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The Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation (CREDO) is accustomed to operating in hotels and primarily catering to married service members and their spouses with weekend retreats. However, due to the ongoing pandemic these classes and retreats have been on hold and are now taking a different direction.
The goal of CREDO is to host classes and workshops leading to self-enriching experiences, generating better Sailors and leaders in the Navy. Cmdr. Ray Rivers, command chaplain of Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2), contacted an old friend at CREDO Southwest to bring those classes to Essex.
“We’ve known each other since ‘91,” said Cmdr. Samuel Ravelo, CREDO director for Navy Region Southwest, “So when he invited me to his house for dinner one night I told him what we were doing and he got super excited about what we had to offer. So we worked the details and now we are here, making a difference.”
Ravelo and his fellow instructors visited Essex, offering six classes to include a Myers-Briggs personality assessment and Arbinger, an outward mindset growth course and a suicide prevention class. The classes, separated by rank, are tailored to the needs of personnel at different stages of their career. Over 130 Sailors attended, including personnel from the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) and Commander, Amphibious Squadron One.
One of the classes offered, Arbinger, is training to help develop and implement an outward mindset.
“Arbinger is basically the idea to help you learn how to view people as people,” explained Lt. Hal Jones, an instructor and CREDO deputy director for Navy Region Southwest. “Instead of being self-focused, which would be inward mindset, you learn to be others-focused and to take their needs into account. We found that when you do that, the mission and the effectiveness of the group and team just goes through the roof.”
One of the participants of the Arbinger class was the supply officer aboard Essex, Cmdr Ty Luster, and she described her experience as eye-opening.
“I think the training helped uncover some fallacies we may have in what we think our support really is and how it may actually be interpreted by a greater audience,” she said. Essex is Luster’s 4th command and she noted the training could be particularly useful for the amphibious ship. “It’s not a shore command where you can pack up and go at the end of the day, you have to live and work and be with the people around you, so that made the training very intriguing.”
Lt. Jones also acknowledged the uniqueness of life aboard the Essex and how his training can be particularly useful.
“It’s unlike going to a cruiser or going to a destroyer where all you really got to focus on is just ship’s company. When you go on deployment you suddenly have a lot of other people getting on board that are wearing a different uniform and have a different culture,” said Jones, referring to a marine expeditionary unit attached during an amphibious assault ship’s deployment. “So it can be challenging dealing with that and this training can help smooth that integration.”
Another Sailor that benefited from the training was Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Cory Marks, who attended the Meyers-Briggs personality course and Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliant (DISC) assessment. Marks said the training may help limit frustration when fellow Sailors have conflicting ideas on how to operate.
“It was cool to be able to learn more about how people behave,” said Marks, “I learned how to tell a person’s personality type by their actions and since actions speak louder than words, it’s easier to predict how your shipmates will go about their work on the ship. It could definitely make it easier to work with others that are different than you.”
CREDO is available to all Navy personnel and their dependents. Lt. Jones is hoping the future brings more workshops directly to ships.
“CREDO is ultimately here to help commands build better warfighters, to be more resilient people and to help Sailors perform the mission better. We want to come alongside you, with resources you may not have, and help you do it all better.”
Essex is homeported in San Diego. For more information on USS Essex, find us on Facebook at USS Essex (LHD 2) or please contact our Public Affairs Office.
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 02.11.2021 17:13 |
| Story ID: | 388928 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Essex Sailors Participate in CREDO Courses, by PO3 Tyler Diffie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
