Marriage Enrichment Workshop Helps Guam-Based Sailors, Spouses

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gabrielle Blake, USS Frank Cable Public Affairs

POLARIS POINT, Guam (NNS) -- The submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) Religious Ministries Department along with Naval Base Guam (NBG), Naval Hospital Guam Chaplains and Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) representatives held a Marriage Enrichment Workshop (MEW), Feb. 25.

"This workshop is about teaching a communication strategy for couples, so they can learn how to better handle the difficult situations that sometimes wear down and eventually wreck marriages due to spouses misunderstanding and misinterpreting each other," said Cable's Chaplain Lt. Cmdr. Ronald Rinaldi.

The six-hour workshop included interactive training with practice and communication games intended to give couples tools and skills that could last a lifetime.

"We played the game Taboo, showing us how good and bad we communicate with each other," said Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Eric Gonzales. "We talked with our partners about what we felt we needed them to work on, and then the chaplains helped us refine the words we used, so we don't negatively impact the situation causing it to escalate."

Rinaldi said part of the mission is to help prepare young Sailors for marriage and give couples a much better chance for lasting success in those marriages. He said it can also be an enhancer for Sailors who have been married for a number of years.

"This training can help make good marriages better," said Rinaldi. "This workshop is not designed to put their marriages back together. However, for those couples having challenges, it will provide a much better foundation and skills to work out problems in a better way."

This is the second MEW sponsored by Cable's Religious Ministries Team.

"It is intended to be a quarterly training (event) conducted at the NBG Chapel and in conjunction and cooperation with all naval commands in Guam," said Rinaldi.

"I loved the course," said Gonzales. "The most important thing I learned is how to communicate with my partner without causing a fight, and it got me to understand her and respect her more as a person."

Cable conducts maintenance and support of submarines and surface vessels deployed in the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility.