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Fleet Feedback Critical to Navy Training Pipeline

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100723-09
7/23/2010

By Scott A. Thornbloom, Naval Service Training Command Public Affairs

NAVAL STATION GREAT LAKES, Ill., (NNS) -- The Navy enlisted training pipeline begins at Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp, under the oversight of Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), and continues with apprenticeship training at Training Support Centers (TSC) around the country.

"Sailorization," or the process of molding new recruits from civilians into Sailors, begins at RTC. "Sailorization" is a program designed to integrate Sailors into Navy life, shape their expectations for future duty assignments and give them the tools needed for career and personal success.

"It all begins with recruit training at RTC," said Rear Adm. Cliff Sharpe, NSTC commander. "Civilians are molded into Sailors and upon graduation they have basic skills for success in the Navy and an understanding of what military life entails."

According to Sharpe, RTC begins a Navy enlisted personnel pipeline that is supplying ships, submarines, air wings, Special Forces, Seabees and shore commands with highly trained Sailors.

"We are working hard to develop the technologies and curriculum to keep up with the current state of the fleet," Sharpe said. "We have seen exciting benefits to our training with the addition of computer simulators at RTC and with follow-on training. But we also strive to continually improve the hands-on training between instructors and students. All these methods come together to assist us in conducting the best training possible."

By receiving constant feedback from the fleet, training can be assessed and changes implemented in a short time frame, thus it is a never-ending cycle.

"A lot of what we have done, and what we continue to do, comes from the feedback we receive from fleet leadership," Sharpe said.

The commander of Naval Education and Training Command, Rear Adm. Joseph Kilkenny, notes the importance of fleet input on the Navy's training processes.

"We've made significant improvements to how we train our Sailors today," Kilkenny said. "Technology has played an important part in the improvements we've made, but even more so has been the direct involvement in the training process by fleet leadership. Direct feedback and participation in the training process by those on the waterfront is a requirement to help to ensure we are teaching Sailors the necessary skills that help them succeed when they join the fleet."

The Navy's top training officer encouraged fleet leaders to visit the "A" and "C" schools to see firsthand how today's Sailor is trained, including the hands-on training Sailors receive.

"The feedback I've gotten from those who have toured schoolhouses has been overwhelmingly positive," Kilkenny said. "Before the tour, many had the mistaken notion that CBT is our primary teaching method, but they are universally impressed by the high-quality instruction Sailors are receiving using a combination of methods."

Feedback from the fleet comes in many forms. Ship commanding officers and executive officers and senior enlisted leaders visiting training sites provide expert appraisals of the type of Sailor sent to the fleet.

According to Cmdr. Rusty Hagins, special projects officer at NSTC, changes in training curriculums at RTC are also a direct result of fleet feedback.

"We take that feedback and assess it," Hagins said. "We then integrate different details from the feedback into the core curriculum for recruits. It's not as if the curriculum gets changed, we flush the old, and implement something completely new. It's an incremental process."

Hagins said that this determination helps NSTC work backward through the training pipeline to make sure a recruit is on target to reach the goal of becoming an enlisted rating specialist. The fleet provides the feedback on what a Sailor should be and the Navy then strives to implement the training that will produce a Sailor that meets those standards.

"At certain points in the NSTC accessions pipeline, there is a snapshot of what a recruit should look like and where they should be in their training," Hagins said. "We determine what the professional core and professional competencies are to train and develop an enlisted Sailor."

Hagins said the use of feedback from annual Enlisted Board of Advisors (EBOA) conferences has been very helpful in the integration of curriculums.

"A lot of the building of our curriculums is due to feedback from the fleet, especially from the enlisted side, and one of the best sources we have is the EBOA," Hagins said.

"In curriculum development, they talk about the process and there are different models. The one I use is analysis, design, development, implementation and then evaluation (ADDIE) and it's a big circle."

By using that model, Hagins said the cycle never ends. Sometimes it takes a year, two years and sometimes it takes a month depending on the subject and it's always evolving.

"The bottom line is that we respond to the fleet's needs, the customer's need and then figure out a way of integrating those needs into the course curriculum," Hagins said. "Of course that's also with the understanding that the integration and training is not going to stand alone. When they finish at RTC, they'll continue with a training plan through 'A' and 'C' School."

