April is Month of the Military Child


PEARL HARBOR -- Rear Adm. Dixon Smith, commander, Navy Region Hawaii and Commander, Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, signs the Month of the Military Child and Child Abuse Prevention Proclamation during a ceremony at the Pearl Harbor Fleet and Family Services Center. The proclamation signing officially marked April as Child Abuse Prevention Month and The Month of The Military Child for Navy Region Hawaii. The national theme is "Promoting Healthy Families in the Community." U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Michael A. Lantron. The Month of the Military Child and Child Abuse Prevention Month is a time set aside each April since 1986 to recognize the special sacrifices children make as part of a military family and to take action in preventing child abuse.

Navy San Diego seeks to identify if there is a need to establish after hours (24/7) childcare facilities
Military jobs aren't eight-to-five and neither are the Navy's Child and Youth Program's Child Development Centers and Youth Recreation Centers. Dozens of Navy facilities and dozens more of Navy-certified home operated childcare services fill with military children each day.
Although thousands of military children enjoy Navy sponsored childcare, the Child and Youth Program is reaching out to discover if 24/7 care options are needed.
"Our facilities provide high-quality educational and recreational programs for military children and youth," says Mary Rotterman, Psy.D, Program Manager, Navy Region Southwest Fleet, Family and Child Programs. "We've heard that a few families have asked for overnight and weekend care as well. We hope to determine the actual need for these extended services."
An online survey can be found on the homepage of www.mwrtoday.com that polls the childcare needs of active-duty military who work shifts or stand watch between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. or on weekends.
"If our families need expanded services we want to know so we can serve them better," Rotterman explained. "We ask all active duty who work nights and weekends to tell us about their needs by completing the survey at www.mwrtoday.com."

Southern Partnership Station returns to Nicaragua
by MC1 Matthew Olay
BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua (NNS) -- High speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) anchored off the coast of Bluefields for the second time in as many months March 30 to begin a nine-day training mission during Southern Partnership Station (SPS).
Southern Partnership Station is an annual deployment of various specialty platforms to the U.S. Southern Command area of focus in the Caribbean and South America. The mission is primarily information sharing with navies, coast guards and civilian services throughout the region. SPS is comprised of Navy training and support teams, Marine Corps training teams, foreign naval officers and civilian contract mariners on a Military Sealift Command platform.
While in the area, training teams from Navy Expeditionary Training Command, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group will be teaching courses to members of the Nicaraguan Navy and Marine Corps. The courses provide instruction in boarding team tactics, armed sentry operations, port security, martial arts and small boat engine repair.
Cmdr. Christopher Barnes, mission commander for SPS, sees return visits such as this one to Nicaragua as being advantageous to the goals of the overall mission.
"Since we've been here once before, we now know what the needs are, and the trainers know what the needs are, so we can adapt our courseware to give [the Nicaraguans] what's required," said Barnes.
Barnes added that returning to train the same students with whom the SPS team interacted during the first port call to Nicaragua will allow the level of training to be more advanced than before.
"My expectations are even greater," Barnes said.
The final SPS visit to Nicaragua comes on the heels of a four-day training evolution in Cartagena, Colombia. While in Colombia, SPS instructors trained 124 students in a variety of topics such as combat lifesaving, nonlethal weapons and junior enlisted leadership principles.

