Q&A: Rear Admiral Gary Jones
Written by Martin Kauchak
Leading Navy Training and Education for Those Who Serve
Rear Admiral Gary Jones
Commander
Naval Education and Training Command
Staff and shore assignments include flight instructor duty in HSL-30, serving in the secretary of defense’s Office for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and duty on the CNO Staff as head of Operations, Plans and Political-Military Affairs in the Western Hemisphere. He also served as executive assistant to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief/Chief-of-Staff, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Prior to flag officer selection, he was director, Readiness/Warfare Requirements at ComNavAirLant. His initial flag assignment was commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea, and Naval Component commander, United Nations Command in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Jones next assumed command of Amphibious Force, 7th Fleet, commander, Amphibious Group 1/CTF-76 in Okinawa, Japan. He also served as commander, Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN (ESG-7), homeported in Sasebo).
Prior to his current position, Jones was assigned as commander, Naval Service Training Command, and commander, Navy Region Midwest in Great Lakes, Ill.
Q: Briefly explain your responsibilities for leading training within the Navy learning community.
A: I am extremely honored to lead the Naval Education and Training Command. Not because it is the largest shore command in the Navy, but because our work positively impacts the successful mission of every other command in the Navy. NETC comprises more than 19,000 military and civilian staff at more than 170 subordinate activities and detachments in the United States and at remote sites overseas, providing individual learning and development to more than 30,000 students on any given day. I take great pride knowing that every single sailor in the Navy is a NETC graduate.
Learning and development is a strategic imperative that directly impacts the success of the maritime strategy, as well as our many military and humanitarian missions around the globe. In addition to our sailors, in fiscal year 2008 we provided the same exemplary learning and development opportunities to more than 33,700 Marines, 2,200 soldiers, 2,200 airmen and 2,200 Coast Guardsmen. Reaching out to our allies, more than 12,000 international students from more than 150 nations attend NETC courses annually. Last year we logged more than 615,000 graduations from our courses. Am I excited about what we do? You can bet on it!
Q: Discuss how learning at NETC commands meets the lessons learned and requirements from operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
A: We are a Navy and nation at war, and I remind the NETC staff of that regularly. But it is a war unlike any we have fought before, and our training has changed to meet the demands of the fleet. Our training commands provide individual technical training in weapons and platform operations and maintenance. We develop real-life training scenarios and realistic training environments for units preparing to deploy. Some specific career enlisted rates and officer designator training have seen dramatic increases in training and changes to curriculum to meet fleet needs. The Center for Security Forces [CSF] has increased the training of Master-at- Arms [MA] personnel, and the Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering [CSFE] has increased Seabee training programs. The Center for Naval Intelligence has dramatically increased training. In their basic Intelligence Specialist course alone, they have seen a 179 percent increase in student throughput.
Though this is the 21st century, we have come full circle in the Navy and again are fighting pirates. One of the initiatives we started to assist shipboard commanders is the visit, board, search and seizure [VBSS] course. VBSS is the term for maritime boarding actions and tactics, designed to capture enemy vessels, to combat terrorism, piracy and smuggling, and to conduct customs, safety and other inspections. We asked Commander Steve Murphy, commanding officer of the USS Mahan [DDG-72], for his opinion of the training. The USS Mahan is currently operating as part of Combined Task Force [CTF] 151, a multinational task force conducting counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. According to Murphy, “Time and again on this deployment the investment in training of my VBSS team has paid off. Whether in support of the counter-narcotics mission or our new, more aggressive approach to stopping piracy, extensive training and the teamwork and principles of risk management that it has instilled has resulted in safe mission accomplishment. USS Mahan has also been fortunate to have had the opportunity to conduct integrated boarding operations with other U.S. units and coalition partners, sharing best practices and enabling even greater collaboration in the future in support of Fifth Fleet missions.”
We currently have approximately 8,700 sailors serving as individual augmentees, most serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. To prepare these sailors, we created the Navy Individual Augmentee’s Combat Training [NIACT] program at Fort Jackson, S.C., which provides training in the basic combat skills needed to succeed while deployed to hostile environments such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
This war has brought new words into our vocabulary, among them the term improvised explosive device [IED]. Through the Center for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Diving, students learn various techniques used in identification and disablement of various bomb components.
We are working side by side with coalition partners in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as strengthening existing partnerships and building new ones with people around the world. A major component of these efforts is simply understanding each other. The Center for Information Dominance coordinates Language Regional Expertise Culture [LREC] training for deploying personnel. These LREC programs contribute to our maritime strategy and enhance international naval relations by building mutual confidence and increasing interoperability.
For the first time since the Vietnam War we are supporting training for the riverine squadrons under Navy Expeditionary Combat Command [NECC].
While a lot has changed to support operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, change is nothing new for NETC. Our training is constantly evolving to meet the needs of the fleet.
Q: Part of NETC’s mission is to ensure fleet readiness and mission accomplishment. What feedback processes make NETC aware of fleet training gaps and shortfalls?
A: The learning centers and NETC’s Learning and Development department [N-7] work closely with the various enterprises throughout the fleet to ensure our training reflects current fleet requirements needed to support successful missions. For example, the Engineering Duty Officer [EDO] School meets with the Engineering Duty Qualification Board [EDQB] for an annual review of the EDO School curricula. The focus of the board this year is on the Basic Course curriculum as well as metrics from our recent process changes in student feedback and the ED qualification program. The EDQB includes EDO staff, the senior EDO detailer, a member from plans and policies at Naval Sea Systems Command, and a number of senior Navy captains from the various aspects of the engineering duty officer community. We have similar meetings for learning and development programs supporting the aviation, surface and submarine communities.