At the apprenticeship schools at TSC's in San Diego, Norfolk, Va., Pensacola, Fla., Groton, Conn., and at Great Lakes, there are also curricula in place to provide more well-balanced instruction, combining instructor-led, hands-on training, with CBT, to meet the needs of the 21st century Sailor and an ever-evolving Navy. This turns out a more prepared fleet Sailor. It's a process, and the Navy is continually striving to improve the way the training is conducted.

"We continue to revamp our learning strategies and delivery of those strategies to ensure our Sailors are fully prepared for the changing face of war fighting in the 21st century," Sharpe said.

Feedback is received in various ways, but the Navy's top enlisted man feels that for training to truly be effective, leaders must visit boot camp and the various training sites.

During a recent visit to Naval Station Great Lakes, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Rick West called for more senior leadership to visit RTC and TSCs to see the training first-hand.

"We've got excellent training and everyone needs to know that," West said. "The feedback I get overall is quite positive. To answer the negative responses I get [regarding training], the first question I ask anyone in the fleet, especially the leadership, is 'Have you been back to Great Lakes or one of the training sites lately?' And 99 percent of the time I hear, 'No, I haven't been there.' We need to continue to push our top leaders to be part of this process here, in Pensacola and other training sites as well."

MCPON said he was especially proud of the Sailors that step up to the challenge to return to RTC to be the trainers, facilitators and Recruit Division Commanders (RDCs).

"They (RDCs) are doing a heck of a job for us," West said. "Any issues that are out there [concerning training], they are going to work them. The key to all this is the fleet needs to know that there is a feedback mechanism through our training centers to provide input to what they'd like to see and how we can improve training."

West said he has been following the training pipelines and the accessions piece for many years and how they connect to the fleet. He also is pleased with how the CBT has been integrated into the hands-on training received.

"I think we're doing a good job now of getting our Sailors ready to launch out to the fleet and do the job that they're going to be doing on those platforms," West said. "The fleet is continuing to build on the initial training at RTC and TSC, and always looking for ways to improve. I know there were some concerns about CBT in the fleet but the master chiefs or chiefs that take the time to come up here to Great Lakes or go to a training center, whether San Diego, Groton (Conn.), Pensacola or some of the other ones, and see the mixture or the balance of CBT to instructor will see that Sailors have the best of both worlds now. CBT is not like the old or first-generation CBT. It is very productive and good for our Sailors."

Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education Fleet Master Chief Scott Benning echoed MCPON and said he always tells fleet Sailors that training never stops.

"When I'm out there, I reinforce that everyone must understand that what they get out of 'A' school is an apprentice," Benning said. "The journeyman development happens on the deckplate. They get a core foundation of a Sailor that comes to the fleet with the technical skill that they learned in school. They now have to exercise that and mold that, shape it and develop it on the deckplate to make that person experienced and become the journeyman that is needed to continue serving the Navy."

Most of the training Sailors are receiving with CBT is in "A" and "C" schools at the TSCs around the country, combined with the instructor-led and hands-on training.
In boot camp, computer training now begins for recruits in classrooms built especially in their "ships", or barracks, with a computer-based first-person role-playing game called VESSEL, for Virtual Environments for Ship and Shore Experiential Learning. This "game" is designed to enhance a Sailor's critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and ultimately 'on-the-job' performance. It also aids a recruit in making it through their final test of boot camp, Battle Stations, on board the 210-foot-long Arleigh Burke-class destroyer simulator, USS Trayer (BST 21).

The award-winning simulator uses special effects technology to simulate shipboard emergencies as a capstone test of recruits' skills and teamwork. Before graduating, a recruit must successfully complete 17 grueling scenarios based on actual Navy mishaps. The scenarios simulate the USS Stark (FFG 31) after the frigate was hit by two Iraqi missiles in 1987; USS Tripoli (LPH 10) after the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship struck an Iraqi mine during Operation Desert Storm in February 1991 and the USS Cole (DDG 67) suicide bomb attack by terrorists while refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000.