Navy Recruiting Command breaks new ground
by MCCS Melinda Larson
LAS VEGAS (NNS) -- For the first time in Navy Recruiting Command's history, future naval officers received letters of intent during the 35th Annual Convention of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) March 25-29.
"NSBE helps to identify and bring future talent to the nation. What a great opportunity to be able to welcome some of these bright young men and women into our Navy," said Capt. Sylvester Del Rosario, Navy Recruiting Command director diversity.
At a time of hiring freezes and layoffs, there was a buzz at the Navy booth during the NSBE convention.
Accession officers from the various naval enterprises explained the nuclear, aviation and surface programs to the aspiring engineers. Interviews were conducted on site before the letters of intent were signed. Now the future naval officers will return home to naval recruiting districts to complete the hiring process after passing the officer's test, a physical and a background check.
"High quality men and women are here at this conference, and to offer them a letter of intent before they leave makes sense," said Senior Chief Navy Counselor Juan Garza Jr., Navy Recruiting Command's diversity program manager. "In the past, recruiters were walking away with names and phone numbers. Today, they're walking away with a signed letter of intent."
The Navy has played a role at NSBE's convention for 10 years of the organization's 35-year existence. During this year's four-day event, Navy engineers from Navy Recruiting Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Sea Systems Command and the Office of Naval Research lined up at the convention's career fair alongside representatives from corporate giants 3M, Harley Davidson Motorcycles and United Technologies Corporation in a bid to lure some 9,500 aspiring engineers.
Competing with corporate America is a challenge Navy Recruiting Command faces head on. While having a presence at a national level is important, the Navy Recruiting Command's Diversity Program has changed its strategy in an effort to garner the best and brightest engineering talent at the regional and local levels.
"We're engaged throughout the year with groups such as NSBE. We meet with students at the regional, state and hometown level," Garza added.
Active involvement with students throughout the year appears to be a winning strategy in recruiting diverse populations into the Navy, especially in engineering disciplines.
"That wasn't done before," explained Garza. "Our plan is working because there's an extensive change in student's interest. They're seeking us out when they see us at events rather than turning and walking the other way."
In addition to NSBE, the Navy also actively supports organizations such as the Society of Hispanic Professionals, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and Society of Women Engineers.
"Those types of organizations provide us with a target rich environment. Minorities are projected to be half the nation's workforce by 2020, and we hope to attract some of this diverse and young talent today in order for them to be in our flag officer ranks in the years ahead," said Cmdr. Roy Harrison, Navy Recruiting Command deputy director diversity.
Navy Recruiting Command have at least 15 letters of intent from the conference, including a direct accession into the nuclear engineering program.

Navy pilot, identified by JPAC, buried at Arlington 67 years after death in World War II
by Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Chlosta
ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) -- A Navy pilot who was identified by Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), was buried at Arlington National Cemetary 67 years after his death in World War II.
Navy Ensign Robert Tills was born March 9, 1918 and died Dec. 8, 1941. He was the pilot of a Navy PBY-4 Catalina Flying Boat aircraft. At the time of his death, survivors included his parents, two sisters and his fiance, whom he planned to marry upon his return from the war.
The day after the brazen attack on Pearl Harbor, Tills' plane was moored alongside another Navy PBY-4 in Malalag Bay, in eastern Mindanao, Philippine Commonwealth, before Japanese planes known as "Zeros" zoomed in for an attack.
Tills and Radioman 3rd Class Albert E. Layton, took up defensive positions on their aircraft. Tills fired his aircraft machine gun at the Japanese fighter planes as they descended. Tills was killed when his plane was strafed with machine gun fire by the Japanese Zeros.
His PBY-4 was engulfed in flames in seconds. Layton, who witnessesd Tills getting hit, was able to jump from the burning aircraft only moments before it sank. Tills was not recovered from the submerged aircraft. He was the first naval officer lost in the defense of the Philippine Islands during World War II.
The mission of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command is to search for, identify and return the remains of fallen Americans in the countries past conflicts.
Tills' puzzling case was finally solved by JPAC in 2008.
Tills' nephew, Aplin's son, Dave said, "The effort their making is just extraordinary. The extent to what JPAC went through when I read the report, the sensitivity and the amount of detail they went through has really been impressive.
JPAC identified Tills' remains and material evidence more than 66 years after his death. Partial remains, pieces of Tills' plane and some of his personnel items were unilaterally turned over by the Philippine government.

