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MCE6

Mass Communication Specialist

E-6 (Staff Sergeant) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

MC1 is the LCPO rank — you are the chief's right hand and the PA shop's institutional anchor. Making Chief from MC1 is the defining event of the MC career. The selection board is reading your total record: eEVAL trajectory, billet diversity, warfare qualifications, education, and community impact. The MC1 who treats this tour as 'one more before I retire' is the MC1 who does not get selected. The MC1 who treats it as the Chief board sprint is the MC1 who walks into the goat locker.

The Honest MOS Read
MC1 (E-6) is the senior petty officer in the PA shop — the LCPO, the institutional memory, and the primary enlisted interface with the PAO. At this rank the PA program's operational effectiveness runs through your decisions: what gets covered, who covers it, what the editorial calendar looks like 60 days out, where the section's training gaps are, and whether the command's PA program is meeting the CHINFO strategic communication priorities or drifting off them. The PAO relationship at MC1 is fundamentally different from the MC2 relationship. The PAO at MC2 supervised your production. The PAO at MC1 consults you. The MC1 who walks into the weekly PA sync with a prepared briefing on section readiness, product output metrics, coverage gaps in the upcoming calendar, and two story pitches the PAO has not thought of yet is the MC1 whose PAO starts saying 'run it' instead of 'let me think about it.' That relationship is built over months, not days. The section leadership load at MC1 is the full weight. You are writing eEVAL narratives for MC2s and MC3s, not just inputs — the LCPO's narrative is the document the chief countersigns and the command CO reviews. You are running the PA section training plan, managing the equipment maintenance schedule, tracking the deployment and PCS rotation calendar that determines who is in the section at any given moment, and managing the DVIDS account and command photography archive at the program level, not just the daily-upload level. The MC1 who cannot manage all of this simultaneously is the MC1 who generates visible problems the PAO has to escalate to the chief. The Chief board is the dominant career project at MC1. Everything else in the service record has led to this: the eEVAL trajectory, the billet diversity, the warfare qualifications, the education credits, the awards, the community involvement, and the peer-group perception of your leadership. The Chief Petty Officer selection board does not run a numerical formula — it is a holistic records review, and the MC1 who has a strong record across multiple dimensions is the MC1 who makes the slate. The MC1 who has been producing excellent journalism but has gaps in leadership documentation, warfare qualification, or billet diversity is the MC1 the board passes on with a note the choosing authority will see. The MC rating's Senior Enlisted Academy at Newport is a real credential and a real milestone. The SEA course is a PME program for E-7 through E-9 candidates — it is not typically available at E-6, but understanding the pipeline and being on the LCPO's radar as a candidate is appropriate at MC1. If a Joint Senior Enlisted Academy or equivalent PME opportunity opens in the MC1 assignment window, pursue it — the PME credit shows up in the Chief board packet and in the eEVAL narrative.
Career Arc
  • 01Pinned MC1 via NWAE FMS — exam, eEVAL ranking, TIR, awards, education.
  • 02First full LCPO billet: leading petty officer of a PA section or MC division, responsible for the section's complete production output and training program.
  • 03Writing full eEVAL narratives for MC2s and MC3s; own narrative written by the chief or the PAO.
  • 04Chief board packet construction: eEVAL trajectory review, warfare qualification audit, education completion, community involvement, billet diversity confirmation.
  • 05ESWS or EAWS (or both) awarded and maintained.
  • 06Chief Petty Officer selection board — the central career event of the MC1 tour. The board runs annually; the MC1 who is selected pins MCC and enters the Chief's Mess.
  • 07If not selected: the LCPO counseling with the chief, the record review, and the plan for the next cycle.
Common Screwups
  • ×Letting the Chief board packet go to the board with an unaddressed service record gap — an NWAE cycle missed, a qualification lapsed, an award citation that should have been submitted and was not. The Chief board reads what is there and what is missing. A missing qualification with no documented reason is a flag.
  • ×Managing the section's production metrics without managing the section's people development. The MC1 who produces great coverage statistics but whose MC3s are not advancing is the MC1 whose LCPO record reads as a personal performance record, not a leadership record. The board reads the difference.
  • ×Allowing an OPSEC or PA release authority violation in the section's products during the MC1 tour. An OPSEC incident under your LCPO watch is a service record event. The board reads it in the context of your rank and your responsibility — the LCPO's watch is the LCPO's standard.
  • ×Treating the Chief board as something that happens to you rather than something you build. The MC1 who submits a Chief board packet the week it is due and has not engaged the chief counseling process across the tour is the MC1 whose packet reads as assembled rather than developed.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500-0600Personal PT — the MC1 LCPO does not need the command PT formation to maintain readiness. Personal run or gym before the workday.
  • 0630-0715Pre-standup review — PAO queue check, coverage calendar review, any overnight media inquiries in the command inbox, gear readiness status. The MC1 knows the section's status before the standup, not during it.
  • 0715-0800Section standup — LCPO-led. Assignments distributed, coverage calendar confirmed, PAO sync agenda built from the section status brief, any training or admin items.
  • 0800-0900PAO daily or weekly sync — MC1 briefs section status, presents story pitches or coverage gaps, and receives PAO guidance for the week. The MC1 who comes to this sync with a prepared brief is the LCPO the PAO calls 'ready.'
  • 0900-1200Program management block — eEVAL input development, Chief board packet work, equipment maintenance scheduling, DVIDS archive audit, training plan execution (section-level training when scheduled).
  • 1200-1300Lunch and professional development — Chief packet reading, professional PA publications, mentoring one-on-ones with MC2 or MC3 (scheduled, not ad hoc).
  • 1300-1600Section oversight and own production — review MC2's and MC3's work before PAO queue submission, own coverage assignment or broadcast package, OPSEC review documentation.
  • 1600-1700End-of-day LCPO close — weekly status brief update, equipment accountability confirmation, PAO queue current. Brief the PAO on any unresolved issues that need next-day attention.
  • 1700-2200Personal time — Chief board packet development, Tuition Assistance coursework, professional reading.

