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NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY, Bahrain – The sounds of hard work fill the air in the boat shop at Commander, Task Group 56.1 as Sailors perform routine maintenance on their boats and equipment. Sailors not only work on their operating platforms, but also teach their fellow Sailors the proper techniques in piloting their boats.
Coxswain training teaches Sailors how to safely operate and navigate a boat in the maritime environment.
“Coxswain training has a lot to do with the Coast Guard specifications,” said the boat shop’s work center supervisor Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class James Nilsson. “[It’s] how to operate on the water safely, and we have the Coast Guard manual that we teach through this process.”
The training includes classroom and a hands-on portion in the water.
“We do a boat-launch, which is backing the trailer into the water, and getting the boat underway,” said Nilsson. “We’ll do a couple of maneuvers, passing maneuvers, mooring pier side. We’ll also teach how to trailer a boat and recover it.”
Nilsson said that completing on-board training doesn’t mean it is the end of their day.
“We’ll bring the boat up and we’ll perform a countermeasure washdown,” said Nilsson. “We’ll bring the boat up to the boatyard; spray it off, flush out the engines, basically just keep up the maintenance.”
Nilsson said that although coxswain training is an important part of their job, routine work around the shop keeps them busy.
“Normally, just an average day in the N4 repair shop we are performing preventative maintenance on all of our motors and hulls,” said Nilsson. “We also do dispatching, if an EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] platoon or a MDSU [mobile diving and salvage] team needed a boat they would come to us and we would dispatch them.”
The coxswain training ensures Sailors stationed on Naval Support Activity Bahrain are capable of completing the mission.
“It’s critical for the Navy’s mission,” said Nilsson. “For the EOD techs and the divers to complete mine countermeasures and to do overall dive operations, they need boats that are operable and all of this training is very important for that mission."
| Date Taken: | 11.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2015 03:49 |
| Story ID: | 182104 |
| Location: | BH |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, N4 Boat Shop Conducts Coxswain Training, by Shannon Burns, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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