• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

ETC Reservists Take Part in Active Duty Training

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080514-29
Release Date: 5/14/2008 5:40:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Jen Smith, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- Reserve Sailors from the Expeditionary Training Command (ETC) Reserve unit, based in Amityville, N.Y., participated in a combined training event with their active duty counterparts during the last week in April at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va.

The five-day training was intended to qualify the Sailors as mobile training team (MTT) members to deploy providing training and mentorship to foreign militaries.

They received training on boat operations, anti-terrorism and force protection, and engine maintenance from active duty Sailors stationed at ETC.

"Having our Reservists fully trained and qualified will allow us to create tailored teams for deployments," said Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Gavigan, the commanding officer for the ETC Reserve unit. "We can have teams made up of all active duty Sailors, all Reservists or a combination of the two."

Gavigan also noted Reserve Sailors are a great asset to ETC and the Navy.

"The average age [in] the unit is 38 years old," he said. "The amount of experience and maturity they have is a gold mine. They're hand-picked Sailors who are already subject matter experts. The only thing we have to do is work on the MTT qualification."

The maturity and experience is even more important because these Sailors often work with little to no supervision. Chief Master-at-Arms Harry Slifer, a Maryland State trooper, noted that during deployments, they are responsible for foreign internal defense training.

"We're there to stop anti-terrorism at the grassroots level," Slifer said. "We have to be a subject matter expert and operate at the journeyman level to provide this training. We have to know what we preach."

While ETC is still a relatively new command, its Sailors have been deployed extensively throughout its year-long history. One of the Reservists worked with the New York Police Department and deployed to Senegal last year for search and rescue training. Later this year, two of the Reservists will be deploying to Afghanistan as individual augmentees where they will be imbedded with training teams to work with the local army.

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command's (NECC) subordinate commands have some of the highest ratios of reserve to active duty personnel. Approximately 47 percent of NECC is made up of reserve forces, and those components are vital to NECC's mission accomplishment. As one of the Navy's type commanders, NECC centrally manages the current and future readiness, resources, manning, training and equipping of approximately 40,000 expeditionary Sailors – including individual augmentees – who are currently serving in every theater of operation.

For more news from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/necc/.