Petty Officer 1st Class Blake Weiskittel, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and a missile technician instructor at the Trident Training Facility in Bangor, Washington, had the opportunity to represent his command and foster valuable knowledge transfer across the armed services during his participation in a training event held in Sunnyvale, California,May 18-22.
Weiskittel was one of a handful of high-achieving Sailors selected to participate in Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) Reverse Strategic Weapons System (SWS) Week. Given his family’s warfighting legacy and being considered a technical expert in his field, Weiskittel provided a unique opportunity to bridge the knowledge gap between younger Sailors and seasoned civilian Navy experts.
PAE SSP’s Reverse SWS Week serves as a powerful realization of the Chief of Naval Operations’ priority to strengthen the vital connection between the foundry and the fleet. By bringing the warfighter directly to the industrial base, PAE SSP ensures the comprehensive modernization occurring across the entire sea-based leg of the nuclear triad is not just a theoretical concept, but a tangible, collaborative effort between the Navy’s acquisition community and the final end-users.
Weiskittel, who comes from a long line of Sailors, joined the Navy to continue his family’s legacy of defending the nation. Weiskittel’s brother, cousin, father, three uncles, and grandfather all served in the Navy.
“I’m a third-generation submariner,” said Weiskittel. “It’s a family tradition.”
Having been surrounded by the submariner esprit de corps his whole life, Weiskittel was eager to spread the sense of purpose and mission he feels in the Navy with the rest of the week’s cohort. Apart from his technical expertise, his mentorship skills and dedication to the sea-based strategic deterrence mission helped him connect the next generation of Sailors to the civilian workforce maintaining and modernizing the Navy’s strategic deterrence capabilities.
Wieskittel said he appreciated being able to interact with the teams behind-the-scenes of the weapons system, putting faces to names that he’d only ever communicated with virtually.
“It was interesting seeing the processes,” said Wieskittel. “It gave us the understanding that the reason we care so much about specific components on the submarine is because of the attention to detail that goes into those components before they come to us.”
At this year’s Reverse SWS Week, Sailors discussed the needs, challenges, and opportunities related to the Trident II D5LE system deployed on today’s Ohio-class SSBNs and engaged with members of the future Columbia-class USS District of Columbia’s pre-commissioning unit (PCU).
Senior Chief Adrian Rowe, the SWS master chief for PCU District of Columbia, and Petty Officer 1stClass AustinBaker, the missile division lead petty officer,represented the Sailors with PCU District of Columbia tasked with moving the first-in-class Columbia-class SSBN toward its operational state.
The PCU District of Columbia team brought an experienced eye to the week’s engagements with industry, but their interactions with the junior Sailors participating in Reverse SWS Week were equally valuable, providinginsight into the futureplatform that willsupport the current and future weapons systems. .
For Weiskittel, the chance to interact with Rowe and Baker gave him a preview of what his future might look like.
“I’m very excited about the Columbia-class,” said Weiskittel. “I’ve asked them a lot of questions and have learned a lot about how those systems work through our conversations this week.”
“You get to see that you are really a part of something bigger,” said Rowe. “I hope these Sailors who have come down here see the really critical role that they fill, and that they walk away knowing that the Columbia-class is the future; it’s not an abstraction. It’s here, it’s going to be manned, and these Sailors are the Sailors who are going to be leading that effort for the future. I want them to recognize that they are going to be a part of that and how important they are to this.”
In addition to learning opportunities provided by PAE SSP’s program management office flight systems detachment in Sunnyvale (SPF(S)), and its on-site industry partner, Sailors were hosted by Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Global Threat Reduction Directorate (GT), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as part of a targeted knowledge transfer opportunity.
Lt. Cmdr. Wyatt Middleton, officer-in-charge (OIC) for SPF(S), aimed to provide Sailors an expanded appreciation for their roles as missile technicians in sea-based strategic deterrence, and for government-industry partnership that supports them.
“PAE SSP specializes in cradle-to-grave management of every aspect of this weapons system, and our industry partners are with us all the way fromthedesignthroughto development, production,anddeployment” Middleton told the Sailors.
Whether observing the production of launch tubes or sharing insights with Air Force and national laboratory counterparts, events like Reverse SWS Week underscore the massive, unified effort required to maintain and upgrade the nation's strategic deterrence capabilities.
| Date Taken: |
06.23.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
06.23.2026 13:02 |
| Story ID: |
568385 |
| Location: |
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: |
11 |
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This work, A Family Tradition of Deterrence: Third-Generation Submariner Connects Fleet to Foundry, by Shelby Thompson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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