New Sub Group 2 Commander Returns to Submarine Life
GROOMS
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON – When family and friends are asked to describe Navy Rear Adm. Bruce Grooms, one of the first words out of their mouths is “leader.”
”Humble” or one of its synonyms quickly follows.
The first makes sense. Grooms, a 1980 United States Naval Academy graduate, was captain of the school’s basketball team, captained the USS Asheville submarine, was commandant of midshipmen at his alma mater and worked as the virtual chief financial officer of the nation’s submarine fleet.
On March 22, he became commander of Groton’s Submarine Group 2, a position that puts him in charge of the East Coast’s attack submarines and of construction of all Virginia-class submarines, among other things.
But still, Grooms, 50, is quick to praise the officers around him and rarely indicates the importance of his achievements to those who don’t already understand naval ranks, childhood friend Craig Johnson said.
“When he tells me about all these moves, I don’t know quite how significant they were until I read about them in a magazine, months later, and I’m like, ‘Bruce, why didn’t you tell me?’ ” Johnson said.
Grooms, who grew up in the Cleveland area, can boast of additional achievements, particularly in the context of his race. He is one of just seven blacks who have commanded a submarine in the first hundred years of the submarine fleet – an elite group dubbed the Centennial Seven – and was the first black commandant of midshipmen at the Naval Academy, a position akin to dean of students at a civilian college.
But he’d rather not look at those as achievements in and of themselves.
“I guess it’s nice to have been a part of something special, but what will really make it special is that some day it won’t mean anything,” Grooms said, noting his hope for a force diverse enough that black leaders are not a rarity.
The husband and father of two sons has also garnered numerous Naval leadership awards, an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering, a graduate degree in national security from the Naval War College and a stint at Stanford as a national security fellow. Perhaps Grooms’ humility and willingness to give credit to others is his position as the youngest of four children, where he was quick to seek counsel from his basketball coach, his parents and his older brother and hero, Gilbert, said Grooms’ oldest sister, Aloi Hill.
For Grooms, the most exciting aspect of leading Sub Group 2 is not the authority, but the ability to get back to his first love in the service: submarines.
“I joined the Navy to become a submariner,” he said. “I guess you always come back to what it is important to you.”
Prior to his March change of command, Grooms served as the director of submarine warfare in the Pentagon, an on-shore desk job that required him to create annual budget requests for the country’s submarine system.
The submarine force has played an increasingly vital role in national security, from launching missiles to gathering intelligence internationally, Grooms noted.
This most recent post gave Grooms the connections necessary for an advocate of the submarine force, said his former executive aide at the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Stuart Munsch.
“He was exposed to all the cutting-edge technology that’s developed in the Navy,” Munsch said. “He knows where to go in the Washington establishment to plug in what he needs.”
The Sub Group 2 commander is a vital and frequent representative of the force in Washington, said Lt. Joe Petrucelli, executive assistant to the group’s former commander, Rear Adm. Cecil Haney.
Petrucelli said the main qualification of the position is the “ability to deal with and remember a huge amount of people, a huge amount of facts, and multi-task your brain.” In a single day, the commander could go from a meeting on construction of submarines to a conference on housing in Groton, Petrucelli added.
Petrucelli will serve as Groom’s executive assistant for a few months until the routine is more well established and then will go to the Pentagon to serve under Haney – who has virtually swapped roles with Grooms as the new director of submarine warfare. Petrucelli said the success of the shift of commanders depends on how each responds to those under him.
“Admiral Haney was very low-key in his manner and never made you feel stressed out,” Petrucelli said. “He put people first.”
Grooms fits the bill for an easy transition. Co-workers and friends alike noted his sability to connect to people.
“He was always reaching out to the younger people and getting to know them and counseling them on career options,” Munsch said. “He was always careful to write a note of congratulations or a thank-you note when something significant happened.”
Grooms certainly gained experience in dealing with people while serving as the commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy for a year and a half starting in 2005.
Chet Gladchuk, the Academy’s athletic director, said he has seen five commandants leave in his time at the school, but has “never been more heartsick than when Bruce left.”
Though military academies are known for their rigidity compared to other universities, Grooms said, “You can’t forget that these are young people who have a lot of growing up and maturing to do.”
The job often required him to distinguish the difference between students’ honest mistakes and intentional failures and respond accordingly.
To Gladchuk, this patience underscored Grooms’ ultimate ability as a leader.
“As he delegates, he trusts in others, and people are motivated not to let him down,” said Gladchuk, who served on a senior leadership team alongside Grooms.
“He deals with issues—good, bad and ugly—consistently, confidently and with a high level of intelligence,” Gladchuk added.
Outside the Naval Academy, Grooms has seen firsthand one of the ugliest issues the country has faced—the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, he worked as the senior military aide to the undersecretary of defense for policy and was two corridors down from where the plane struck the Pentagon, he said.
“We felt the shock and heard the collision,” he said. “It immediately felt like a bomb was exploding.”
Grooms said that while he entered the service with the expectation of an international conflict resembling the Cold War, the 2001 attacks proved the demand for flexibility.
“We have to react to what the event is and gear up and do the best we can,” Grooms said. “We can’t know what’s on the horizon.”
This outlook represents the way he’s handled the 15 moves his family has weathered.
“Even though he’s pretty much moved every year his older son has been alive, he’s been able to keep his family balanced and together,” longtime friend Johnson said. He credited Grooms’ wife, Emily, for the consistently smooth transitions.
In addition to a strong support system, difficult decisions are required in making the numerous moves. Grooms will move to Groton this week, but his wife, 15-year-old son Jeoff and 11-year-old son Jared will stay at their home in
Dumfries, Va. until the end of the school year.
“That’s one thing that’s difficult to sugarcoat,” Grooms said. “There’s no easy move.”
Another move should be on its way, sure enough. The Sub Group 2 commander position typically stays for two years, Grooms said. And then, probably back to the nation’s military hub, he speculated.
“Once you’ve successfully survived the Pentagon, the chances of coming back to it are pretty high,” he said.
Even though it could lead him away from firsthand contact with submarines, it should still keep him in touch with his ultimate forte: people. Even when he’s crunching numbers at an office rather than being at sea, Grooms said he wouldn’t have taken any other path.
“I love what I do and I love the people,” he said.
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