Photo By Michael Williams | 220215-N-ZM469-092 STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – A formation of riverine crafts sets...... read more read more
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – U.S. Special Operations Command’s premiere security cooperation training center, the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School, recently honored graduates from Semester 22-2 in a formal ceremony at command headquarters located on the John C. Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi.
NAVSCIATTS Cmdr. Don Speights served as host and keynote speaker as he awarded diplomas to the partner nation security force professionals from the Bahamas, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Jamaica, Latvia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, and Ukraine.
In opening remarks, Speights expressed his appreciation for the graduates’ dedication to duty and for permanently joining the NAVSCIATTS global network, which consists of more than 13,000 international partners from 124 different countries.
“We realize how difficult it is to take you from your service and responsibilities, and from your homes and families to train in a new environment,” Cmdr. Speights expressed. “But your dedication to duty and willingness to increase your security force skills are representative that working together and learning from each other serve only to further enhance our global relationships, further demonstrating that our global network is stronger together.”
With a primary objective of this international training command being to build and strengthen relations between partners and allies, Speights, who has served in the Navy for almost 30 years, reiterated that while this semester’s students may represent 12 different countries, partners and allies often experience shared global challenges.
“While this semester featured partners and allies from five different geographic combatant commands with seemingly different cultures, languages, religions, and challenges, the semester demonstrated that we all share the same global issues: terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, great power competition, and countering aggressions that threaten the security of all our nations,” the Louisiana native explained.
In closing, Speights addressed NAVSCIATTS partner nation students from Ukraine, who participated in the command’s patrol craft coastal, diesel systems overhaul and maintenance, and international tactical communications courses, highlighting President Woodrow Wilson’s January 8, 1918 speech to Congress, articulating the multiple point program that recognized the basic premises of peace and a nation-state’s indelible right to self-determination.
“You, your families, your countrymen, your nation are in our thoughts and prayers,” the commander stated. “It is undeniable that the future of world peace and acceptable norms are in the balance. Critical to the future of peace, democracy, and our children is how the world responds to this great transgression against our beloved partner, Ukraine.”
With NAVSCIATTS’ ability to assist in U.S. Department of Defense’s efforts to build capacity of strategic partners and allies, Speights specified that regardless of complexities of global challenges, providing those partners with world-class training will continue to be the command’s priority. The command, originally formed as a U.S. Coast Guard mobile training team in 1961 in Rodman, Panama, trains and educates foreign special operations, combat support, and combat service support forces across the tactical, operational, and strategic spectrums through in-residence and mobile training team iterations.
NAVSCIATTS' five regionally focused in-resident training semesters assist in developing, shaping, and maintaining strategic relationships with diverse partner forces. Offering the ability to form professional and personal bonds that reach across oceans and continents, NAVSCIATTS has allowed for the establishment of networks that have aided in counterterrorism, counternarcotic, and counter human trafficking operations in a global environment.
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.04.2022 10:52 |
| Story ID: | 415760 |
| Location: | STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 247 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NAVSCIATTS honors Semester 22-2 Graduates, by Angela Fry, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT