Standing Watch Ashore: The Navy Family Ombudsman

September 14 is Ombudsman Appreciation Day. It marks the anniversary of Z-gram 24, issued by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. on 14 September 1970, which established the Navy Family Ombudsman Program.

The word is older than the Navy's use of it. It traces to Sweden in 1809, when the Riksdag created the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman to give ordinary citizens a route to raise grievances with the government. Zumwalt adapted the idea for the same reason: families needed a line to the command that did not depend on rank or luck.

What the role actually is

An ombudsman is a volunteer appointed by the commanding officer, typically the spouse of an active or reserve component member of that command. They are part of the command support team and work within guidelines the CO sets, which is why the job looks a little different from boat to boat.

The core of it stays constant. The ombudsman is the official liaison between the command and command families. They pass along information from the CO, they field questions from families, they connect people to the right resource when the question is outside their lane, and they keep the command informed about the overall health, morale, and welfare of its families.

The current governing instruction is OPNAVINST 1750.1H, issued 11 December 2023.

Confidentiality, and where it stops

Ombudsmen hold what families tell them in confidence, which is what makes the role work. Families raise things with an ombudsman they would not raise anywhere else.

That confidence has defined limits. Ombudsmen, like nearly all Department of the Navy personnel, are mandated reporters. Suspected child abuse or neglect, alleged domestic abuse, and allegations of sexual assault must be reported, the last to the CO and the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator. Commands may define additional reportables. Chaplains and attorneys are the exceptions, since they hold privileged communication.

Families are better served knowing this up front than discovering it later.

Training

Ombudsman Basic Training runs 17.5 hours and is required before serving. It is offered in person and in a blended online format, and ombudsmen repeat it every three years, or sooner if more than 18 months pass between appointments. Advanced training covers family advocacy and sexual assault response.

The role also carries a code of ethics, records handling requirements under the Privacy Act, and monthly or quarterly reporting through the Ombudsman Registry.

Why the role lands differently on a submarine

Submarine families operate with less information than most of the Navy, by design. A boat at sea keeps radio silence. There is no casual phone call, no video chat, no reliable mail. Familygrams are short, one-way, screened, and cannot be answered.

That gap does not close on its own. The ombudsman is the person on the other side of it: the one who relays a schedule change, gets word out about a homecoming shift, and answers the questions a spouse cannot ask the boat.

Add the operational reality of forward-deployed boats and it compounds. USS Asheville (SSN 758) is homeported at Naval Base Guam with Submarine Squadron 15, which means families there have weathered typhoon seasons, sudden underways, and the ordinary difficulty of being far from extended family, often at the same time.

Ombudsman or FRG

These get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing.

The ombudsman is one appointed volunteer serving as the command's official liaison to families, reporting to the CO through a designated point of contact, usually the chief of the boat or the executive officer.

A Family Readiness Group is a command-endorsed volunteer organization open to family members, sailors, and civilians associated with the command. FRGs plan informational, care-taking, morale-building, and social activity, from deployment farewells to homecomings to 1/2 Way Boxes.

One is a communication channel. The other is a group of people organizing support. Most commands have both, and they work closely together.

Reaching yours

Every registered command has an ombudsman reachable through the Navy Family Ombudsman Registry, which includes a Contact Your Ombudsman feature on its login page. Fleet and Family Support Centers can also point families to the right person.

Standing watch

The Navy recognizes the role formally through the Mrs. Sybil Stockdale Ombudsman of the Year Award, established by the CNO in 2015. Stockdale was never a designated ombudsman. While her husband, Vice Admiral James Stockdale, was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, she founded the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia and spent those years organizing support for other POW families. She received the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest award the Department of the Navy gives a civilian.

The North Carolina Submarine Foundation supports three boats. Behind each one is an ombudsman keeping families connected to a command that cannot always speak for itself.

To the ombudsmen serving our boats: the watch you stand ashore is the reason those crews can focus on the one they stand at sea.