CNATT Celebrates 13th Birthday

From Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Public Affairs

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT) Headquarters, celebrated its 13th birthday with a luncheon, cake-cutting ceremony and team-building exercises at the Naval Air Station Pensacola Portside complex Feb. 5.

A command with oversight of more than 3,000 staff members supporting 115,000 students annually at training units, detachments and learning sites around the world.

CNATT provides nearly 550 courses in support of the Naval Aviation Enterprise and fleet readiness, according to CNATT Commanding Officer Capt. Terry Hammond.

"We're celebrating 13 years of the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training [CNATT]," he said. "A highlight for me is that we've been able to provide the single source for naval aviation technical training for these many years, and with each year we're providing greater and greater quality in support of a training continuum for our Navy and Marine Corps students."

CNATT is headquartered aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola. The headquarters develops, delivers and supports aviation technical training at 27 sites located throughout the continental United States and Japan.

Hammond addressed the nearly 120 CNATT service members and civilian employees at the onset of the four-hour celebration, stressing the importance the headquarters staff has played in the professional development of thousands of students.

"Our support staff [the Pensacola staff] serves as kind of a linchpin to making what we do around the world really work," he said. "Our key functions here are to provide guidance to our units out in the fleet that are actually doing the training and to provide direction in helping them understand policy, two things I know we are excelling at as we head in to our next year."

The CNATT Morale, Welfare and Recreation committee provided lunch and organized games and activities for the staff members. Pensacola resident and previous Naval Aviation Maintenance Training Group Unit Commanding Officer Capt. Frank Smith also attended the celebration.

Hammond also requested the civilian employee with the most time working at CNATT, Marcus Digmon, and the most newly reported service member, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Paul Bourgeois, to cut the command's birthday cake.

Hammond also said the command's headquarters element remains dedicated to the continued efforts toward training the future maintainers of naval aviation, a task he said CNATT embraces.

"Being here in the cradle of naval aviation is important because it gives us an opportunity to be part of that aviation warrior ethos," he said. "All Naval Aviation Enterprise members come through one of our schoolhouses -- whether you're a pilot, whether you're an enlisted Sailor or Marine, you have an opportunity to come through our schoolhouses. So I think it's appropriate and fitting that our center is headquartered right here in the cradle of naval aviation."

CNATT is a technical training agent for the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE), an organization designed to advance and sustain Naval Aviation warfighting capabilities at an affordable cost, and is the largest training center under Naval Education and Training Command (NETC).

Stratcom Assessment: North Korea Launches Missile

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, February 6, 2016 — Detected and assessed as a North Korean launch, U.S. Strategic Command systems tracked a missile today on a southerly route over the Yellow Sea.

The launch into space occurred at 7:29 p.m., EST, with North American Aerospace Defense Command determining that at no time was the missile a threat to North America, Stratcom officials said in a news release.

“The men and women of Stratcom, NORAD, Northcom and Pacom remain vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and are fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security,” the officials said in the release.

From World War II to Afghanistan: USO Marks 75th Anniversary

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, February 5, 2016 — Talk about the United Service Organizations and people think it is some holding company. But mention USO, and all Americans know it is a way for them to connect with service members.

Retired Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the chairman of the USO Board of Governors and former Army chief of staff, estimated that the USO has served more than 35 million Americans over its history.

The USO marked its 75th anniversary yesterday at a gala here. Medal of Honor recipients, USO volunteers, active duty personnel, veterans, members of Congress, and stars of stage, screen and music gathered to mark a milestone for an organization founded as America geared up for World War II.

Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, called the group a family that stretches around the world. J.D. Crouch, the organization’s chief executive officer, thanked the celebrities for joining in the celebration and for entertaining American service members around the world as ambassadors from the American people. “You light up our service members’ lives,” he said, “and you remind Americans of the debt of gratitude that we all owe to those who serve.”

Founded at a Dark Time in History

The USO came into being during a dark time in history. The United States was not at war, but the rest of the world seemed to be. Hitler’s troops stood on the English Channel and launched nightly air raids against London. In the Pacific, Japan eyed the colonial possessions of France and the Netherlands – two of the countries Germany had conquered in its 1940 blitzkrieg.

In face of such threats, the United States instituted a military draft, calling hundreds of thousands of men to the colors, and Americans wanted to reach out to their young men. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked charitable organizations to band together to provide morale and recreation services to service members.

Six civilian organizations answered the call: the Salvation Army, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the National Catholic Community Service, the National Travelers Air Association and the National Jewish Welfare Board. These organizations chartered the USO in New York on Feb. 4, 1941.

Japan attacked the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, and America entered the war. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps grew, with more than 12 million men and women in uniform by 1945. And the USO grew as well; by the war’s end, about 1.5 million Americans had volunteered for the USO.

Actor-comedian Bob Hope – a man who would be virtually synonymous with the organization – held the first camp show in 1941, and for the next five decades, he was the face of the organization.

Changing as America Has Changed

The organization changed just as the American military changed, and it is continuing to change. And wherever the military went, the USO went, too. There were USO centers in Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Somalia, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The USO also has centers at most major airports that provide a place for service members and their families to gather their wits as they travel, and the organization also helps service members as they transition out of the military.

The USO has grown to the extent that today, just a small portion of its budget goes to entertainment. But that aspect is still there.

First-Hand Look by Joint Chiefs Chairman

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led the annual USO Holiday Trip to Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy; Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti; Naval Support Activity Manama, Bahrain; Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan; and Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in December. He told the crowd at the anniversary celebration that the trip opened his eyes on what the organization provides the men and women of the U.S. armed forces.

The general said he would talk to the troops after the show and ask how they liked it. “They’d say, ‘You know what, sir, for a few minutes, I forgot I was here. I felt like I was home.’” Dunford said. “That’s actually why President Roosevelt started the USO.”

But it is even more than that, the general said, and it goes to the heart of why the USO is important to America and its fighting forces. The country has asked a lot from its military since the attacks of 9/11, he noted, and the troops have performed magnificently. “I think it’s exceeded any of our expectations, and there’s a lot of reasons for that,” he said.

One of the reasons the young men and women who have deployed forward have performed so well, the chairman added, is that they “have gone forward knowing that they had the support of the American people.

“And certain organizations deliver that message,” he said. “Certain organizations are the physical manifestation of the support of the American people, and I don’t know an organization that does it any more than the USO. The USO is actually what delivers that message to them.”