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Safeguard Setting PACE On Afloat Education

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060317-04
Release Date: 3/18/2006 7:30:00 AM

From USS Safeguard Public Affairs

SASEBO, Japan (NNS) -- USS Safeguard (ARS 50), along with other Commander, Task Force (CTF) 76 ships, is encouraging its Sailors to participate in the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE) as Safeguard reached the seventh week of its first 12-week NCPACE term, March 14.

A total of 32 Safeguard Sailors - 30 percent of the crew - are involved in this initial term and are taking standardized tests for credit to further advance their higher education pursuits.

Safeguard’s senior leadership has been vigilant in engaging both the Navy College at Fleet Activities Sasebo (CFAS) and encouraging Sailors to participate, said Lt. Cmdr. Doyle Hodges, Safeguard’s commanding officer.

“As a command, we recognized a need to give Sailors the opportunity to offer education while at sea in order to give our crew the same opportunities shore-based Sailors have,” said Hodges, whose ship and Sailors are currently underway. “Key leaders facilitated the process of distance learning and encouraged it, and the crew has more than responded. We are very proud of the Sailors that are working towards higher education.”

NCPACE courses, targeted specifically for shipboard and deployed Sailors, are taught using CD-ROMs, eliminating connectivity issues that often plague afloat Sailors. The courses are provided through Navy College and funded entirely by the U.S. Navy, but Sailors pay for course materials, such as books. NCPACE courses range from basic academic skills to graduate-level coursework. NCPACE courses include a majority of the core-curriculum college classes such as English, history, science and math.

Lt. Terry J. Patterson, Safeguard’s chief engineer, spearheaded the program along with Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class (SW) Edgar M. Alinea, promoting the merits of higher education to the Sailors.

Interest for higher education on Safeguard peaked when Navy College was brought aboard for a special seminar and one-on-one career counseling last October.

The Navy College sessions were extremely helpful, said Patterson, giving Safeguard Sailors an idea of where they were and where they needed to be educationally to reach career and life goals.

The Navy College representative, Elizabeth Baker, created an academic road map for interested Sailors that would ensure their goals were met as long as they remained committed to the program.

“The program is successful on Safeguard because the Sailors here have a thirst for knowledge and understand that success, both in the Navy and out, directly comes from having a college degree,” said Patterson. “Bottom line, we show them how to achieve their degree and meet a goal without having to wait for shore duty."

Safeguard is a forward deployed rescue and salvage ship operating out of Sasebo, Japan, and is part of Task Force 76, the Navy’s only forward deployed amphibious force.