Dport
06-30-06, 06:42
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 30, 2006
Pg. 1C
Sailors Are In The 'Narmy' Now
By Ron Martz
Fort Jackson, S.C. -- Command Master Chief Petty Officer Teresa Carroll knew Army training would be tough.
The 30-year Navy veteran just didn't know how tough.
First came the nearly 30 pounds of helmet and body armor. Then came the choking South Carolina heat and humidity. And on top of that was the task of learning to fire an M-16 on a day when the temperature was hovering near 100 degrees.
"This is really kicking my butt," a florid-faced Carroll, 49, said as she shed her body armor and helmet during a break in the two weeks of training she and nearly 200 other sailors are receiving here.
These sailors, many of them veteran officers and senior enlisted personnel, are being put through a compressed version of Army basic training before they ship overseas.
The training is designed to give them combat skills they would not ordinarily learn in the Navy so that if they deploy to a war zone they will be able to fight back more effectively if attacked.
Despite the discomfort and short-term hardships of the training, Carroll, who has already done two tours in Kuwait and will be going to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in early July, said it is worth the effort.
"Any time you can get this training, it's a good thing. No matter what rank you are or what country you are going to, you need this training," she said.
In addition to the marksmanship training, which takes up most of the first week, the sailors are given classes in convoy security, fighting in cities, spotting roadside bombs, first aid, hand-to-hand combat and land navigation.
Rear Adm. David Gove, who oversees the training as head of the Navy's personnel command and personnel development command, said this is his service's way of getting more involved in overseas operations, whether in Iraq, land-locked Afghanistan or Africa.
The Navy has about 11,600 sailors on the ground in the 26-country U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, including about 4,000 in Iraq, Navy officials at the Pentagon said.
"These sailors have specific skill sets, but they are not necessarily trained for places like Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to make sure our sailors are able to contribute when they go over there," Gove said.
The training is not designed to turn sailors into soldiers, Gove said. But, with the Army and Marine forces stretched thin, he admitted that "this will take some pressure off the ground forces."
Loren Thompson, head of the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think-tank in Washington, said he sees the training partly as the Navy's way of demonstrating its relevance in a war whose burdens are largely being borne by the Army and Marine Corps.
"The blue-water Navy has played a relatively small role in this war, and the Navy leadership is eager to show they are sharing the burden," said Thompson.
Despite a long history of rivalry between the two services, little of that is evident here, said Staff Sgt. Raymond Brindle, one of the Fort Jackson instructors.
The trainers don't yell at the sailors, and the Navy officers don't order the enlisted soldiers around.
"They know the military way of life and come here to train. They know a lot of the stuff already; we just use a different lingo," Brindle said.
But occasionally there is some good-natured ribbing. Some trainees call themselves "sailders" and say they have joined the "Narmy."
Some even had T-shirts made up that said "A Fleet of One," a takeoff on the Army's advertising campaign "An Army of One."
Most of the sailors who train here are known as individual augmentees, or IAs. That means they do not deploy with their units, but as individuals to commands that have needs for specific job skills.
More than 1,800 sailors have gone through the training here and shipped overseas since January, said Gove, with another 1,300 expected to complete the course by the end of September.
Navy Capt. Rick Jones, the on-site officer in charge of the training, said most are volunteers. And even those who are "volunteered" are enthusiastic once they get involved in the course, he said.
"They understand the importance of the skills they are learning here. They know they are going to take a larger role in an effort that is not a traditional Navy role," said Jones, a Navy Reservist who in civilian life works for the Department of the Army at Fort Gordon in Augusta.
Maj. Richard MacDermott, a special projects officer with the Army who helped develop the training regimen, said that because most of the sailors are older and have been in the military for some time, they bring a different mindset to the course.
"They came disciplined, and they came ready to learn and they were motivated," said MacDermott, a former drill sergeant.
One of the most enthusastic in the most recent class was the oldest, 57-year-old Navy Capt. Judy Miller of Alexandria, Va.
Miller, who works for the Defense Logistics Agency, will be going to Kuwait next week for her first overseas deployment after 24 years in the Navy.
"This is not something a supply corps officer normally does," Miller said with a laugh as she prepared to learn the intricacies of the M-16 rifle, a weapon she had never fired before coming here.
But she said she was glad she was doing it because "it's hard to send somebody to do something you haven't done yourself."
The youngest among the most recent class, 19-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel Richter, of Tinley Park, Ill., found the Army training much different from what he expected when he joined the Navy less than a year ago.
"I'm confident and excited and ready to go over there. This is certainly a different experience for me," said Richter, a cryptologic technician who is headed for Djibouti.
In addition to adding to the skills of individual sailors, Gove said, this training may eventually have a more far-reaching impact in the Navy.
"I think it's going to fundamentally change how we, the Navy, view the world we operate in," he said.
---------
Just to answer some obvious questions.
No, they are not being trained for infantry jobs. They are being trained for Armyjobs with common skill sets to the jobs they already perform.
No, it's not the Navy's way of staying relevant, despite what the article says. It's a way for the Navy to help the Army to fill jobs with certain skill sets. We don't want the ground-pounder's jobs. We do want to help the Army meet their mission objectives any way we can.
