Vice Admiral Al Knetzni Vice Admiral Al Konetzni was known throughout the submarine force as “Big Al the Sailor’s Pal”. His thoughts on leadership showing concern and care from the Captain of a Submarine down to the lowliest Seaman made him one of the most well liked and remembered flag level admirals of the modern Navy. He retired from the Navy as a three star Vice Admiral holding the position of Deputy Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the Atlantic Fleet. That day on the seventeenth of July 2004, “Big Al” left a legacy that every sailor, especially the junior sailor, mattered. Al Konetzni grew up in Queens New York, inspired by the 1950’s television show about the Navy, “Men of Annapolis”, Al applied for and was accepted into the Naval Academy, class of 1966. It was here at the Annapolis that Al realized that littl e mistakes, especially correctible ones, need not be punished severely. He related a story where on a hot day in 1962, he was filling out a personal information form with hundreds of fellow Plebes in a hot mess hall. An upperclassman yells over the loudspeaker, “Put your name in block one”, great thought the future admiral, I got that one right. “Okay your date of birth in block two”, yeah I got that one right he thought. Then, distracted, he made a mistake on block three, home of record. Not having heard of that term before he looked at the paper of the plebe sitting next to him who happened to be from Miami. He wrote down Miami in pencil, then caught himself, and started to cross it out, but it was too late. “In an explosion of shouts, a second class midshipman hauled him in front of the assembly, rang a bell and announced: “We have our first zero! And last year’s zero only lasted three days!” (Undersea Warfare Magazine, Fall 2004). Big Al remembered this incident the rest of his life and it made