"Getting a chance to play VESSEL really helped me get through Battle Stations," said Seaman Recruit Dustan Snider, from Goshen, Ind. "Without the game, I don't think I would have caught on as fast. It gave me a leg up for Battle Stations. It helped me find my way around the ship and know which way to go and how to get there by reading the bulls eyes (signs with compartment numbers)."

Snider, presently working to be a logistics specialist, said that by the time he reports to his first ship, he should be able to remember and apply much of what he learned in boot camp. Training such as reading Bulls Eyes is extremely important to a new Sailor checking on board their first ship.

"I definitely think I'll be able to apply what I learned in boot camp," Snider said. "I won't know everything but, because of what I was taught here [in boot camp], I have a pretty good grasp of what I'll need to do on my first ship."

Besides the CBT at boot camp, feedback from the fleet has been particularly effective in improving physical fitness among recruits.

Since 2002, recruits have been accomplishing their physical training in the state-of-the-art, 173,000 square-foot three story structure known as Freedom Hall. It is one of the most distinctive structures on RTC where the building's and instructor's sole mission is to improve the quality of basic physical readiness of each recruit, take young civilians and slowly build them up to be able to meet the physical fitness standards of the Navy and turn them into motivated, physically fit Sailors.

Freedom Hall instructors can train and test as many as 2,000 recruits a day. The recruits run three times a week and the other times they are scheduled to attend Freedom Hall they are working on B.A.S.E.S. Training – Balance, Agility, Strength, Explosion and Stamina. During B.A.S.E.S. Training, recruits work on exercises designed to strengthen and improve each area. These exercises are also specifically designed to simulate actual shipboard evolutions, such as line handling, loading and unloading stores, climbing up and down ladder wells and evacuating casualties from a compartment.

RDCs are one of the most important means of obtaining feedback from the fleet. The Navy RDC is one of the fleet's elite Sailors, chosen to train recruits because they are the best of the best and they must serve as role models and teachers.

"Each individual RDC brings unique experiences from their time in the Fleet," said Sharpe. "The feedback they provide is invaluable and up to date. As RDCs rotate to another command they are replaced by other RDCs, fresh from the fleet, who then provide their input to training. The system constantly refreshes and updates itself."

"While being a submariner is a little different than the core training taught here at RTC Great Lakes, the fundamentals of being a Sailor are the same," said Senior Chief Sonar Technician (SS) Jerimiah Penny. "Teamwork and attention to detail are the top two factors for success for Sailors in the fleet. I think both of these are the foundation of the pyramid of success in the fleet."

Penny noted that teamwork also proves important when implementing different moving parts while underway in the fleet.

"We must work as a team in order to complete the task safely," he said. "There are times that we might have several different major evolutions happening in parallel that without teamwork and attention to detail, the risk to the crew would be too great."

"I am positive that the young Sailors that leave Great Lakes are better-trained and more educated than any other Sailors in the world," Penny said. "There is a reason the United States Navy remains the top sea power in the world and it all starts here at RTC Great Lakes."

Machinist's Mate (SW) Scott Campbell, a facilitator at the USS Chief Fire Fighting Trainer on RTC, has seen the results of current RTC and TSC training first-hand on his last ship, USS Denver (LPD 9), before reporting to Great Lakes.

"Being on the Denver as the LCPO (Leading Chief) of the Main Space and having new recruits with an understanding of finding their way around the ship and around a repair locker, dressing out to handle a shipboard emergency, fighting a fire, stopping flooding and setting conditions is a direct correlation with what they have been taught here at RTC," Campbell said. "It was a lot easier for me to give refresher training and move on to more advanced damage control training than having to start training from scratch."

RTC is primarily responsible for conducting the initial orientation and training of new recruits. The command is commonly is referred to as "boot camp" or "recruit training" and has been in operation at Great Lakes since 1911. Boot camp is approximately eight weeks , and all enlistees into the United States Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control and lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork, and discipline. Since the closure of RTCs in Orlando and San Diego in 1994, Great Lakes is now the Navy's only basic training location, and is known as "The Quarterdeck of the Navy." Today, more than 40,000 recruits graduate from RTC and begin their Navy careers.

