NSTC Holds MSS Summit

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

GREAT LAKES, Ill., (NNS) -- Representatives from Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) and 30 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Science Instructors (NSI) gathered for a four-day Mariner Skills Simulator (MSS) summit, August 4-7.

The MSS Summit was a chance for the 30 NSIs to discuss, operate and learn to instruct basic navigation using the high-tech computer-based MSS in Training Support Center's (TSC) Operations Specialist/Quartermaster "A" School on Naval Station Great Lakes.

Rear Adm. Rich Brown, NSTC commander, welcomed the NROTC instructors from universities around the country and the NAWC representatives from the Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla., to the summit.

"This is a good tool to teach midshipmen the basics of navigation," said Brown, who also said he had spent hours learning and operating MSS to determine if it was something NROTC midshipmen could use.

"But why are we doing MSS at all?" he said. "Not every single NROTC student is going to be a ship driver. But, just as every Marine is a rifleman I firmly believe every Naval officer is a ship driver."

When NSTC officials looked to create a navigational classroom aid for NROTC units in 2008, they originally unveiled a state-of-the-art Conning Officer Virtual Environment (COVE) and Sub Skills Net simulators at Jacksonville University (JU) in Jacksonville, Fla. They soon determined they needed something simpler than the navigational systems in place on Navy bases around the country.

Today the Mariner Skills Simulator is installed at 37 NROTC units, serving midshipmen in nearly twice that many colleges and universities due to crosstown enrollment agreements.

"The ultimate goal is to have MSS installed at all NROTC units to support the common navigation and seamanship curriculum for midshipmen," said David Coles, NSTC's N6 Command Information Officer (CIO). "In FY15, NSTC will install two new MSSs, and complete five technology refresh efforts at existing units."

The MSS consists of computer software for navigation and seamanship. It is also used by the Navy at training commands, allowing students to accurately gauge a ship's navigation, handling and enhancing its contact management. Students can work as a team of two or three using a drop-down screen that shows them the same forward view that is on one of their computer monitors. The large screen also allows instructors to better measure the progress of the midshipman or officer candidate.

According to Coles, universities have been extremely helpful in assisting NROTC units in implementing MSS.

"At some institutions, the partnership between the NROTC unit and university has been especially important," he said. "For example, Arizona State University paid for their NROTC unit's MSS in 2013. North Carolina State implemented a wireless/laptop version of MSS as part of their new library that same year, in close partnership with the Navy. Universities have been very supportive of bringing this technology to their campuses."

Lt. Christopher Spring, a Naval Science Instructor and Navigation Department Head for the NROTC unit at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., was the MSS Summit Instructor who gave daily lectures and set up navigation scenarios. He called MSS and outstanding tool for midshipmen.

"MSS is a tool that enables instructors to teach navigational principles to students allowing them to get hands-on with ideas and actually employing them virtually in real time," said Spring. "So it's not just drawing lines on a chart abstractly. They can see the importance of it. They can see how radar works and how they can pull information from radar and how that all gets them from point A to point B safely."

Some of the officers at the summit also thought bringing NROTC instructors to Great Lakes was just as important as learning the software.

"The exchange of ideas about how to do the training, I think, is where real improvements in our system happen," said Capt. Michael Ryan, professor of Naval Science and commanding officer of the Notre Dame NROTC unit in South Bend, Ind. "It's also good to get to meet the technical matter experts from here at Great Lakes or from NAWCTSD to really become efficient at running MSS."

Other NSI staff members from schools in the middle of the country and far away from Navy bases on the coasts, said MSS has really helped their midshipmen understand basic navigation of a U. S. Navy ship.

"Penn State is literally in a land-locked state," said Cdr. Jason Stewart, the executive officer and NSI of the unit located almost directly in the middle of Pennsylvania (State College, Pa.) "The nearest body of water to us is about 30-45 minutes away from us and it's a man-made lake. Time and proximity are not on our side when it comes to the fleet. Having this tool to reinforce the book learning will make the students better at what they do and give them a better understanding when they head to the fleet."

Many of the NSI officers have just reported to their units and were getting their first extensive look at MSS and ways to better instruct their midshipmen. They were anxious to return to their units to use what they had learned at the MSS Summit.

"It has been very informative training," Lt. Kristen Laraway, a NSI from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. "I think we'll have lots of success bringing it back to the unit. We have a lot of students going through the program and this training for the instructors will be very beneficial for the unit."

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. That also includes the NROTC program, which was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.