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By: Chief Petty Officer Jerry Sekerak and Petty Officer Christopher Koons
NORFOLK, Va. – The officers and crew of USS Wasp (LHD 1) took time out of their busy schedules to conduct a holiday safety stand down Nov. 19 at Naval Station Norfolk.
More than 600 Wasp sailors packed the naval station’s Bldg. C-9 auditorium and listened to briefs from various subject matter experts on topics ranging from nutritional health and suicide awareness to traffic safety and financial preparedness.
“It’s tough to take time out of our schedule, but we need to do it because safety is important. Just take a look around at the number of man hours we are committing to this event and you should be able to see how much we value the safety of our crew,” said Capt. Brenda Holdener, Wasp’s commanding officer, who kicked off the three-and-a-half hour stand down.
According to event coordinator, Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin Marcellin, aviation boatswain's mate (Handling), the stand down was designed to promote awareness of issues that could bring death or injury to Wasp sailors during the holidays and to discuss safe practices regarding those issues.
“Wasp held a safety stand down on the ship last year that covered many of the same topics as this year, but this year we decided to take our training off the ship to offer our sailors a fresh view of the same "old" topics, and since Wasp is in her Continuous Maintenance Availability it would have been real hard with all the work going on in the Hanger Bay and real noisy around the ship to have a successful stand down,” said Marcellin. "The challenge was finding a place nearby that would hold this many sailors."
Some of the Wasp sailors who attended the event said they found the off-ship setting to be very conducive to them absorbing the stand down’s lessons.
“Building C-9 had a comfortable atmosphere since it was more spacious than the ship,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Herrin, information systems technician. “Since none of us could leave to go do work back on Wasp, we had to give the safety presentations our complete focus.”
Chief Petty Officer Joseph Nicholls, hospital corpsman (SW/AW), also spoke on the dangers of fitness supplements many Ssilors use to get ready for the physical fitness assesment. Nicholls referenced research that showed how supplement usage increased from only five unregulated products in the early 1900s to more than 40,000 today.
“Although these products are regulated today, many people take them and trust them without really knowing what they can do to the body,” he said.
According to Nicholls, sailors should practice caution with regard to using supplements.
“Because manufacturers don’t compare the effectiveness of their products with similar products from other manufacturers, it leaves a lack of clarity in recommended dosage and usage,” he said.
For many Wasp sailors, the topics covered in the stand down applied very well to their everyday lives.
“The portion on financial preparedness was useful to everyone there,” said Petty Officer 1st Class (SW) David Kinard, information systems technician. “The presentation by the command ombudsman on family issues was also very important for younger sailors because they need to know about the open lines of communication that exist between the Navy and their families.”
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2010 07:00 |
| Story ID: | 60973 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 51 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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