AFGSC member selected to attend Navy commander's course

by Carla Pampe
Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs

5/27/2015 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- In a continuing effort to further the professional development of Air Force Global Strike Command personnel, the Command will send its first member to attend the Navy's Submarine Ballistic Missile Nuclear Powered commander's course beginning June 8.

"Maj. Termain Atwater, 625th Strategic Operations Squadron, was hand-selected by the AFGSC vice commander and approved by Lt. Gen. Wilson to attend a five-week TDY with the U.S. Navy," said Maj. Marcus Hampton, deputy chief, force development division with the AFGSC personnel directorate. "The classroom portion of the SSBN Command Course convenes in Kings Bay, Georgia, and culminates on an SSBN toward the end of the month."

Atwater is looking forward to the opportunity.

"Any opportunity to test decision-making ability in a controlled environment is always beneficial, but learning from and being mentored by leadership from a sister service at this juncture in my career is special," he said.

According to Chuck Hasbrouck, course senior instructor, "The first week of the course is Nuclear Command Control and Communications--certainly professionally relevant for USAF officers. The at -sea portion of the course consists of five days on an SSBN, almost entirely focused on the nuclear deterrent mission, conducting at least two full days of strategic scenarios."

Atwater hopes that he will be able to learn command, control and communications, weapons and navigation systems from the experts at the course while learning and sharing leadership lessons.

"One of the most interesting aspects of this course is the ability to go underway for a week and be afforded the opportunity to act as CO or XO during strategic scenarios," he said. "To be able to learn the decision calculus of a submariner captain and return to intelligently discuss with peers is what I plan to bring back to the command."

Hampton said the course will give the major insight on how the Navy operates, and in turn, "they'll look to him to fill in some gaps on how AFGSC operates our deter and asssure mission from a field grade 13N perspective."

Atwater said the opportunity is two-fold.

"Most importantly is my ability to represent AFSGC to our Triad partners and secondly, to step outside of my comfort zone, take my lumps and grow as a leader," he said.