Submarine Group 10, Local CSADD Chapter Sign Summer Safety Proclamation

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) James Kimber, Submarine Group 10 Public Affairs

KINGS BAY, Ga. (NNS) -- The commander of Submarine Group 10 and Kings Bay junior enlisted Sailors signed a 101 Critical Days of Summer Proclamation June 1.

The proclamation's signing took place during the annual Damage Control Olympics at Trident Training Facility.

Senior enlisted leaders here drafted the proclamation off of elements from already established safety and awareness programs, and incorporated them into one combined statement. Some of the strongest bullet points that most directly speak to the Kings Bay community were used from Navy programs the leadership team believed to have excellent messages.

"We wanted to put word out of our vision for summer safety in Kings Bay," said Master Chief Electronics Technician (SS) Mike McLauchlan, Trident Training Facility command master chief and the proclamation's writer. "[The senior leadership] cares about our Sailors and crew. We want everyone to have fun, but remain safe."

Commander, Submarine Group 10, Rear Adm. Joseph Tofalo, also took the time to recognize the local Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions (CSADD) chapter which stood up just a few months ago and reinforced all the Kings Bay commands' recent General Military Training sessions to increase DUI awareness and summer safety.

"CSADD is a grassroots effort from our junior Sailors," Tofalo said. "The initial focus was to eliminate DUIs, but the junior Sailors wanted to expand efforts to include raising awareness of destructive decisions. It's a program to provide positive mentorship to help shipmates, the Navy and the community."

CSADD originated at Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic as a peer influence social group. The popularity and message of the program spread and chapters were established at other commands. As a result, CSADD has been launched Navy-wide. This program provides an additional resource and communication tool that facilitates positive Sailor interaction and complements a commander's message directing proper conduct both on and off duty.

"The CSADD chapter at Trident Training Facility represents the future of our Submarine Force," said Command Master Chief (SS) Randy Huckaba, Submarine Group 10 command master chief. I can think of no better way to kick off the critical days of summer by having our highly motivated future leaders sit down with the Commander Submarine Group Ten and put their signatures on this year's Summer Safety Proclamation."

CSADD is designed to positively influence Sailors behavior through resources and tools that promote good decision-making processes, enabling leadership development and influence among peers at the junior level which, in turn, fosters both an attitude and atmosphere conducive to good order and discipline.

The goal of this program is to encourage positive social interaction and development of leadership and decision-making skills. Junior Sailors at each command will be provided the opportunity to create social networks, use a variety of communication tools and see visual messages to discourage destructive decisions within their peer group.

According to the Naval Safety Center website, seven Sailors and 15 Marines worldwide lost their lives in fiscal year 2010 while off duty, some of which could have been prevented. The goal of the proclamation is to prevent these incidents from ever happening so that no command, or more importantly no family, has to endure any loss of life, injury or incident that takes time away from either home or work.

Submarine Group 10 is commanded by Tofalo and is the Nation's preeminent provider of sea-based strategic deterrence, strike and unique Ohio-class guided missile submarine special operations capabilities.

Dempsey: Military Must Persevere to Solve Suicide Issue

By Karen Parrish

American Forces Press Service

SINGAPORE  – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday said he disagrees “in the strongest possible terms” with an Army major general’s characterization of suicide as a selfish act.

“I’ve been in contact with Army senior leadership and know they share my concern,” Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said, regarding recent controversy over Army Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard’s blog comments, since retracted.

Dempsey spoke with American Forces Press Service while flying here for the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asia security summit that begins today.

Pittard, commander of the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, Texas, wrote the blog post in January after attending the memorial service of one of his soldiers, who took his own life. Pittard wrote that he is “personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess.”

Dempsey said the comments were “both unfortunate and extremely inappropriate.”

In retracting the remarks last week, Pittard expressed his “deepest sincerity and respect towards those whom I have offended,” noting suicide is a very complex issue that plagues not just the military, but society overall.

There have been 140 suicides across the services thus far in 2012, according to defense officials. This compares with 122 at this time last year, and 110 at this point in 2010. Among current and former service members who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, more have died by suicide than by enemy action.

The Army is the largest military branch and sees the most suicides, but the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force as well as the Army have poured time, money, effort and training into programs and services aimed at stemming the tragic flood. Veteran suicides are also alarmingly high, at 18 per day as reported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We’ve been hard at [combating suicide] for at least the last seven years,” the chairman said. “We have not spared any effort, but nor have we turned the trend line.”

Dempsey said he has spoken often and at length about the need for professional military members, from the newest recruit to the most senior officer, “to be very introspective at this point in our history about what a prolonged conflict, the longest war in our history, with an all-volunteer force, has done to us and to our families.”

“The issue of suicide, and all of the other tragic mental health issues that we have experienced over the last 10 years of war, require us to continue to seek to learn,” he added.

Senior leaders in particular are “accountable for helping the entire profession, the entire force, understand the issues,” the chairman said, adding that Pittard’s comments “didn't help, but hurt, our efforts to understand. They added another layer of confusion."

Leaders must help men and women who are experiencing “incredible stresses in their lives” get help, he added.

Dempsey said his approach is to ensure military leaders don’t address issues such as suicide in isolation.

“We’ve got … the issue of increasing suicides; we’ve got statistics that demonstrate sexual assault remains [an issue]; we’ve got an increase in reported instances of hazing,” he said. “Not all are related to war, but all are related to who we believe we are, and … what knowledge, skills and attributes we seek in the young men and women who serve -- and the not-so-young men and women who serve.”

The chairman said his goal is to see those issues in context with each other, and to ensure recruiting, policies, education and training across the forces are managed to address the issues as effectively as possible.

“Over the last 10 years we’ve learned a lot about what attributes we may need for the future,” Dempsey said. “Are we, in our recruiting base, seeking them? In our education system, are we developing them? In our evaluation reports, are we rewarding them?”

The military is a wonderful profession of which he couldn’t be more proud, Dempsey said, yet there are now a number of “weak signals” that, taken together, emphasize the need for continued learning and change.

“Ultimately, we are responsive to the people of the United States of America and to the Constitution,” he said. “You’re not a profession just because you say you are, you’re a profession because you earn that title every day. This is another one of those instances where I think we’ve got to take a good hard look at ourselves.”

The chairman noted he often speaks of maintaining the bond of trust within the military.

Part of that bond rests in leaders paying attention to the mental health of service members, building in their troops a sense of resilience and the self-confidence that comes with “hard training, knowing you’re mentored, knowing you’re cared for, knowing there’s someone out there that cares about you and you’re part of a team,” he said.

Multiple pressures come to bear in the lives of service members and their families, Dempsey said.

“We’ve got to keep at this,” he said.

National ESGR honors state employer

By 1st Sgt. Vaughn R. Larson

Wisconsin National Guard

Green Bay-based Schneider National experienced another first Wednesday (May 30) when it received the inaugural Extraordinary Employer Support Award for large employers from the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR).

Jim Rebholz, ESGR national chairman, said the award was created approximately 45 days earlier.

"We had no way, in the Department of Defense, to recognize ongoing support," Rebholz said, noting that Schneider National was also the first recipient of the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award in 1996, when only one award was given per year.

Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, adjutant general of Wisconsin, pointed out that one of the criteria to receive the Extraordinary Employer Support Award was five years or more of sustained excellence in supporting National Guard and Reserves troops.

"I had to smile, because we just celebrated your 20th anniversary of commitment to veterans," Dunbar said. "I think if you looked up 'employer support to the veteran' in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of Schneider National right there."

Mike Hinz, vice president for driver recruiting at Schneider National, said that "hundreds and hundreds of our employees" are from the National Guard and the Reserves.

"We greatly appreciate the recognition ... for doing something that you're passionate about and truly believe in," Hinz said, "and that is putting our great men and women currently serving and prior service in a career where they can leverage all the investment our nation has made in them. That's what I believe we do at Schneider National - take the investment from the United States and its citizens and put those men and women into jobs where they can do great things across our country.

 Jim Rebholz (third from right), national chairman of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, presented Schneider National of Green Bay with the inaugural Extraordinary Employer Support Award Wednesday (May 30) in Witmer Hall at Joint Force Headquarters, Madison, Wis. The award recognizes Schneider's long-standing support of the military as well as former service members. Also pictured are members of the Wisconsin National Guard, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and U.S. Navy Reserve. Wisconsin National Guard photo by 1st Sgt. Vaughn R. Larson

"It's a real privilege for us," Hinz continued. "There is an absolute patriotic good feeling we get by doing the right things, by making sure we have a strong National Guard and strong Reserve forces, because they've got jobs in communities. We all know that a fully employed and fully engaged Reservist or Guardsman makes a better Soldier, a better Sailor, a better Marine, because they have a stable base. And that's what we hope to do."