Weekly Cadence

The MC1 LCPO week is structured around the PAO sync calendar and the section's production cycle. Monday is the heaviest program management day: the PAO comes out of the command weekly sync with the CO's communication priorities and the week's coverage requirements, and the MC1 translates that into assignments, coverage calendar, and section training blocks for the week. Monday standup is the MC1's chance to demonstrate that the section is organized and ready to execute without the PAO managing the detail. Tuesday through Thursday are the production and leadership core. Coverage events run; the MC1 is either covering personally (for the highest-visibility events) or overseeing the MC2's execution. The eEVAL cycle, the Chief board packet development, and the section training block all live in the midweek production days. Thursday is typically the PAO's heavy review day as the week's products close out — the MC1 who has the section's submissions clean by Wednesday morning gives the PAO review bandwidth instead of deadline pressure. Friday is the program management closeout. Products ship, weekly archive update completed, training documentation logged, and the next week's coverage calendar confirmed with the PAO. The MC1 who ends every Friday with the section's program documented and the PAO's next week prepared is the MC1 whose section runs smoothly when the MC1 is on leave or TAD. At sea the weekly rhythm collapses into the operational cycle, and the MC1 who cannot adapt the LCPO program management to the underway schedule is the MC1 who discovers the section has been running on its own momentum — which is the LCPO failure mode.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run the PA section as a complete program — production output, equipment readiness, training compliance, eEVAL cycle, archive integrity — and present a weekly status brief to the PAO without being asked.
    Build a one-page weekly status template: products in PAO queue (with submission dates), DVIDS uploads for the week, upcoming event coverage calendar, gear readiness status, training compliance summary, any outstanding counseling or administrative actions. Deliver it to the PAO at the start of the weekly sync without being prompted. The PAO who receives an organized status brief every Monday is the PAO who stops micromanaging the section and starts treating the MC1 as a program manager. The PAO who has to ask 'where are we?' every Monday is the PAO who does not trust the LCPO's situational awareness.
  2. 02
    Write a Chief board-quality eEVAL narrative for an MC2 — specific, quantified, properly formatted, and supported by a documented accomplishment log.
    The MILPERSMAN 1616-series governs the evaluation system; the Chief who countersigns reads the narrative against the documented record. A Chief board-quality narrative includes specific, quantifiable contributions ('led a four-sailor section producing 127 published products across a seven-month deployment'), names the specific results ('photography selected for SECNAV annual report'), and uses the recommended assessment language accurately ('EP,' not 'outstanding'). The narrative should read like evidence, not character description. Build the log during the period, not after it closes.
  3. 03
    Lead a PA section through a deployment or major exercise cycle — from pre-deployment planning through redeployment product archive — maintaining product output and section morale across the full cycle.
    Pre-deployment planning is where the deployment is won or lost. Gear accountability completed before the ship's brow goes up. Equipment manifested with spares. Product archive system backed up and accessible from the deployed environment. Coverage calendar for the deployment briefed to the PAO before the first underway day. During the deployment the MC1 runs the section's daily operational rhythm — flight-deck coverage rotation, ship's newspaper cycle, port-call community relations coverage, media embed support during exercises. The section leader who does not have to be found when the deployment's pace increases is the section leader the PAO calls 'reliable' in the post-deployment debrief.
  4. 04
    Mentor a junior MC through the Chief board packet development process — record review, accomplishment documentation, warfare qualification completion, education credit — from a full tour's worth of engagement.
    The MC1 who mentors a junior sailor into Chief selection has done the most important leadership act of the MC career. It starts at check-in: review the sailor's service record, identify the gaps, build a development plan. The development plan is not a list of recommendations — it is a calendar with specific actions, timelines, and the LCPO's direct involvement in each. The MC2 who earns a warfare qualification because the MC1 LCPO kept them on the PQS timeline is evidence of leadership. The MC2 who was in your section for three years and never completed the warfare PQS is also evidence of leadership — the wrong kind.
  5. 05
    Serve as the command's subject-matter expert on SECNAVINST 5720.44, DoDD 5122.5, and the CHINFO strategic communication priorities — brief the commanding officer directly when required.
    At MC1 the PA program's regulatory foundation is your expertise, not the PAO's reference library. The PAO consults you on whether a proposed release requires CHINFO coordination. The XO asks you what the PA guidance is on a specific media request. The commanding officer's call to CHINFO for a major media inquiry is supported by your brief to the CO beforehand. Know the instructions well enough to answer those questions in real time, without consulting the text.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • SECNAVINST 5720.44 — Department of the Navy Public Affairs Policy and Regulations
