Essex Successfully Completes Self-Assessment Certification
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS081125-08
Release Date: 11/25/2008 5:58:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Greg Johnson, USS Essex Public Affairs
HONG KONG (NNS) -- Sailors assigned to the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) completed a successful Unit Level Training Assessment-Certification (ULTRA-C), Nov. 21.
ULTRA-C is designed to verify a ship's self-assessment capabilities from firefighting, anchoring and defending the ship in simulated combat situations to personnel management and other administrative tasks. Drills were planned by Essex's integrated training team to closely resemble real-life through complex, integrated scenarios.
"We tried to make our scenarios as realistic as possible," said Capt. Troy Hart, Essex's executive officer. "There is always some degree of simulation in what we do, but our scenarios and "damage" are as real as they can be, which is essential to good training."
Essex' departmental training teams were tested on their ability to assess themselves individually while working side-by-side.
"The integration comes about when different teams have to work together in order for them to meet their training objective," said Lt. Cmdr. Daryl Steenman, Essex's combat systems training team (CSTT) leader. "Scenarios are planned to have integration points. We don't just run drills in parallel; we run drills that affect each other and require coordinated teams to attain overall goals."
Steenman said almost every kind of potential shipboard casualty can involve multiple departments. For example, fires require not only the quick response of the damage control department, but many times they involve the medical department treating smoke inhalation casualties and the engineering department cutting power supplies to affected spaces.
According to Chief Cryptologic Technician (Technical) (SW) Raymond Bufford, Essex's CSTT coordinator, making training integrated is essential to emulating real life because it can add an element of surprise.
"Much of the success during the drills depends on responding properly to constantly changing scenarios," said Bufford. "Knowing your pre-planned responses in those scenarios is a big part of success during ULTRA-C because inspectors are looking closely at how well you run through them."
This ULTRA-C scenario pitted Essex's Sailors against a fictitious country, which launched repeated small-boat, torpedo and air attacks. The assessment culminated with a Total Ship Survivability Exercise and mass conflagration drill. Both drills were run simultaneously after a simulated missile struck the ship, prompting every department to spring into action.
"It was a very real representation of what would actually happen in a real attack," said Operations Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Brandon Johnson. "In fact, all of the scenarios were extremely realistic and that makes them so much more beneficial."
According to Johnson, the realistic challenges faced by Essex' Sailors during ULTRA-C should translate to success if they are ever called upon to defend the ship from an actual threat.
"After seeing our Sailors in action, I believe 100 percent that they would perform the same way during a real situation as they did during the drills," said Johnson. "They knocked it out of the park, especially during the last day of the drills."
Bufford agreed the experience should prove valuable to Essex's Sailors, but also pointed out that training doesn't end with ULTRA-C.
"Being forward-deployed means that we're training all of the time," said Bufford. "ULTRA-C, just like any other training, has no downside, but we're constantly doing these kinds of drills. The more you know about your job, the better you can carry out the mission."
Essex is the lead ship of the only forward-deployed U.S. expeditionary strike group and serves as the flagship for Commander Task Force 76, the Navy's forward-deployed amphibious force commander. CTF 76 is headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan, with a detachment in Sasebo, Japan.
For more news from USS Essex (LHD 2), visit www.navy.mil/local/lhd2/.
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