Photo By Leah Tolbert | 180601-N-JK586-040 STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – Cmdr. John T. Green, commanding...... read more read more
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School celebrated in grand fashion the long-awaited opening of its Applied Instruction Facility, with a formal ribbon cutting ceremony held on June 1, at its facilities located on the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The facility, which was more than eight years in the making, is a $10.4 million, 21,395 square-foot building that features a new International Military Student Office and administrative spaces to better assist students as they proceed through their respective courses of instruction. In addition, the state-of-the-art building will provide a large lobby, a hull repair classroom and lab that will include a large fiberglass booth; a weapons classroom, a locker room, armory, and a 300-seat auditorium with an interactive stage. The new facility also boasts a large classroom that will be utilized by the Security Cooperation schoolhouse’s flagship course, the Strategic Leaders International Course.
“Building a global Security Cooperation network is like building a great fortress, like this house we are standing in right here: you build it one stone at a time, one brick at a time,” stated Cmdr. John T. Green, NAVSCIATTS’ commanding officer. “NAVSCIATTS is coming into its own; it is transforming itself from an exotic little unit to an exquisite national security asset for United States Special Operations Command to accomplish its most important missions.”
Green, who assumed command of the Naval Special Warfare schoolhouse in August 2017, continued by explaining how each step in the school’s history has shaped NAVSCIATTS into a global training center. “I say to you that every day you stood at the podium and taught a lesson, you laid a brick. Every day you traveled overseas to brief an ambassador in some unheard-of place, you laid a brick,” the U.S. Navy SEAL expressed. “Every time you took a student into your home, you laid a brick. Every time you supported this extraordinary command in so many ways that you did not have to, and maybe no one saw you do it or will ever know, you laid a brick; and just maybe that is exactly what it means to serve.”
Green and the event’s guest of honor, Rep. Steven Palazzo, representative for the state’s Fourth Congressional District, were greeted by the fanfare of Navy side boys, Ruffles and Flourishes and Stars and Stripes Forever to commemorate what is hopefully the first of many building constructions to support the continued growth of USSOCOM’s premier Security Force Assistance training center. At the end of the event, Palazzo, Green, Dr. Richard Gilbrech, director, NASA Stennis Space Center; and Maj. Gen. David Bellon, commanding officer, Marine Corps Forces South; cut the celebratory ribbon.
“This ribbon cutting today represents a perfect example of smart, sound, federal investments,” Palazzo explained to the audience. “This building is the culmination of years of leadership by NAVSCIATTS, along with support from our Congressional delegation.”
Palazzo, who currently serves as the senior appropriator for south Mississippi, continued by explaining the importance of federal investments into the area. “Part of being in on the appropriations process is making sure we have smart, sound, federal investments like the programs here at Stennis: the Space program, NAVO, CNMOC; the list goes on and on. This is the type of smart sound federal investment that I like to vote for and will continue to vote for in the future.”
NAVSCIATTS has expanded its course offerings to increase the schoolhouse’s ability to meet both U.S. and partner nation requirements. The new facility will provide the additional spaces needed to continue to deliver first-rate training to international students and will be fully-functional by the end of the month.
“With each carefully planned lesson, each long trip away from home, each little piece of international negotiation over these long years, you laid the bricks and stones of this great house,” Green stated in his closing remarks to the more than 200 in attendance. “And now here we stand in our castle of cooperation, our fortress of partnership, our new home, the Applied Instruction Facility. Here we will train 11,000 more international students, and raise new flags from every corner of the world. Here it is, right before your eyes, and no one can deny it. Here is what you have built. To everyone gathered here today, this is your day to celebrate.”
Including the AIF, NAVSCIATTS’ vision for future growth encompasses the completion of the Special Operations International Training Command campus at an estimated total cost of $143.6 million. This expansion would consist of the construction of additional transient berthing to allow for increased student throughput and expansion of the facility’s existing galley.
A future Operational Training Building will feature a boat barn for covered storage and maintenance and future boat ramp and pier would provide direct access to Stennis waterways for riverine and coastal courses. Rounding out the list of prioritized projects includes a multi-purpose combat training center, campus parking garage and campus pavilion. To date, environmental assessments are complete and the campus is included in NASA’s Master Plan, with required military construction documents complete and under review.
NAVSCIATTS operates under USSOCOM in support of Foreign Security Assistance and Geographic Combatant Commanders’ Theater Security Cooperation priorities. The facility trains and educates partner nation special operations forces, SOF-like foreign security forces and SOF enablers across the tactical, operational and strategic spectrums through in-resident and Mobile Training Team courses of instruction.
NAVSCIATTS currently offers 20 courses of instruction, including its Partner Nation Instructor Program. Since 1963, almost 12,000 students from 118 partner nations have trained with NAVSCIATTS. For more news from Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School, visit https://www.socom.mil/navsoc/NAVSCIATTS/.
| Date Taken: | 06.04.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2018 15:06 |
| Story ID: | 279504 |
| Location: | STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 555 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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