Steven S. Giordano

Giordano's early assignments include a tour at Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1 (VQ-1) in Agana, Guam, serving as a signals analyst and reporter, an operational deployment to the Naval Security Group detachment, Bahrain in support of the Persian Gulf War's Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After four years at VQ-1, Giordano received orders to NSGA Pearl Harbor, Hawaii completing numerous operational deployments aboard Pacific Fleet combatants and earning his Submarine Warfare designation. His next assignment was at the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) Fort Meade, Maryland as an analyst with the Advanced Maritime Analysis Cell.

In 1996, Giordano then a cryptologic tech first class petty officer committed adultery with his subordinate of the command, a married sailor whose husband was a member of the cryptology community that was stationed elsewhere. Giordano's commanding officer found Giordano guilty of violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice during nonjudicial punishment, a catchall used to discipline personnel whose conduct harms good order or brings discredit on the armed forces. Giordano was reduced in rate to petty officer second class as punishment, as United States military regulations prohibit adultery.[1]

In October 1999, Giordano reported to NSGA Rota, Spain, completing three operational deployments and serving aboard one allied combatant. Giordano then reported to the Center for Naval Leadership Pensacola, Florida for duties as the Entry Level ELINT School Course Manager and LCPO. During this assignment, he was designated Master Training Specialist.

In 2004, Giordano reported to Navy Information Operations Command Fort Gordon, Georgia as the Fleet Cryptologic Augmentation Center Division Chief and Fleet Operations Department Leading Chief Petty Officer. Giordano graduated from the United States Navy Senior Enlisted Academy Class 133 and reported on staff as a faculty advisor in September 2007.

Giordano then became command master chief aboard the frigate USS McClusky, earning the Surface Warfare designation.

Giordano speaking to sailors at the USS Constitution in September 2016.

In December 2010, Giordano became Command Master Chief at Navy Information Operations Command Colorado, earning the Information Dominance Warfare designation.[2] From December 2012 to February 2015 he served as force master chief for Navy Information Dominance Forces, and from 2015 to 2016 he served as fleet master chief for United States Naval Forces Europe - Naval Forces Africa.[3]

Giordano at Naval Air Station Fallon in July 2017.

Admiral John M. Richardson, the Chief of Naval Operations, announced the selection of Giordano as the 14th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) on 9 June 2016.[4] He took charge from Michael D. Stevens on 2 September 2016 during a change of office ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard.[5] Constant urging from his staff that he needed to engage the enlisted force; in response to growing complaints from the fleet about MCPON’s silence on big Navy issues, Giordano granted Navy Times a rare interview in which he said that he was a different style of leader and tended to work behind the scenes, but had put together an agenda that would soon be revealed. But as time went on, a clear agenda never emerged. He did send a message to all the Navy’s chiefs saying they were off track, though his message never stated any root causes, and his solution was that all Navy chiefs needed to read the CPO creed for a rudder correction. Multiple former staff members from his office spoke to Navy Times on condition of anonymity, numerous senior sailors painting nearly identical pictures of life in Giordano’s Pentagon office. “This is a man defined by a passive-aggressive leadership style, laced with a horrific and unpredictable temper,” said one former staff member. “Behind closed doors, MCPON Giordano takes on an alter ego that is condescending and defaming to the senior leaders and junior staff alike on a regular basis, totally contradicting his own publicly preached values and beliefs of being a ‘quietly humble leader,’” the former staff member said.[6]

For more than a year, sailors and the chiefs mess have been asking why the MCPON seems absent on the job and, in stark contrast to his predecessors, reluctant to engage the fleet on issues related to some of the Navy’s toughest challenges. For example, last year there was a scandal that caused the Navy to shut down the master chief selection board because members tried to collude together to get their candidate advanced. Giordano made no significant public comments about it. Since Giordano took office, 10 command master chiefs have been relieved and sent home due to misconduct, a sign that, critics say, he has taken his eye off a focus on misconduct that was a top concern for his last two predecessors. Other times Giordano just performs poorly, appearing awkward and even inadvertently insulting some sailors. One such occasion was a speech at the Senior Enlisted Academy class 210 in Newport, Rhode Island, last December. “At the beginning of his conversation, the MCPON took the time to make fun of a senior chief that clearly had a medical condition … this senior chief wears dark sun glasses as part of this therapy for traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress,” said one class member speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal. Navy Times spoke with several sailors who attended the event, and they all recalled a similar exchange and a MCPON with a condescending attitude toward the group as a whole.[7]

In June 2018 it was revealed that the Navy Inspector General had opened an investigation into Giordano, probing allegations that he had created a toxic work environment and that he was abusive to subordinates.[8]

MCPON Giordano ‘failed to exhibit exemplary conduct’. Investigators interviewed Giordano and 13 unnamed witnesses, including past and present members of his staff, a chief petty officer, two fleet master chiefs and two command master chiefs, according to the report. Multiple staffers told investigators that Giordano, 47, was a difficult boss, with one witness describing a typical workday as "walking on eggshells in the office in order to avoid upsetting MCPON.”[9] More than a dozen sailors who have worked for Giordano told the newspaper that the MCPON is obsessed with perks and has pushed his staff to ask the Navy to give him his own set of fine China.[10] Giordano announced his resignation on 21 June 2018 and retired with full benefits of rank. [8]