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HPC Seeks to Ensure Readiness of Deploying Navy Seabees

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050622-23
Release Date: 6/22/2005 10:00:00 PM

By Hugh C. Laughlin, Human Performance Center Public Affairs

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The Human Performance Center (HPC) has undertaken a special project with the First Naval Construction Division (1NCD) at Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Va., to ensure the readiness of Seabees deploying to help fight the war on terror.

The 1NCD sought the services of HPC in an effort to help measure team and unit performance, a necessary and required skill essential to stand ready in the war on terrorism.

“The first project on our plate is the team readiness assessment,” said Dr. Aaron U. Bolin, HPC Surface Warfare Officer School Command human performance detachment lead psychologist and 1NCD project lead. “This is a hot topic project that is war-related.”

With a unique, important mission and different force structure, the Seabees have long been believed to be a different breed of Sailor. As one example, their force structure has more than half of their billets in the Navy Reserve Force. Another example is how they train. The Navy aviation, surface and submarine communities train to deploy, while the Seabees deploy to train.

Rather than training for a deployment, the Atlantic Fleet mobile construction battalions deploy their forces to Rota, Spain, or Guam to train and build their team cohesiveness by working construction projects. This gives that Sailor who may be an equipment operator a chance to work side-by-side with the electricians, steelworkers or builders on a construction project to build their team and unit, thus deploying to train.

To build their teams, the Seabees' version of this assessment is much like the bill of goods, albeit one of human capital, where they have a very detailed list of personnel with certain skills, according to Bolin.

“They have a very detailed list of skills, but does it translate into readiness at the team level?” Bolin said. “They know what all the pieces are, but assimilating all the pieces together to form a combat-ready contingency construction force to be deployed to the field to build in a hostile environment is what we’ll be helping them to do.”

The HPC currently has more than 25 human performance detachments throughout the Navy's operational, training and acquisition communities. HPC completed more than 20 pilot projects this past year, with teams focusing on improving weapons handling, flight deck safety and air intercept controller performance, as well as reducing training costs and oil spill occurrences. HPC personnel have also been completing multiple Job Task Analyses in support of the Revolution in Training and Sea Warrior.