    At MC1 LCPO this is the program governance document you own. Brief the CO on relevant sections when high-visibility media events occur. Know the release authority chain well enough to brief it without the document in front of you.
  • MILPERSMAN 1616-series — Navy Enlisted Evaluation System
    You are writing full eEVAL narratives. Know the system's documentation requirements, the recommended assessment language, the counseling timeline, and the promotion recommendation criteria. A narrative that does not reflect the MILPERSMAN standards reads as poorly executed to the board.
  • MILPERSMAN 1430-series — Advancement to Petty Officer and Chief Petty Officer
    The Chief Petty Officer selection process is governed by MILPERSMAN. The MC1 who does not know the selection board process, the records review criteria, and the official CPO quotas documentation is the MC1 who is navigating the most important career event without a map.
  • NAVADMIN — current CPO selection board eligibility message
    Each CPO selection board cycle opens with a NAVADMIN announcing eligibility criteria, record submission deadlines, and the year-group window. Read the eligibility NAVADMIN the day it publishes and verify your record meets the criteria. The MC1 who finds a service record gap the day the NAVADMIN publishes has no time to fix it; the MC1 who has been managing the record across the tour fixes it before the NAVADMIN is necessary.
  • Navy Leader Development Framework — published by CNO PA
    The Chief Petty Officer Charge Book and the Navy Leader Development Framework describe what the Chief board is looking for in terms of leadership competency. Understanding the framework tells you how to build the record, how to document the mentoring and leadership actions, and how to position the eEVAL narrative to speak to the competencies the board evaluates.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Chief board packet submitted with no service record gaps, no lapsed qualifications, no missing award citations, and an eEVAL trajectory that supports the Chief recommendation.
    Build the Chief board record audit 18 months before the expected submission window. Pull the official service record and compare it against the accomplishment log. Every DVIDS credit should be documented. Every award citation should be in the service record. Every PQS sign-off should be in the qualification record. Every college credit should be on the SMART transcript. The MC1 who finds a gap 18 months out can fix it; the MC1 who finds it the week the board opens cannot.
  • LCPO section training plan executed on the published schedule with documented completion records.
    The training plan is a commitment, not a calendar suggestion. OPSEC refresher, DVIDS workflow training, AP Style review, media embed protocol drill, gear maintenance cycle — all of these have scheduled dates and completion records. The PA section that cannot produce training documentation for the IG inspection is the section that generates a finding. The LCPO owns the training record.
  • PRT Good High and above — the MC1 whose physical readiness sets the section standard.
    At LCPO the standard you set is the standard the section assumes. The MC1 who is at Good Low is the LCPO who cannot credibly push the MC3s toward Good High. Good High is achievable for an MC1 who is running three days a week and doing strength training on the off days. It is a leadership signal as much as a fitness standard.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Releasing a command publication with an error in a senior officer's name, title, or biography.
    The command publication error is a visible PA shop failure. The CO calls the PAO; the PAO calls the MC1. A retraction and reprint is the minimum; a formal counseling entry is the maximum. The MC1 who had a final-proofing workflow in place catches name errors before publication; the MC1 who does not has the conversation with the CO directly.
  • Submitting the Chief board packet without reviewing the official service record against the documented accomplishment list.
    A missing award citation or a lapsed qualification in the board packet is not correctable after the board convenes. The board reads what is in the record. The MC1 who submitted without auditing is the MC1 who calls the selection board detailer to ask why they were not selected — and hears the gap they could have fixed.
  • Failing to brief the PAO on a media inquiry that required CHINFO coordination before the PAO responded directly to the journalist.
    An unauthorized media response — even a 'no comment' — that bypasses the CHINFO coordination chain is a violation of the release authority protocol. The MC1 LCPO who learned about the inquiry and did not escalate is the MC1 who explains the gap in the weekly debrief.
  • Allowing a junior MC to deploy without completing the required medical readiness (IMR) and deployment health assessments.
    An NMC (Not Mission Capable) sailor discovered at the pier is a deployment readiness failure. The LCPO owns the medical readiness tracking for the section. A sailor who deploys NMC is the LCPO's administrative failure.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Submitting the Chief board packet vs. requesting administrative separation or retirement if not selected
