PASS program offers recruits opportunity for change and growth

GREAT LAKES, IL, UNITED STATES

02.28.2019

Story by Alan Nunn      

U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command

GREAT LAKES (NNS) — No two recruits arriving at Recruit Training Command (RTC) have the same background, experience or life skills.
Most adapt quickly to the demands and challenges of boot camp, but for others, negative behaviors impede a smooth transition from civilian to basically trained Sailor. For those recruits, the Personal Applied Skills Streaming (PASS) program offers a path forward.
To understand what the PASS is, one needs to appreciate what it is not.
“It’s not a punishment and it’s not a guarantee,” Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Keith Stanton said. “It’s an opportunity for change.”
Stanton, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, graduated boot camp in 2004 and returned to RTC in April of 2016 to become a Recruit Division Commander (RDC). He trained five divisions before joining PASS as one of three program facilitators and said he hopes to train five more on the back end of his tour at RTC.
“Petty Officer Stanton is a great representative of the PASS program,” said Chief Boatswain’s Mate David Williams, who became the program’s leading chief petty officer in November 2018. “There is a screening process to become a PASS staff member to make sure we are getting good Sailors to do this kind of work. Petty Officer Stanton is a father, husband and a Sailor who has an outstanding attitude, exceptional people skills and the patience to find out how to help every recruit coming to PASS.”
Recruits recommended for the program engage in a screening process during which staff members answer all their questions. If accepted, they are given the option to accept or decline entry into the one-week program.
“A lot of times recruits will ask, ‘What happens if I decline PASS?’” Stanton said. “I tell them the truth: ‘You tried it your way, it didn’t work. Now, you’re here. Your RDCs, ship’s officer and LCPO are giving you an opportunity.’”
That opportunity provides recruits with tools and techniques they can learn and apply at boot camp and throughout their Navy career.
“The purpose of the PASS program is to change entry-level behavior and support Navy recruits in making a successful transition from home to the boot camp experience,” Williams said. “It is to help recruits get in charge of their own lives by developing and displaying skills in self-confidence, anger management, dealing with authority figures, diversity awareness, transition and change management, frustration tolerance, attention skills, conflict with others, physical fitness, goal setting, and goal achievement.”
The program has lowered attrition rates and positively impacted the recruit population through increased self-awareness and the teaching of problem solving and life skills. Nearly 74 percent of the 144 PASS graduates returned to training and graduated boot camp in 2018.
Program participants are removed from training, but remain in a training environment. They are responsible for daily rack and uniform inspections, homework assignments and maintaining quarters while being housed with recruits from other special programs.
“The accountability piece is every day,” Stanton said. “It’s important to keep the boot camp mindset. There are standards and we will hold you accountable.”
PASS program recruits receive 40 hours of classroom instruction. Group discussion, guided problem-solving, role-playing, verbal and written reality checks and purposeful imagining are just a few of the techniques designed to teach recruits to think about themselves in new ways. A new level of awareness helps recruits recognize and reflect on behaviors and attitudes that are holding them back and utilize techniques to help them focus on tasks and achieve goals.
Class time often begins with breathing exercises. The simple act of controlling and considering each breath empowers recruits to practice self-control and discipline.
“I like to tell the recruits that whatever comes out of your mouth, whatever your body does, comes out of your mind,” Stanton said. “So, if you are having issues dealing with other recruits, or issues dealing with boot camp, or your RDCs, or missing home, whatever the case may be, simply taking the time to pause and take a deep breath is a big deal.”
Early in the week, recruits write a purpose statement — focused on their life as they see and think about it — and begin work on their shields, a poster that uses words and images to describe their past, present and future.
“Often, what they write down on the first day is completely different on Friday,” Stanton said. “It’s what they want to actually be in their future. It’s pretty cookie cutter on Mondays, but by Fridays you’ll often get a deeper, more purposeful statement.”
Shields play an important role at graduation, as each recruit takes their turn at the front of the classroom to talk about themselves, share their purpose statement and explain the details of their shield to classmates, staff and guests.
Stanton describes the shield as a personal reality check.
“It describes who you were, who you are and who you’re going to be,” Stanton said. “I make it a point when they introduce their shields to talk about who you are, things you actually do, things you care about, who you care about, why you care about them. How are you planning to live your life, how are you going to move forward?”
Seaman Recruit Brian McIntosh, 24, a PASS program graduate, said the experience helped him return to training, become an asset to his new division and graduate boot camp.
“Words I would use to describe myself before PASS would be disobedient, careless and self-centered,” McIntosh said. “PASS made me very valid and well-grounded. My actions became justifiable and accountable. It gave me time away from the environment I was in. PASS allowed me to re-center my focus, to deeply meditate and think about the things in myself and how I could fit my performance to align with RTC.
Boot camp is approximately eight weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control along with lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork and discipline. More than 35,0000 recruits graduate annually from RTC and begin their Navy careers.
For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/rtc/.

• Date Taken: 02.28.2019
• Date Posted: 02.28.2019 09:22
• Story ID: 312232
• Location: GREAT LAKES, IL, US