headquarters realignment, 
including the establishment of five radically reshaped Program 
Executive Offices and the creation of a Warfare Systems Engineering 
Directorate and a Human Systems Integration Directorate. This 
realignment resulted in a 20 percent personnel downsizing--done without 
a single RIF. The Human Systems Integration Directorate is 
fundamentally changing how the Navy engineers its ships around the 
Sailor, shaping a new Sea Warrior skills based focus. He also 
established a disciplined Technical Authority process as a vital NAVSEA 
mission component.

[[Page E1063]]

  Vice Admiral Balisle launched a shipyard transformation plan anchored 
by the ``One Shipyard'' concept to level-load our nuclear-capable 
public and private yards, mobilize and share resources, develop common 
business practices and stabilize the country's entire ship repair 
industry as a vital national asset.
  He significantly changed the business model for NAVSEA's warfare 
centers that had been in place for decades, shifting from decentralized 
independent geographically focused business sectors to a corporate 
national warfare center enterprise. This included the establishment of 
nationally focused product area directors, along with work assignment 
executives and a retooled teaming structure that eliminates geographic 
boundaries and better enables mission execution and resource sharing 
across an integrated NAVSEA Warfare Center enterprise. Through these 
unprecedented corporate realignments, NAVSEA positioned itself to be an 
agile, responsive organization to meet the unpredictable demands of a 
long and challenging Global War Against Terror while supporting the 
development and construction of a transformed 21st Century Navy.

  Concurrent and complementary to this organization and business 
process reshaping, Vice Admiral Balisle introduced to NAVSEA a 
reinvigorated, disciplined program to establish, preserve and 
revitalize the workforce and work assignment to support Technical 
Authority execution, the cornerstone responsibilities of the government 
to operate safely and as a responsive peer of industry. He 
significantly changed the Navy's contracting approach and vehicles for 
services and ship maintenance with the introduction of a nationwide 
Seaport services contract and Multi-ship, Multi-option contracts for 
ship class maintenance availabilities.
  Central to all these initiatives, Vice Admiral Balisle established 
NAVSEA's Task Force Lean to put in place and accelerate the 
implementation and expansion of Lean and Six Sigma business processes 
across the NAVSEA enterprise, achieving dramatic improvements in 
operating efficiency and process execution.
  Vice Admiral Balisle has been a foremost architect in helping to 
shape the 21st Century Navy to meet the needs of our nation in 
executing the Global War Against Terrorism and building and equipping 
tomorrow's fleet.
  He is an individual of uncommon character and his professionalism 
will be sincerely missed. I am proud, Mr. Speaker, to thank him for his 
honorable service in the United States Navy, and to wish him ``fair 
winds and following seas'' as he closes his distinguished military 
career.

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