By Cmdr. Leroy C. Young, Naval Chaplaincy School and Center
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Naval Education and Training Command’s (NETC) Force Master Chief Mamudu K. Cole conducted a site visit to Naval Chaplaincy School and Center (NCSC) at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Nov. 14.
Cole received a facility tour, conducted a brief with NCSC senior leaders and addressed religious program specialist (RP) students on the importance of training, and being physically, mentally and spiritually fit.
“I obtained a lot of knowledge from [Cole’s] brief this morning,” said Seamen Apprentice Andriea Crook, a reservist assigned to Navy Operations Support Center Nashville, Smyrna, Tennessee. “He mentioned a variety of important topics such as leadership and competitiveness within our Navy, and the overall growth and development that’s being established now to meet the needs of the future.”
Cole shared with RP students the major elements of Sailor 2025, the Navy’s program to more effectively recruit, develop, manage, reward and retain the force of tomorrow, and explained the importance of Ready, Relevant Learning (RRL), one of the three pillars of Sailor 2025.
“The objective of RRL is to provide the right training at the right time in the right way…training that you would need to be ready for the Fleet,” said Cole.
The focus of Cole’s visit was timely considering that RP “A” students are currently in the block learning process, which changes the Navy's current practice of front-loading individual rating training to a more disbursed, modular delivery that will span across a Sailor's career-long learning continuum. The new RP “A” School course format aligns newly re-engineered content with block learning concepts. This better prepares Sailors for follow-on assignments while delivering quality training for both operational and installation needs.
Cole also stressed to the students the importance of training with excellence.
“Everything you do, is for you to be a better warfighter,” said Cole. “At any given time, when [the fleet] needs you, you will be ready.”
This was Coles' first official visit to NCSC, and it came on the eve of the schoolhouse’s relocation, with the RP “A” School class Cole met with being the last to be taught at Fort Jackson. In December, NCSC will move to Newport, Rhode Island, with RP initial accession training convening classes at a learning site in Meridian, Mississippi in February 2019, and RP managers and chaplain training starting in Newport in March 2019.
Navy chaplains engage in religious ministry and compassionate pastoral care to enhance the lives of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen. RPs manage command religious programs for chaplains. Together, chaplains and RPs form religious ministry teams that provide for the free exercise of religion in the Navy.