    The Chief board is competitive and not every MC1 makes it. The Navy's HYT (High Year Tenure) for E-6 is typically 22 years of service — verify the current HYT under MILPERSMAN 1160.12 for your pay grade. The MC1 who has not made Chief after two or three board cycles has a decision: continue pursuing selection, transition to civilian media, or pursue a commissioning program. This is not a failure conversation — it is a math conversation. The MC rating's small size means the Chief selection percentage is not predictable from year to year. The MC1 who evaluates the decision honestly with the chief counselor and the career counselor is making the best decision with real data.
  • Pursuing a Master Journalism degree or equivalent through Tuition Assistance vs. focusing on operational billet performance
    A master's degree shows up in the Chief board packet as education attainment and demonstrates intellectual engagement with the profession. The MC1 who completes a master's in journalism, strategic communication, or a related field while serving is demonstrating the academic commitment the board values. The risk is time management — a graduate degree while serving in a demanding LCPO billet is a real load. The MC1 who starts a graduate program and withdraws halfway through has a negative record entry instead of a positive one. Only start what you can finish.
  • Competing for a special assignment (CHINFO staff, Joint PA, OCONUS strategic communication assignment) vs. staying in the fleet PA environment for billet diversity
    Special assignments at CHINFO or joint PA staff are the highest-visibility MC billets in the rating. The products go to national media, congressional audiences, and the Secretary of the Navy's office. The Chief board reads these assignments as evidence of flag-level trust and strategic-level work. The risk is that a CHINFO billet is less operationally diverse than a carrier or fleet staff tour — the board may read a CHINFO-only record as strong on strategic PA but thin on operational leadership. The ideal MC1 record has both. If the current record is heavy on operational work, the CHINFO assignment adds the strategic PA credential the board values.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Carrier MC division (MC1 LCPO)
    The most operationally demanding MC1 billet. The MC1 runs a six-to-eight-sailor section covering flight operations, ship's newspaper, deployment social media, and media embed support for the full deployment cycle. The daily tempo during at-sea periods is relentless. The Chief board packet material from a carrier MC1 tour is the strongest in the rating — deployment credit, operational leadership, high-volume production management, and direct PAO interface during major fleet exercises.
  • Fleet PA detachment or NAVFOR PA staff (MC1 LCPO)
    Products go to flag public affairs and potentially to CHINFO. The MC1 at a fleet PA staff is producing strategic-level PA content — background papers for flag media availabilities, deployment documentation packages, congressional visit support. The editorial standard is unforgiving and the visibility to senior PAOs is high. The career impact of a strong MC1 tour at a fleet PA staff is significant.
  • CHINFO or OSD PA support (MC1 or senior MC1)
    The apex of the enlisted MC career in terms of strategic communication impact. Products go to national media, congressional testimony support, and the Secretary of the Navy's communication staff. The MC1 at CHINFO is visible to the most senior civilian and military leadership in the Navy PA enterprise. The standard is correspondingly unforgiving — an error in a CHINFO product generates a call from OSD.
  • Small installation PA office (sole MC1)
    The MC1 who is the only experienced MC at a small installation PA office is running the program with a PAO who may be the first tour of a commissioning-source officer. The MC1 is de facto program manager, LCPO, OPSEC officer, and production chief simultaneously. High autonomy, high accountability, less peer support from senior MCs. Good for developing initiative and program management; less exposure to the fleet-level PA community that the Chief board's senior members have come from.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The high-performing MC1 is known by name at the fleet PA staff level. Not because they self-promoted — because their products showed up at CHINFO, because their section produced a video that ran on the Navy's national social channels, because the fleet PAO mentioned to the NAVBASE PAO that 'your LCPO over there is doing something right.' The MC1 career in a small rating is visible in ways that a larger rating's MC1 is not; reputation travels faster and farther. At the section level the good MC1 is evidenced by a section that runs without constant supervision. The MC2 LPOs in the section know the coverage calendar, the editorial standards, the OPSEC review protocol, and the PAO's communication priorities without being reminded at every standup. The MC3s are advancing on schedule. The DVIDS archive is current and organized. The equipment maintenance log is up to date. The good MC1 built all of this deliberately across the tour — not by doing everything personally but by building the systems and training the people who execute them. The Chief board outcome is the ultimate measure of the MC1 tour, and the good MC1 approaches it the same way they approach a coverage assignment: with preparation, with attention to the standards, and with the willingness to do the unsexy administrative work that makes the finished product possible. The Chief board packet that earns a selection notice is built across a career, one eEVAL cycle and one leadership action at a time. The MC1 who has been building it that way since MC3 does not scramble in the last six months. The MC1 who has been reactive scrambles — and usually still falls short.