PACFLT commander optimizes communication opportunities: Podcast, blog, Twitter, just read it!
by MCCS Melissa F. Weatherspoon
PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) spoke about Navy leadership's obligation to engage in emerging media as a way to successfully communicate with all Navy audiences in his podcast and blog posted March 25.
"I think the opportunity to employ a podcast or to engage in a blog are effective means of communication that are better accepted than some traditional means than we formerly believed strongly in," Adm. Robert F. Willard said in his podcast, the Rat-Pac Report.
Speaking from his own experiences since kicking off his weekly podcast in September 2007 and his blog in September 2008, the commander of the Navy's largest fleet recognized that engaging in social media may feel a bit uneasy at first for Navy leadership. But, he quickly acknowledged that, in doing so, the rewards of the communication tools will be realized.
"I have already seen the benefits … just some of the responses that I get back, critical or not, are of value to me as a Navy leader here in Pacific Fleet to understand the tenor out there in certain subject matters," he said. "I've had my podcast quoted back to me in foreign audiences, and when that occurs, that convinces me that these are media the Navy would be well-served to continue to explore and adapt to, whenever we see the opportunity."
Willard's announced plans for Pacific Partnership 2009 (PP 09) via a blog post March 3, and his podcast about humanitarian mission was played March 23, to open the PP09 planning conference in San Diego.
Willard's staff also understands the importance of today's interactive online media, as seen in a recent post by the knowledge management officer.
"I often receive very positive comments about your blog and podcasts from people I meet in my travels," wrote Jamie Hatch in her blog post dated March 29. "Your willingness to communicate in this manner demonstrates that senior leadership recognizes the power of 'new media' and is responding to a significant cultural shift as millenials continue to enter and advance in the workforce. Fleet Howard's blog [Mooring Lines] is another great example of leadership staying ahead of the game and reaching out in new ways."
Hatch is an active member of the Web 2.0 community and actively operates a team blog, "Common Knowledge," and a Twitter site, "CPFKMO."
Links to the commander's blog and podcast and Fleet Master Chief Tom Howard's blog can be found on the Pacific Fleet Web site, www.cpf.navy.mil. A new podcast is launched every Wednesday. Upcoming podcasts will highlight duty in Japan and active-reserve integration.

Boxer supports international counterpiracy effort in Gulf of Aden
USS BOXER, At Sea (NNS) -- In a show of international sea power in the Gulf of Aden, seven nations representing three task forces coordinated efforts to pursue a skiff after the pirates on board opened fire on a German oiler, the Federal German Ship (FGS) Spessart, March 29.
At approximately 3 p.m. local, FGS Spessart, reported they were being attacked by pirates who may have mistaken the naval supply ship for a commercial merchant vessel. An embarked security team aboard the ship returned fire on the suspected pirates during the initial attack.
Subsequently, Spessart pursued the skiff while providing additional details of the attack to a variety of international naval vessels operating in the area. A number of naval ships and aircraft joined the pursuit, including the Dutch frigate HNLMS Zeven Provincien, an SH-60B helicopter assigned to the Spanish warship SPS Victoria, a Spanish P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, two Marine Corps helicopters from the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 flagship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the European Union's CTF 465 flagship, the Greek frigate HS Psara.
Supported by an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1 Huey assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced), "Evil Eyes," embarked aboard Boxer, the international naval forces contained the armed suspects until Psara arrived with a German boarding team. Upon boarding the skiff, the team found seven suspected pirates and their weapons.
The suspected pirates were disarmed and transferred to the German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz where they will remain until a final determination is made regarding potential prosecution.
While this event showcased the incredible international naval capabilities operating in the Gulf of Aden, it also highlighted the complexity of counterpiracy operations. The crew of Spessart and the embarked security team provided the critical first line of defense, utilizing defensive measures that are essential for all ships operating in the region.
Moreover, nearly five hours transpired between the time Spessart's armed security team thwarted the initial attack and when an armed boarding team was within range of the pirate skiff. In the interim, armed coalition aircraft kept the suspected pirates from getting away.
This incident in the Gulf of Aden happened at a time when other pirates have been operating well off the eastern Somali coast.
The area off the coast of Somalia and Kenya when combined with the waters of the Gulf of Aden equals more than 1.1 million square miles, roughly four times the size of Texas or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined. In a region this large, merchant mariners must often serve as the first line defenders against pirates because naval forces will likely not be close enough to respond.

SAN DIEGO (March 28, 2009) Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) William Davis, assigned to the U.S. Navy Parachute Team, shows two children how to pack his parachute at Mount Carmel Invitational Track and Field. The team parachuted into the opening ceremony of the event which was attended by students from California, Arizona and Nevada. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michelle Kapica.

GULF OF ADEN (March 27, 2009) Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Erik Brown, from Coco Beach, Fla., breaks down a 9mm M9 Beretta service pistol for cleaning after a small arms live-fire exercise aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4). Boxer is the flagship of Combined Task Force 151, a multinational task force conducting counter-piracy operations to detect and deter piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Red Sea. U.S. Navy photo by MC2 John J. Siller.