S moke S ignals
MAY 1, 2018
9
Climbing the chain of command
Tribal member Ronald
“Arch” Bly became a high-
ranking naval officer
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
To the uninitiated, hearing
that someone had been promoted
through the Navy’s ranks from a
seaman recruit to chief warrant
officer IV may not have much
meaning.
But Tribal member and retired
Naval officer Ronald “Arch” Bly
described just how seldom that
happens.
“It would be like going from be-
ing the groundskeeper here to the
Tribal Council chair,” he said. “It is
very unusual.”
Chief warrant officers serve a
unique role in naval service as they
are enlisted people who are com-
missioned as officers and have been
called to serve from their senior en-
listed ranks as technical managers.
Bly, 54, served in the military
from 1982 to 2007, or as he puts
it, “Twenty-five years, two months
and five days.”
Since retiring, Bly has spent
much of his time traveling in his
motorhome, sailing and in the
mountains exploring. His favorite
spot to sail is the Saratoga Passage
in Puget Sound.
He grew up in Montana, Oregon
and Wyoming and graduated high
school in 1982. His parents are
Tribal Elder Betty Bly and Roger
Bly, who live in Elder housing.
“I decided to join the Navy be-
cause I wanted to see the world,”
he said. “I only intended to join for
four years though. Since the Earth
is mostly water, I did see quite a
bit of it.”
Bly worked as a surface ordnance
technician, which he describes as
“anything not underwater, any sur-
face-to-air weapon, we worked on.”
Once Bly decided on the Navy for
a career, he set his sights on moving
up the chain of command.
“There are a very low percentage
of people who stay in long enough
to become a chief petty officer,” he
said. “And the Navy is very strict
about the process. … There are a
lot of hoops to jump through. It is
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Ronald “Arch” Bly served in the U.S. Navy from 1982-2007. In retirement his
hobbies include sailing, mountain climbing, and collecting antique rifles
and pistols.
a very strict application process.”
After 10 years, he became a chief
petty officer and continued to move
up through the ranks until 2002,
when Bly was commissioned as
one of 75 chief warrant officers in
his specialty. He was one of two
applicants selected that year and
commissioned after 19 years of
service to the Navy.
At the time, Bly was working in
the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
as chief adviser to the Naval Ord-
nance Command and traveling 230
days a year.
“That was a great job,” he said.
“I really enjoyed it and got to meet
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was
extremely refreshing job, but an
immense amount of work.”
Bly was part of the team that
traveled to Yemen and inspected
the U.S.S. Cole after it was bombed
as part of a terrorist attack against
the Navy’s guided-missile destroyer
in October 2000 while it was being
refueled in Yemen's Aden Harbor.
Seventeen American sailors were
killed and 39 were injured.
Bly was directly responsible for
the safe offload of the weapons
systems after the attack.
“Our job was to ‘safe’ the ship,”
Bly said. “We had to make sure it
was safe to sail it home.”
During the Iraq War, Bly trained
and certified warships going over
from his base in the Pacific North-
west. The drill included 17 weeks of
training service men and women on
what to do if the ship came under
attack from terrorists and potential
security pitfalls.
“I was the chief training officer
selected to teach anti-terrorism and
had 15 senior chiefs who worked
for me,” he said. “I did that for two
tours.”
Bly’s final post in the Navy was
at Misawa Air Base in Japan from
2004 to 2007, where he served in
Naval Ordnance Command and
took over as commanding officer.
At the time, he was the only chief
warrant officer serving as a com-
manding officer in the entire Navy.
“We pre-positioned and forward-
ed ships to the entire Fifth Fleet
operations area in Iraq, Afghani-
stan and the North Arabian Gulf,”
he said.
For the last 12 years of his career,
Bly essentially worked with little to
no supervision in his role, which he
enjoyed but it also came with heavy
responsibility.
“My boss in Washington, D.C.,
was a two-star admiral and I al-
most never saw her,” he said. “It
gives you a lot of responsibility and
you had better have your ducks in a
row, especially when you are deal-
ing with explosives and millions of
dollars in equipment.”
Bly is a veteran of the 1991 Per-
sian Gulf War, the Global War on
Terrorism, the Iraq War and war
in Afghanistan.
Bly’s decorations include 53 mili-
tary medals and ribbons. There are
four meritorious service medals,
six Navy commendation medals,
three Navy achievement medals,
three outstanding volunteer service
medals, two humanitarian service
medals and numerous campaign,
operations and service ribbons.
Bly has lived in Grand Ronde for
a year. Before that, he resided in a
houseboat on Washington’s Olym-
pic Peninsula and spent the past
10 years sailing the Puget Sound
Inside Passage.
He is engaged to Cynthia Affler-
bach and enjoys a quiet life near
the mountains and rivers, as well
as a good joke. Bly is grateful for
the opportunities he has had.
In his past, Bly was an avid
climber and summited 41 moun-
tains, including Mount Adams,
Mount Hood and Mount Baker.
His two favorite climbs were Mount
Iwate and Mount Ishaee in Japan.
He still climbs on occasion.
We invite you to our Mother’s Day Tea Brunch
cultural
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At the CTGR Community Center
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