Navy Family Ombudsman Program

The Navy Family Ombudsman Program is a Navywide program established to improve mission readiness through improved family readiness. A strong command ombudsman program, both ashore and afloat, will help ensure that families have the information necessary to meet the challenges of a military lifestyle. Per references (a) and (b), commanders and commanding officers are charged with the responsibility for the morale, health, and welfare of command personnel and inherently their families. The ombudsman program helps commanders and commanding officers have a better understanding of the welfare of the command's families. It also assists commands and their families to be better prepared to meet emergency situations. Every command, afloat and ashore, is required to appoint an ombudsman. Fleet, force, and region commanders should appoint ombudsmen for their staff, and may also appoint an ombudsman who can advise the commander on fleet, force, and region-wide matters. Appointed ombudsmen may serve in an advisory capacity to the commander on matters affecting Service members and families within their area of command responsibility, and are authorized to perform official funded travel in conjunction with this role. This is solely for the purpose of reporting current family status updates and emergent issues to the commander and commanding officer. Fleet, force and region ombudsmen may take a mentoring role to fellow ombudsmen if desired by the commander or commanding officer. However, there is no hierarchy within the ombudsman program and there are no prescribed supervisory roles over other ombudsmen. Supervision of ombudsmen is the responsibility of the commander or commanding officer.