Following the Navy's consolidation of its basic training facilities to RTC Great Lakes in the mid-1990s, the Navy began a complete rebuilding of the boot camp infrastructure to better meet the training requirements of 21st-century Sailors. Since 1998, the Navy has steadily replaced 1960s-and-older buildings with state-of-the-art facilities for training, feeding and housing new recruits during their eight-week indoctrination into Navy life. RTC's new facilities include 13 barracks - each with dining and computer classroom areas - three drill halls and training facilities, such as Battle Stations 21, the award-winning 210-foot-long Arleigh Burke-class destroyer simulator that uses special effects technology from the theme park industry to simulate shipboard emergencies as a capstone test of recruits' skills and teamwork.

"The more we can do to make our training realistic or show the scenarios and have the training right in front of them, the better," West said.

RTC has also become a place of interest to other military branches in their quest to improve their service's basic training.

"No one has a strangle hold on the right way to do things and that includes training," said Air Force Col. William H. Mott V, commander, 37th Training Wing (which includes Air Force basic training), who recently spent time learning, exchanging ideas with Navy training leadership and observing ongoing training at the Navy's only boot camp and many of the "A" schools at TSC while visiting Naval Station Great Lakes.

"Just seeing something different gives you ideas on the ways to do things better," Mott said. "There's a whole spectrum in the joint training that we presently do today and there's value in trying to make our training more the same. The facilities here are magnificent, the focus on building shipmates is very impressive and the caliber of the RDCs who are in charge of training the recruits is just as impressive."

Other visitors to RTC have the same feelings as Mott.

"As each of the other services looks at its investment in basic training of young men and women, the Navy's training model stands out," said Capt. John Peterson, RTC's commanding officer. "Because of this training, we draw visitors from nations half a world away as well as corporate America and our sister services. The investment in new Sailors is not lost on our Navy or on anyone who follows our Navy."

Peterson noted that RTC and Great Lakes TSC have been visited by several training commanders like Mott from the other military services. They include Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, the Army's Training and Doctrine Deputy Commander for Initial Military Training; Army Maj. Gen. Charles Luckey, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff's advisor for National Guard and Army Reserve matters; and Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield, commander of the Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Va.

Upon successful completion of basic training, qualifying Sailors are sent to various apprenticeship schools, or "A schools." These training facilities are located across the United States and Sailors begin training in their occupational specialty, or rating.

TSC Great Lakes is one of Naval Station Great Lakes' largest tenant commands, supporting technical post-recruit training and other training in a number of disciplines, in about 80 different courses of instruction. The five learning sites supported by TSC provide approximately 80 percent of the Navy's initial surface warfare training. The Great Lakes learning sites make up the Navy's largest technical training operation, with an annual throughput of approximately 17,000 students and up to 4,500 students on board at any time. Many of the courses offered at the Great Lakes learning sites are also attended by several international military students each year.

Most of the courses offered at the Great Lakes Learning Sites have been granted education credit by the American Council on Education. The learning sites participate, with the centers they report to, in a quality-assurance accreditation process sponsored by the Commission of the Council on Occupational Education. Thus, as Sailors undergo training for their Navy career path, they simultaneously earn college credits.

To ensure the command continues to send quality Sailors to the fleet, training is balanced between the technical aspects of the rating, along with reinforcing and continuing the military training initiated at Recruit Training Command (RTC). Every student is provided with a solid base of training, both military and technical, before departing Great Lakes to continue his or her career in the fleet.

MCPON West pointed out how initial training will help Sailors achieve qualifications such as the enlisted surface or air designators, now that the Navy is moving to have all designators become mandatory requirements for all enlisted Sailors.

West said he often talks to fleet and force master chiefs concerning the training of today's Sailors and that his goal is to get all future fleet and force master chiefs on board with how the cycle of feedback from the fleet is a priority in improving the training pipeline in the Navy.

West has also taken an exceptional measure to ensure all senior enlisted are on the same track.

"I just instituted a letter to the Chiefs to make this (Great Lakes) and other training centers a stop for them before they take on a fleet or force master chief position," West said. "This will enable them, early in their job, to see that training first hand, to look at it and then provide feedback to and from the fleet. I think it will enhance the training we currently have in place to make our Navy and our Sailors better prepared to do what we need to do as a Navy."

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.