Preview — The Next Rank

MCC (E-7, Chief Petty Officer) is not a promotion — it is an initiation. The Chief Petty Officer selection board names you; the Chief's Mess receives you through the CPO Initiation season (typically a six-week process in late summer and early fall, governed by the CNO-published CPO Initiation guidance). The initiation is not optional, not abbreviated, and not something you research from the outside before you are selected. The Chief's Mess is the goat locker, and the goat locker operates on its own norms. At MCC the entire job description changes. You are no longer the senior petty officer who runs the production floor. You are the deckplate leader who sets the command's enlisted culture, advises the CO on enlisted matters, owns the Leading Chief Petty Officer (LCPO) role formally and the Chief's Mess's collective responsibility for enlisted readiness. The PA program is still your professional domain, but the Chief's primary accountability is to the enlisted force, not to the production queue. The PA program at MCC looks like strategic advising rather than direct supervision. The MC2 and MC1 LPOs are running the production floor; the Chief's job is to ensure they are equipped, mentored, and held to a standard the command's PA program can be proud of. The MC1 who understood that transition intellectually at E-6 is the MCC who executes it cleanly at E-7. The MC1 who expected to be the best photographer in the section at E-7 discovers the Chief's Mess has different expectations.
FAQ

MC E6 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E6 MC (Mass Communication Specialist) actually do?
You are LPO of a command PA department, a fleet PA support element, a Navy media center section, or a joint public affairs support element (JPASE) detachment — anywhere from 6 to 20 MCs and a piece of the command's public affairs posture.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E6 MC?
MC1 is the LCPO rank — you are the chief's right hand and the PA shop's institutional anchor.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E6 MC?
Time-blocked day at the E6 MC rank tier: 0500-0600 Personal PT — the MC1 LCPO does not need the command PT formation to maintain readiness. Personal run or gym before the workday, 0630-0715 Pre-standup review — PAO queue check, coverage calendar review, any overnight media inquiries in the command inbox, gear readiness status. The MC1 knows the section's status before the standup, not during it, 0715-0800 Section standup — LCPO-led. Assignments distributed, coverage calendar confirmed, PAO sync agenda built from the section status brief, any training or admin items,…
Q04What mistakes get E6 MC soldiers fired or relieved?
Letting the Chief board packet go to the board with an unaddressed service record gap — an NWAE cycle missed, a qualification lapsed, an award citation that should have been submitted and was not. The Chief board reads what is there and what is missing. A missing qualification with no documented reason is a flag; Managing the section's production metrics without managing the section's people development.…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E6 MC rank tier?
Submitting the Chief board packet vs. requesting administrative separation or retirement if not selected — The Chief board is competitive and not every MC1 makes it. The Navy's HYT (High Year Tenure) for E-6 is typically 22 years of service — verify the current HYT under MILPERSMAN 1160.12 for your pay grade. The MC1 who has not made Chief after two or three board cycles has a decision: continue pursuing selection, transition to civilian media, or pursue a commissioning program. This is not a failure conversation — it is a math conversation.…
Q06What's next after E6 for a MC (Mass Communication Specialist) in the Navy?
MCC (E-7, Chief Petty Officer) is not a promotion — it is an initiation.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E6 MC need to know cold?
SECNAVINST 5720.44C — you are the LPO the junior MCs come to with the policy question before they escalate to the chief.; DoDD 5122.5 — joint-level PA policy for every joint or coalition task force your section supports.; JP 3-61 — Joint Public Affairs — the joint doctrine your JPASE-qualified MCs execute; you brief it to the MC2s, not vice versa.

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Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards