Pearl Harbor CENSECFOR Students Ready To Defend Ship
(March 25, 2010) |
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PEARL HARBOR (March 9, 2010) Sailors secure a smoke-filled space as a team member apprehends a target during the advanced Security Reaction Force course scenarios at the Center for Security Forces Pearl Harbor learning site. The Security Reaction Force course is designed to provide disciplined, motivated and tactically proficient Sailors to augment combat security forces around the world. |
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PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- More than 20 Pearl
Harbor-based Sailors honed their tactical skills
to graduate from Security Reaction Force -
Advanced (SRF-A) training at the Center for
Security Forces (CENSECFOR) Pearl Harbor
Learning Site March 12.
The two-week SRF-A course is designed to train
and educate Sailors to prevent threats from the
pier, small boat attacks or any other means of
penetration in accordance with current naval
directives under both normal and emergency
conditions.
"What we do is take normal rates - culinary
specialists, engineers, deck seaman, operation
types - and teach them how to do tactically
sound movements and defend the ship and their
shipmates," said Master-at Arms 1st Class
Francis Liberty, an SRF-A instructor. "On a ship
you can't dial 911. You are your own police
force."
During the first week, students received |
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classroom instruction learning SRF-A concepts,
such as tactical team management, use of deadly
force and mission planning. |
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At the end of the first week, students left the classroom
environment and entered the hangar bay across the street.
The hangar bay, divided into several sections, housed a
simulated ship in one of its sections. The simulated ship,
or what the instructors refer to as the "ship-in-a-box," is
a three-story container express (CONEX) box refurbished to
look and feel like a real ship from the inside, complete
with a galley, an engine room and bridge.
During the second week of training, students donned tactical
gear, including face masks and groin protection, and were
issued blue-painted weapons loaded with simunition.
Simunition is a dyed detergent-filled round that simulates
live fire ammunition and is safe, effective and designed to
be fired through both police and military training weapons.
"I actually learned things that I didn't think I would learn
here," said Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Jessica Roe, a recent
graduate of SRF-A who is assigend to USS Paul Hamilton (DDG
80).
During each scenario, students must listen to each other and
work as a team as they negotiate a range of tactical
situations such as riots on the pier, shooters, improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) and armed hostage situations.
"The scenarios we do are as realistic as we can possibly
get," said Liberty. "We don't want to give them five
shooters on the first day. We want to make them go through a
progression throughout the week to give them confidence."
Sailors receive the full effect of these exercises by using
simunition rounds.
"Back in World War II, we were using fingers to play, and
then through the ages we've been using exercise red guns,
and it was up to the judges to decide who the winner is,"
said Liberty. "We got a little more advanced now. We have
simunition rounds whereby you know instantaneously if your
tactics are working. You know if you got hit, and where you
got hit."
Senior Chief Master-at-Arms (EXW/SW/AW) Vincent B. Jones is
the senior enlisted advisor at the CENSECFOR Pearl Harbor
Learning Site. Jones, who has been in the Navy for more than
25 years, uses his experiences when teaching students the
importance of SRF-A training. Jones has seen first-hand the
need for the training, especially after a tour of duty in
Afghanistan in 2008.
"I tell the students exactly what I've seen," said Jones.
"Sometimes the students don't see the big picture of what we
do here. I give them experience, and let them know why the
little things that we do here are so important. When I was
out in Afghanistan, we'd have weapons discharges and IED
explosions on a weekly basis."
Roe, who has been in the Navy for less than two years,
benefited from the training and the accumulated experiences
of her instructors as she takes the lessons learned back to
her ship.
"It teaches me to pull together with people I don't normally
work with and be able to pull a team together and be
effective about it and not have to go asking the questions,
having the doubts and the what-ifs," said Roe. "It's just
knowing - that this is our job. This is what we have to do." |
Article and photo By Navy MCS 2nd Class (SW) Mark Logico
Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs
Copyright 2010 |
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Reprinted from
Navy News Service
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