With the nation fully engaged in the war on terrorism, Navy training has become a campaign waged on two fronts. Rear Admiral Ann E. Rondeau, Commander, Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois, explains that the first includes basic skills, such as seamanship, military bearing, physical fitness, and teamwork. Teaching these skills is challenging, yet straightforward. The second front is more elusive because it includes the instilling of core values, ethics, mental preparedness, and—most important—what Admiral Rondeau calls "the warrior spirit."
This spirit is just as important as the ability to steer a steady course or handle a line. It is being stressed throughout the training center to ensure that recruits and those who train them are psychologically as well as physically prepared to contribute to Navy combat readiness. In a slate of new initiatives, the training center is upping the intensity ante and creating an operational training environment for recruits, students, and staff. "Sailors are warfighters, first and foremost," asserts Admiral Rondeau. "The Navy's mission today is too intense not to be sure our people are ready—for anything. In today's ever-changing world environment, we never know what is going to happen when a ship goes to sea. The term 'routine deployment' has become an anachronism in our Navy."
At Recruit Training Command, where more than 50,000 young men and women make the quantum leap from civilian to sailor, the boot camp curriculum has been infused with additional rigor and intensity. Drills based on those conducted at sea have been added to prepare recruits for daily operations in the fleet. Exercises test their skills, awareness, stamina, and ability to react to unknown situations. Multitasking used to be reserved for computer operating systems; now it is expected of sailors. The pace of combat has increased greatly and they must do more and be better prepared to react properly to rapidly changing situations.
Owing to increased force-protection requirements for fleet units following the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67), recruits are getting more hands-on weapon training. Admiral Rondeau points out that "America was introduced to Al Qaeda on 11 September 2001; the Navy's introduction to this terrorist organization came nearly a full year earlier, on 12 October 2000." Thus, live-fire training for the 9-mm Beretta semiautomatic pistol has been increased to 15 rounds. To gain familiarity with handling weapons, recruits stand quarterdeck watches with 9-mm training pistols. Because shotguns generally are more useful force-protection weapons than service rifles, they practice with the Mossberg pneumatic shotgun training system. Live-fire shotgun training is slated to begin in October 2003, when frangible ammunition will be available for the lead-free range.
In addition, recruits are getting more time in the water. Heightened security measures call for small-boat patrols around Navy warships, and small-boat patrols require qualified swimmers. The Recruit Training Command's aggressive swimming qualification curriculum has succeeded in qualifying 92% of the recruits as third-class swimmers. Those who demonstrate a higher degree of proficiency in the water are screened and tested for the second-class level.
Even the most operational of all boot camp training evolutions—the 30-hour, wartime scenario-based Battle Stations—will be upgraded and intensified. A new proposal lengthens to 48 hours this key exercise for testing physical stamina, mental alertness, and ability to function as teams. Each scenario is based on a historical event: for example, sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) at the end of World War II, the mine attack against the USS Tripoli (LPH-10) during Operation Desert Storm, and the terrorist attack on the Cole.
In the third week of training, when divisions first begin to gel as a team, the "man overboard" announcement passed over the intercom system jolts them awake in the middle of the night. Tired and disoriented recruits must collect themselves, don uniforms, report to their man-overboard stations, quickly take muster, and submit an accurate report. The drill simulates a common scenario in the fleet and reinforces the concepts of the watch, quarter, and station bill.
Late at night in the seventh week of training, recruits are tasked with responding to a security alert. This occurs the night following the strenuous Battle Stations exercise, after the recruits-turned-- sailors have been up for more than 30 hours. The division that is activated to augment the base security force is led entirely by sailors in training. They must organize themselves in teams to search for "props" representing items that are out of place and potentially dangerous. The goal is to teach them how to identify a threat, secure the area, and call for the correct reinforcements. The underlying message is that everyone in the Navy is part of antiterrorism force protection.
The Battle Stations training philosophy—look to the past to prepare for the future—permeates the entire Great Lakes complex. Since last summer, officers and chief petty officers must qualify with small arms, and commanding officers must ensure that sailors departing for fleet units are similarly qualified. "If we expect it of our recruits and students, we need to back it up with our own qualifications," said Admiral Rondeau, who recently requalified on the Beretta pistol. "Weapons proficiency must be one of the core competencies of the military professional."
Technology aids the effort to inculcate the warrior spirit. Service School Command's Gunners Mate A School recently added the Firearms Training System (FATS) to its arsenal. The FATS is a computer-generated target range that can be configured for a wide variety of scenarios, including those commonly associated with force protection. It brings yet another level of operational realism to the training curriculum. The Great Lakes' station security department also has the FATS, with law-enforcement as well as antiterrorism scenarios.
These new initiatives have launched "operationalization" of the Naval Training Center Great Lakes. As Admiral Rondeau notes, the center may be 1,000 miles from saltwater, but it is shoulder to shoulder with the fleet in terms of ensuring sailors are prepared to fight and win—"The Navy needs sailors who have, as a part of their makeup, the warrior spirit."
Commander Wallach is the assistant chief of staff for public affairs at the Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois.