Resilient Sailors Keep Fleet Moving

By Chief Mass Communication Specialist Maria Yager, Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- More than 1,500 service members and civilians representing all branches of the military attended the 2012 Navy and Marine Corps Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC) Conference in San Diego May 23 and 24.

The conference matched operational leaders from the fleet, like Vice Adm. Richard W. Hunt, commander, Naval Surface Forces; and Vice Adm. Gerald Beaman, commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet; with medical and readiness experts including Rear Adm. Elizabeth Niemyer, deputy chief, Wounded, Ill, & Injured, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; Capt. Kurt Scott, director, Behavioral Health, and Navy medical and readiness researchers.

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be able to be here at this conference. I think it is very meaningful, very important and is a very strong signal to our Sailors just how much importance we give to this work," said Hunt. "Being able to develop resilience for our people, giving them the right resources, the right training and education so that they can adjust to the very uncertain environment that we have out there is important."

The theme, Joining Forces to Strengthen Resilience, was chosen to directly support the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative which is a set of objectives and policies, new and existing, across a spectrum of wellness that maximizes each Sailor's and Marine's personal readiness to hone the most combat effective force in the history of the Department of the Navy.

"Making sure we take care of our people in a very positive way, upfront and early is what is absolutely necessary to make sure we have that continual combat readiness that we need," said Hunt.

Participants discussed Operational Stress Control (OSC) and the Combat and Operational Stress Continuum. The continuum is a color-coded guide for Sailors and leaders to measure their stress as it relates to one of four zones: ready, reacting, injured or ill.

According to OSC, stress is a part of everyday life. Used to our advantage stress can move us to higher levels of performance, but too much or extreme stress can have negative consequences. OSC seeks to educate Sailors, Marines, families and command leaders to take care of themselves, to stay fit and healthy, to look out for one another and take action when they see themselves or others reacting negatively to stress. The goal is to prepare 21st Century Sailors and Marines and their families to positively manage the stress.

"The challenges out there change on a daily basis and the more prepared they are with a very rich education and background the better they are to adapt and overcome," said Hunt.

OSC and the continuum are concepts applicable to the entire fleet.

COSC presenters included Navy Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Program; Navy Physical Readiness Program; Marine Total Fitness Panel; Navy Personnel Research Studies; Technology, Fleet and Family Support Center; and experts in nutrition, resiliency, sleep studies, behavioral health, suicide prevention and post traumatic stress disorder.

"This is a distinctive event because it is the only one of its kind that brings together such a diverse audience that is singularly united in its passion to help ensure the psychological well-being of our Sailors and Marines," said Capt. Scott Johnston, director, Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control. "Line leaders will help the medical community to understand the realities of readiness and operational needs. Healthcare providers, in turn, will inform leaders of the best way to identify stress and to mitigate it."

For more information on combat and operational stress control visit www.NCCOSC.navy.mil.

Obama: Memorial Day Honors the Memory of the Fallen

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Memorial Day is a time for Americans to honor the memory of the service members who died in the nation’s wars and an opportunity to pray for the day when such wars no longer occur, President Barack Obama said in his Memorial Day proclamation issued today.

“Our nation endures and thrives because of the devotion of our men and women in uniform, who, from generation to generation, carry a burden heavier than any we may ever know,” Obama said in his proclamation. “On Memorial Day, we honor those who have borne conflict's greatest cost, mourn where the wounds of war are fresh, and pray for a just, lasting peace.”

American history is filled with the stories “of sons and daughters who gave their lives in service to the country they loved,” Obama said. “They were patriots who overthrew an empire and sparked revolution. They were courageous men and women who strained to hold a young Union together. They were ordinary citizens who rolled back the creeping tide of tyranny, who stood post through a long twilight struggle, who saw terror and extremism threaten our world's security and said, ‘I'll go.’"

America’s fallen service members “are forever bound by a legacy of valor older than the Republic itself,” the president said in his proclamation. “Now they lay at rest in quiet corners of our country and the world, but they live on in the families who loved them and in the soul of a nation that is safer for their service.”

Memorial Day is a time when Americans “join together in prayer for the fallen,” Obama said.

“We remember all who have borne the battle, whose devotion to duty has sustained our country and kept safe our heritage as a free people in a free society,” he said. “Though our hearts ache in their absence, we find comfort in knowing that their legacy lives on in all of us -- in the security that lets us live in peace, the prosperity that allows us to pursue our dreams, and the love that still beats in those who knew them.”

“May God bless the souls of the venerable warriors we have lost, and may He watch over the men and women who serve us now,” Obama added. “Today, tomorrow, and in perpetuity, let us give thanks to them by remaining true to the values and virtues for which they fight.”

McHugh: Language Skills Critical to Mission Success

By Claudette Roulo

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Language skills and cultural understanding are critical tools for accomplishing missions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, Secretary of the Army John McHugh said during a May 21 visit to the Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif.

The facility provides resident instruction in 23 languages and two dialects. Students include active duty and reserve component service members from all branches of the armed forces, members of foreign militaries and civilian law enforcement personnel.

McHugh toured the Persian-Farsi school and viewed demonstrations of the educational technologies used in developing and sustaining language skills.

As the Army downsizes, McHugh said, soldiers with language skills will become even more critical to the force’s mission success.

“The relevancy of this program -- this entire mission -- I think has never been greater,” he added. “As our number and our footprint gets smaller, I think we would expect those who remain behind to be more culturally aware, to be more adept at language.”

Safety First - Naval Base San Diego Hosts Summertime Safety Fair

By Communication Specialist 3rd Class Charlotte C. Oliver, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Sailors from Commander, Navy Region Southwest attended the 6th Annual Safety Fair at Mariner's Park May 23.

According to Commanding Officer Naval Base San Diego, Capt. Winton Smith, the time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day sees an increase in recreational related accidents and mishaps, with about 30 deaths last year.

Nearly half of these were motorcycle related.

Smith spoke to the crowd of Sailors warning them just how deadly and unpredictable the summer months can be. With the summer months starting this Memorial Day weekend, Smith stressed that Sailors take the appropriate precautions to stay safe.

"With this week being Memorial Day, we want to reach our Sailors to make the right choice one last time before the long weekend." Smith said.

Occupational safety specialist Scott Simerson and his team from Commander, Navy Region Southwest, had booths set up from various companies to teach Sailors an array of safety practices from proper use of power tools to a Naked Juice booth that promoted a healthier lifestyle to Sailors.

Sailors were also given a presentation by the San Diego Coast Guard Auxiliary on the proper use and wear of life jackets including choosing the right life jacket depending on what water activity they may be participating in.

Before Sailors were allowed to venture out to the booths and enjoy free food hot off the grill, singer and traffic school teacher Michael "Big Daddy" Laughbaum entertained the crowd with a musical lesson about traffic safety, and a comedic twist on ZZ Top's "La Grange" to the theme of how not to be "That Guy."

"I wanted to put in Sailors' minds of what can happen if they decide to drink and drive," said Laughbaum.

Vendors from the San Diego area gave training and provided information on products ranging from power tools, to registering your bicycle with the naval base and personal protective equipment. Representatives from Maddox Defense also provided information on some of their military-based high tech portable solar panel devices and ecological "green" cleaners and degreasers geared toward making commands more eco-friendly.

The event was coordinated by the Safety Office at Naval Base San Diego with the support of various commands in the region.

'Flags In' Tradition Honors Fallen Warfighters for Memorial Day

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

ARLINGTON, Va. – More than 1,200 soldiers assigned to the Army's 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," gathered at Arlington National Cemetery here yesterday to place miniature American flags on each of its gravesites and niches for the annual "Flags In" ritual that’s been performed just before each Memorial Day for 64 years.

The Old Guard, based on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, is the Army’s ceremonial unit and has honored Americans buried in the cemetery with the Flags In commemoration every year since 1948.

The regiment’s troops placed the flags on nearly 260,000 gravesites and 22,000 niches, in addition to more than 14,000 graves at the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., an Army cemetery for residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington.

Old Guard sentinels also placed four flags at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The Old Guard’s commander, Army Col. Dave Anders, was with his troops as they placed the flags, which are uniformly centered and situated one boot-length back from the headstone.

Anders placed flags in Arlington's Section 60, where some 12,000 service members who’d served in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, in addition to many warfighters from World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

"I started in the rows of soldiers I served with and knew personally," Anders said, motioning toward a flag he'd just placed on the grave of a soldier he served with twice -- first, at Fort Benning, Ga., and later, in Afghanistan, in 2007. Anders said his father, and his great uncle who died in combat during World War II, also are buried at Arlington.

"This is like a family cemetery," he said. "It's a sad place but very [comforting]."

Yesterday marked Army Pvt. Krieg Bates' first time participating in the Flags In commemoration, at his first duty station.

"My family has a proud history of military service," Bates said solemnly. "It's an honor to come here today for those who sacrificed so much."

Old Guard soldiers feel honored by the rituals they perform, Anders said.

"We're the only unit that does it, and we are very proud of that," the colonel said.

Large groups of Old Guard soldiers carried rucksacks filled with 200 to 300 of the small flags, carefully placing them one-by-one along the long rows of white headstones.

Yesterday, Anders estimated the cemetery would have flags placed on every gravesite by 6:30 or 7 p.m.