One team, one fight.
June 30, 2006
Pg. 1C
Sailors Are In The 'Narmy' Now
By Ron Martz
Fort Jackson, S.C. -- Command Master Chief Petty Officer Teresa Carroll knew Army training would be tough.
The 30-year Navy veteran just didn't know how tough.
First came the nearly 30 pounds of helmet and body armor. Then came the choking South Carolina heat and humidity. And on top of that was the task of learning to fire an M-16 on a day when the temperature was hovering near 100 degrees.
"This is really kicking my butt," a florid-faced Carroll, 49, said as she shed her body armor and helmet during a break in the two weeks of training she and nearly 200 other sailors are receiving here.
These sailors, many of them veteran officers and senior enlisted personnel, are being put through a compressed version of Army basic training before they ship overseas.
The training is designed to give them combat skills they would not ordinarily learn in the Navy so that if they deploy to a war zone they will be able to fight back more effectively if attacked.
Despite the discomfort and short-term hardships of the training, Carroll, who has already done two tours in Kuwait and will be going to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in early July, said it is worth the effort.
"Any time you can get this training, it's a good thing. No matter what rank you are or what country you are going to, you need this training," she said.
In addition to the marksmanship training, which takes up most of the first week, the sailors are given classes in convoy security, fighting in cities, spotting roadside bombs, first aid, hand-to-hand combat and land navigation.
Rear Adm. David Gove, who oversees the training as head of the Navy's personnel command and personnel development command, said this is his service's way of getting more involved in overseas operations, whether in Iraq, land-locked Afghanistan or Africa.
The Navy has about 11,600 sailors on the ground in the 26-country U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, including about 4,000 in Iraq, Navy officials at the Pentagon said.
"These sailors have specific skill sets, but they are not necessarily trained for places like Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to make sure our sailors are able to contribute when they go over there," Gove said.
The training is not designed to turn sailors into soldiers, Gove said. But, with the Army and Marine forces stretched thin, he admitted that "this will take some pressure off the ground forces."
Loren Thompson, head of the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think-tank in Washington, said he sees the training partly as the Navy's way of demonstrating its relevance in a war whose burdens are largely being borne by the Army and Marine Corps.
"The blue-water Navy has played a relatively small role in this war, and the Navy leadership is eager to show they are sharing the burden," said Thompson.
Despite a long history of rivalry between the two services, little of that is evident here, said Staff Sgt. Raymond Brindle, one of the Fort Jackson instructors.
The trainers don't yell at the sailors, and the Navy officers don't order the enlisted soldiers around.
"They know the military way of life and come here to train. They know a lot of the stuff already; we just use a different lingo," Brindle said.
But occasionally there is some good-natured ribbing. Some trainees call themselves "sailders" and say they have joined the "Narmy."
Some even had T-shirts made up that said "A Fleet of One," a takeoff on the Army's advertising campaign "An Army of One."
Most of the sailors who train here are known as individual augmentees, or IAs. That means they do not deploy with their units, but as individuals to commands that have needs for specific job skills.
More than 1,800 sailors have gone through the training here and shipped overseas since January, said Gove, with another 1,300 expected to complete the course by the end of September.
Navy Capt. Rick Jones, the on-site officer in charge of the training, said most are volunteers. And even those who are "volunteered" are enthusiastic once they get involved in the course, he said.
"They understand the importance of the skills they are learning here. They know they are going to take a larger role in an effort that is not a traditional Navy role," said Jones, a Navy Reservist who in civilian life works for the Department of the Army at Fort Gordon in Augusta.
Maj. Richard MacDermott, a special projects officer with the Army who helped develop the training regimen, said that because most of the sailors are older and have been in the military for some time, they bring a different mindset to the course.
"They came disciplined, and they came ready to learn and they were motivated," said MacDermott, a former drill sergeant.
One of the most enthusastic in the most recent class was the oldest, 57-year-old Navy Capt. Judy Miller of Alexandria, Va.
Miller, who works for the Defense Logistics Agency, will be going to Kuwait next week for her first overseas deployment after 24 years in the Navy.
"This is not something a supply corps officer normally does," Miller said with a laugh as she prepared to learn the intricacies of the M-16 rifle, a weapon she had never fired before coming here.
But she said she was glad she was doing it because "it's hard to send somebody to do something you haven't done yourself."
The youngest among the most recent class, 19-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel Richter, of Tinley Park, Ill., found the Army training much different from what he expected when he joined the Navy less than a year ago.
"I'm confident and excited and ready to go over there. This is certainly a different experience for me," said Richter, a cryptologic technician who is headed for Djibouti.
In addition to adding to the skills of individual sailors, Gove said, this training may eventually have a more far-reaching impact in the Navy.
"I think it's going to fundamentally change how we, the Navy, view the world we operate in," he said.
---------
Just to answer some obvious questions.
No, they are not being trained for infantry jobs. They are being trained for Armyjobs with common skill sets to the jobs they already perform.
No, it's not the Navy's way of staying relevant, despite what the article says. It's a way for the Navy to help the Army to fill jobs with certain skill sets. We don't want the ground-pounder's jobs. We do want to help the Army meet their mission objectives any way we can.
One team, one fight.