In support of the enlisted sailor’s advancement program, every year we bring fleet sailors back to the Navy Advancement Center in Pensacola, Fla., to review thousands of advancement examination questions for currency, accuracy and validity. Advancement exams that meaningfully measure mastery of rating-specific knowledge are in direct support of placing the right sailor with the right skills in the right place at the right time.
Q: Please provide an overview of the learning technologies used at NETC commands to prepare sailors to enter the fleet.
A: Simulation and technology are wonderful tools, but it is the thousands of instructors who use those tools to develop civilians into the world’s finest naval force that is truly awe inspiring. The use of technology in this transition from civilian to sailor begins at Recruit Training Command. Battle Stations 21 is the Navy’s newest immersive trainer—USS Trayer, a 210-foot replica of a guided-missile destroyer that floats in a seawater and diesel fuel-scented moat filled with 100,000 gallons of water. The 17 scenarios that recruits undergo—four divisions, 88 recruits to a division, can use the facility at a time—range from routine [fire-fighting, flooding, bridge watch, etc.] to full-blown 9/11-era crises, complete with ship-shaking effects, bursts of fire, and screams from ultra-realistic “injured” dummies equipped with triggered MP3 players. The twists and outcomes are cunningly designed to outwit the multimedia-savvy recruits. Battle Stations is designed to challenge sailors in a 12-hour exhaustive shipboard crucible.
The Center for Surface Combat Systems [CSCS] uses the Littoral Combat Ship [LCS] Shore-Based Training Facility [SBTF] to train sailors for duty aboard USS Freedom [LCS 1]. The SBTF is a key component in the train-to-qualify [T2Q] concept, which requires sailors to report aboard LCS ready to execute the mission. In addition to T2Q, the LCS wholeness concept of operations calls for multicrewing, which means that sailors in an off-hull status will need to use the SBTF to maintain proficiency in perishable skill sets. The trainer has three major components or training sections, which can function individually or as a total unit, and they replicate the command and control areas of the ship. These include:
• Component Based Total Ship System for the 21st Century [COMBATSS 21]—Tactical command and control program used to employ ships sensors and weapons systems. Watchstanders are introduced to both common and position specific control states associated with their positions.
• Integrated Bridge System [IBS]—Incorporates the tactical Combined Diesel and Gas [CODAG] Propulsion System and Voyage Management System without the window and radar simulation for bridge watchstander training. Watchstander training begins with basic familiarization with the human machine interface and progresses through pier work, navigation/harbor evolutions, underway replenishment and tactical scenarios across all warfare areas.
• Main Propulsion Control and Management System [MPCMS]—Runs tactical code used by the readiness control officer on the bridge to manage the ship’s engineering systems.
These are just a touch of the technology tools we use to develop our sailors.
Q: Your message to industry: What new learning technology products or systems are needed to better prepare sailors to enter the fleet?
A: Navy leadership realizes that as we continue to increase the demand and implementation of technology on ships and in weapons systems, as a strategic advantage in defense of this great country, sailors will need to keep pace with a greater degree of intellectual capacity, flexibility and cognitive readiness.
As a collaborative team—industry, academia and military—we must work to improve foundational skills, i.e., reading and math. Foundational skills are core for improving sailor critical thinking, problem solving and confidence, which result in improved fleet performance. Any operational-based strategy will be challenged if low performing human capital is relied upon to facilitate a positive strategic outcome.
We have been fortunate as a collaborative effort between Navy Education and Training, Office of Naval Research and academic institutions like Arizona State University and UCLA have helped us look toward the future of Navy training and education. We have a number of training initiatives under way to improve sailor foundational skills and cognitive readiness. At Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, we just completed a study using computer-based tutorials to improve sailor reading comprehension. The work demonstrated a two-grade level improvement in a 40-hour instructional period without instructor interaction.
We are also investigating the use of game-based training simulation to improve sailor performance. We just completed phase one of a computer-based training simulation program designed to improve a sailor’s ability to combat shipboard flooding, effectively communicate, and improve situational reaction in a real-world event. Results indicate that sailors exposed to simulation are able to combat the flooding casualty in half the time of those not exposed.
The keys for the Navy are, will the technology help us develop better sailors to meet fleet requirements, and is the technology cost-effective.
Q: We’ve heard about NETC’s learning and development strategy. What does it entail and how will it benefit sailors?
A: The learning and development strategy is a concerted effort to ensure sailors have available to them the training programs and opportunities required at specific times throughout their careers to assist with both their advancement and their personal development. In addition to making sure those programs are available, a key part of that strategy is making sure sailors are aware of not only what is available to them, but also what is required to progress from E1 to E9. Soon, each rating will have career road maps or “ladders”—from the acronym for learning and development road maps: [LaDR]—that will give sailors a checklist to see where they are and what they need to accomplish to achieve personal and professional success. The LaDR is intended to be a living tool that can guide today’s sailor on to the path of success and be a guide for the sailors of tomorrow. And we have not forgotten the officers—their version of the LaDR is also being developed. Ultimately this strategy enables us to get the right sailor to the right job at the right time.
Q: Within the recent past your billet was changed from a 3-star to a 2-star position. What’s been the impact on your advocacy of learning community interests within Navy processes?
A: There has been no impact. The learning and development of our sailors is an imperative for the success of our Navy’s missions, and the leadership within the Navy understands this in no uncertain terms. What has changed is the expanded missions of our fleet, which taxes our very limited resources for every command. Navy leaders know now what General George Washington knew when he wrote in 1781, “It follows then as certain as night succeeds day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it everything honorable and glorious.” That is what we train to do—everything honorable and glorious. ♦