PCU Mississippi Sailors Volunteer with American Red Cross in Pascagoula

By Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg, Commander, Submarine Group 2 Public Affairs

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (NNS) -- Sailors from Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Mississippi (SSN 782) volunteered with the American Red Cross in Pascagoula and packed hurricane preparedness materials May 30.

PCU Mississippi Sailors assisted the American Red Cross in advance of the kick-off to hurricane season, which begins June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

PCU Mississippi, the ninth Virginia-class attack submarine, arrived in Pascagoula May 25 to prepare for the submarine's commissioning June 2.

In addition to assisting with the American Red Cross, PCU Mississippi Sailors also lent their assistance to Habitat for Humanity May 29.

Capt. John McGrath, PCU Mississippi's commanding officer, emphasized his crew's interest in assisting in volunteer projects while the submarine was in Pascagoula for its commissioning.

"PCU Mississippi Sailors amassed more than a thousand volunteer hours while the boat was under construction," said McGrath. "It was only fitting for my crew to do the same while we are visiting our namesake state."

Due to their extensive volunteerism the submarine received a Navy Community Service/Project Good Neighbor community service award in 2011.

Martha Duvall, American Red Cross communications officer, South Mississippi was pleased with the Sailors' support.

"We are excited and honored to have crew members from the USS Mississippi help assemble Red Cross emergency shelter kits," said Duvall.

Duvall added that the kits will be used throughout South Mississippi this hurricane season.

"Their volunteerism today will allow us to continue to be ready if and when called upon to open shelters," said Duvall.

Virginia-class submarines are built under a unique teaming arrangement between General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries - Newport News. Construction on the submarine began in February 2007.

Once commissioned in 2012, Mississippi, like all Virginia-class submarines is designed to dominate both the littorals and deep oceans. It will serve as a valuable asset in supporting the core capabilities of Maritime Strategy: Sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence.

PCU Mississippi will be commissioned June 2 in Pascagoula, Miss. The ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m. CST, will be streamed live via www.livestream.com/usnavy as well as http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/. It will also be available via webcast at http://www.dvidshub.net/webcast/2421#.T7_T57BtaSo.

Dempsey Seeks to Learn From Asia-Pacific Partners

By Karen Parrish

American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT  – The challenge for the United States in the Asia-Pacific region is translating strategy into action, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

On his way to Singapore for the 11th annual Asia security summit known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told American Forces Press Service that the U.S. “pivot to the Pacific” isn’t about establishing American dominance in the region.

Rather, he said, the goal is to work with regional partners to sustain and strengthen a cooperative security environment among Asian-Pacific nations.

The chairman noted that in this, his first visit to the dialogue, he wants to hear what other nations’ officials have to say on topics such as territorial disputes in the region’s seas. China and the Philippines both claim the South China Sea waters around Scarborough Shoal, and China and Japan dispute the area surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, near Okinawa.

Dempsey said the United States does not take sides in territorial disputes and encourages disputing parties to resolve such issues without coercion.

“What I already know is that we’ve been very clear about the need for cooperation in the maritime domain [involving] freedom of navigation,” he said. “I think that’s exactly the right position to place ourselves. But beyond that, I want to hear what these 27 nations [at the Shangri-La Dialogue] have to say, both to us and to each other -- because it will clearly be one of the most prominent issues.”

From the national strategic level where he works, the chairman said, the first priority in rebalancing defense strategy toward the Asia-Pacific region involves what he calls “intellectual bandwidth.”

“We’ve developed, over the course of 10 years, a core of real experts in the Middle East,” Dempsey said. “We need to form that same core of professionals for whom [Asia-Pacific expertise] is a lifelong work.”

The second step in the strategic shift to the Asia-Pacific region is to build on that increased bandwidth to create and explore new opportunities to increase regional security, he said.

“We have to make that intellectual shift … and then listen to the signals that we receive from our partners,” he added, noting that standing, multinational forums often are able to deal with security issues before they become crises.

“I think that’s the great strength of NATO,” Dempsey said.

A security organization similar to NATO involving many Asia-Pacific nations’ participation may have value, the general said, but only if other nations want it.

“We would have to see the appetite for that among our partners and not just try to in some way impose it on them,” Dempsey said.