Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Mike Stevens spoke with more than 1000 Sailors during all-hands calls and toured the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) as part of his two-week trip to Navy Region Southwest.

MCPON started the call with a brief survey of the crowd's opinion of the Navy's overall morale. He asked the audience if they felt morale is either poor, good, good high, excellent, or outstanding.

"Overall, the majority of you feel that morale is good, to good high," said Stevens. "Being here allows me the opportunity to hear from you about ways we can improve morale throughout the fleet."

MCPON fielded questions from the audience and took time at the end for individual photos with the Sailors.

"This was my first all-hands call with MCPON and all of the questions were great," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Yamilka Reed, from New York City, assigned to Naval Medical Center San Diego. "The thing that stuck out the most to me was when MCPON said no matter where you get stationed, no matter your job, make the most of it and lead from the front."

After the call, MCPON toured two ships on the waterfront where he met with command leadership, chief petty officer messes and walked the deckplates to speak with Sailors.

During his time with the Milius CPO mess, MCPON talked about the importance of preparing first class petty officers to take on their new roles as chief petty officers.

"Each generation of chief petty officers must be better than the ones before them," said Stevens. "They are your legacy, and the legacy of chiefs that have gone before you. It is your duty to ensure our mess continues to grow and evolve."

Before departing the mess, MCPON recapped his expectations of CPO 365 Phase II.

"Phase Two of CPO 365 is meant to be challenging, tough, demanding, and even stressful at times," said Stevens. "But the training must be done in a manner where we treat one another with dignity and respect."

For more information on the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy visit www.navy.mil/local/mcpon.