Meet the warrior sailor who uses morale to counter missiles and defeat drones
The USS Dwight D Eisenhower recently returned from the most intense combat a US Navy warship has experienced since the Second World War.
Her commanding officer, Captain Chris 'Chowdah' Hill, was at the helm during her record-breaking deployment to the Red Sea, where daily missiles and drones fired by Houthi fighters were shot down and their launch sites in Yemen attacked.
He has been called the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier's secret weapon, credited with keeping up morale up as the crew worked at a continued combat pace for nine months.
Speaking to BFBS Forces News from Naval Station Norfolk in the United States, Capt Hill said: "To me, leadership is the art of getting people to do things they otherwise would not do.
"It's about motivating people, I think the operative term here is morale.
"Morale is not happiness, although happiness does help.
"Morale is more like motivation, grit, pride, spirit. The civilian equivalent would be job satisfaction.
"You want people to enjoy what they do. So the question is, how do you create morale?"
This is what Capt Hill has excelled at - with his approach not just inspiring his crew, but making him a social media star too.
He has written a guide on his philosophy to leadership called The Way of the Warrior Sailor, which is now taught to students at the US Army Staff & General Command College in Kansas and has generated interest from armed forces around the world.
Capt Hill argues the creation of morale leads to success, which is done by everybody feeling loved and valued.
He said: "You cannot be afraid to use the term love in this context.
"It's not a term we normally use in the military, but it's a term that is required for all human beings.
"We all need to be loved and valued.
"If I'm going to have you on this ship for a nine-month deployment like we had recently, I've got to provide some love and value to those sailors."
The USS Dwight D Eisenhower was sent to the eastern Mediterranean in October 2023 as tensions in the Middle East escalated.
A proud captain
It was in the following month in November 2023 that Capt Hill set up an X account, with his bio proclaiming him as the "Proud captain of the best damn ship in the Navy".
He then went on to post most days to engage with the crew, who he called his warriors, provide updates on their marathon deployment and tackle serious issues around misinformation.
A cornerstone of his content was Captain's Chair Cookies, where sailors would sit in his seat to send a heartfelt message home complete with a cookie.
Another of the ship's rituals he shared regularly was Taco Tuesdays, which became such an institution on board that two sailors got tattoos to honour the tradition during their only brief port call.
Capt Hill's decision to engage online signalled a marked change, as he explained: "Back in the day, we tried to avoid social media entirely for security purposes."
Early on in the deployment he met his public affairs officer when Wi-Fi capability was limited, but enough to do a low bandwidth social media.
"I decided I was going to talk about the way of the warrior sailor. It morphed from that to something else," he explained.
"I ended up putting out a few pictures with sailors on it, and then the family members found out and started flocking to my social media feeds as they wanted to see more.
"It allowed us to build a larger ship external support network, the bigger family, and to bring them in.
"So I was talking to hundreds of family members whenever I could.
"Like the cookie post, people just thought that was interesting."
Join Our Newsletter
