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CSS DET DINFOS SEA Earns First Russell Egnor Leadership Award
Story Number: NNS130314-17
3/14/2013

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Jeremy R. Graham

FORT MEADE, Md. (NNS) -- The Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA) for the Center For Service Support Detachment Defense Information School (CSS DET DINFOS) at Fort George G. Meade, Md., was selected March 8 to receive the first Russell Egnor Leadership Excellence award.

Chief Mass Communication Specialist Gregory Currie will be presented the award next month, which recognizes a senior enlisted Mass Communication Specialist, public affairs officer, or media and public affairs civilian who has made a profound impact and contribution to the Mass Communication Specialist community and visual information products through inspired leadership.

Named in honor of retired Senior Chief Journalist Russell D. Egnor, the award program recognizes excellence in Navy journalism, photography, videography, and graphic arts among Navy commands and their public affairs and visual information specialists. Egnor served the Navy for more than 40 years as an active duty and reserve Navy Journalist and as a Navy civilian (director of the Navy's News Photo Division at the Navy Office of Information).

"What [Currie] does is really intangible," said CSS DET DINFOS Officer in Charge Lt. Adam Hesch. "He is a consummate professional and he has such a vested interest in the Mass Communication community as a whole and in making the community better."

Currie has served as the detachment's SEA for two-and-a-half years, where he is responsible for the housing, physical training, military training, discipline, uniform readiness and administrative needs of more than 120 students who attend DINFOS courses.

"No one person ensures our ships or commands achieve their mission alone, it takes a team and everyone has a special talent they contribute to that team," Currie said. "Our people are the Navy's number one asset and it's because of them that we and our Navy succeed. So, this award is about them, those who serve and lead on a daily basis, not me alone. From E-1 to the most senior service person, we all have the ability to make a difference in a single moment that will last a lifetime."

Before taking the position as SEA at the detachment, Currie served as a DINFOS instructor for the Basic Mass Communication Specialist Course.

"In the last four years he has had the opportunity to personally impact at least 25 percent of Mass Communication Specialists," said Hesch "It's not often that you find someone who is a role model that has had a positive impact on a quarter of an entire rating."

Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Misty L. Trent currently serves as the Navy Element Senior Enlisted Advisor at DINFOS. While at her previous command, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), she received the newly-trained Mass Communication Specialists Currie helped prepare for the fleet.

"When the fleet gets these Sailors they've already been trained to have the highest expectations of their own work, their shipmates and the shop that they're assigned to," said Trent. "And they trust their chain of command and their leadership to do right by them because Chief Currie has helped to instill those expectations."

Currie's profound impact on the Mass Communication Specialist community made him an easy choice in Trent's eyes for the award.

"When we were considering what the recipient of this award should embody and what it should mean, I immediately thought of Chief Currie and what he does every day for the Navy's future Mass Communication Specialists," said Trent. "There really wasn't anybody better suited to be the first to get this award."

For more news from Center for Service Support, visit www.navy.mil/local/css/.