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Northwestern NROTC Hosts Chief Petty Officers from Recruit Training Command
Story Number: NNS130501-06
5/1/2013

By Scott A. Thornbloom, Naval Service Training Command Public Affairs

EVANSTON, Ill. (NNS) -- For a second time during their Spring semester, midshipmen from the Chicago NROTC Consortium hosted two Recruit Training Command (RTC) chief petty officers (CPOs) for a discussion on the working relationships between junior officers and senior enlisted, April 17.

The hour-and-a-half discussion was hosted by the Northwestern University NROTC unit as Senior Chief Operations Specialist Brian Stankis and Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Laura Stout, Recruit Division Commanders (RDCs) at RTC, took time off from training recruits to talk to future Navy and Marine Corps officers from Northwestern and Loyola Universities.

The RDCs were invited to Northwestern by Capt. Brian "Bear" Koehr, professor of Naval Science and the commanding officer of the consortium which also includes the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). During the March visit, by two different RDCs, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Joe Murphy and Chief Master-at-Arms Thelma Gibson, at IIT, Koehr said the visits were important to expose midshipmen to the perspectives of senior enlisted leaders.

"Our senior enlisted members, in many respects, train our junior officers. The dedication of (them) to share their thoughts with our unit will make our midshipmen better officers when they commission," said Koehr during the first session in March.

According to Marine Corps Capt. Colin Boynton, Marine Officer Instructor (MOI) for the consortium, another reason RTC was asked to send RDCs to IIT and Northwestern was because the unit has no CPOs assigned as instructors or mentors.

"With the consortium only having Marine senior enlisted members, its good having Navy senior enlisted members come down from Great Lakes Naval Station to talk with the midshipmen," said Boynton. "It gives the midshipmen a different perspective that we don't have inside of our unit."

During their visit Stankis and Stout discussed how they have worked with officers through the years and continue to work with officers today at RTC. They offered their personal insights and several unique situations the future junior officers may find themselves in once they get to the fleet.

"I think these types of visits are steps in the right direction to ensure these midshipmen have a better understanding of the relationship between junior officers and senior enlisted in the fleet," said Stankis.

Stout said she felt the midshipmen appreciated the fact that the senior chief and chiefs were honest and that "we explained to them how important it is to have a good working relationship between the DIVO (division officers) and their chiefs to make the division work proficiently," she said.

Stankis and Stout impressed upon the midshipmen that the concept of "Ask the Chief" is very real for enlisted Sailors and officers shouldn't be afraid to also ask questions of their division CPOs. Many of the Northwestern and Loyola midshipmen agreed with the two senior enlisted Sailors.

"I think these visits are extremely helpful," said Midshipman 1st Class Van-Anh Nguyen, 22, from Lake Murray, Fla., and a senior at Loyola. "As a graduating senior it's always great to have these opportunities to speak to a chief or a senior chief to see their expectations of us as we enter the fleet. Right now we have mostly officer viewpoints so it's always nice to understand that the senior enlisted in the fleet are there to assist us to get us where we need to be."

When Nguyen, a nuclear surface warfare officer, reports to the fleet after graduating from Loyola she will report to the USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) in Norfolk, Va.

"It was really interesting hearing about the chiefs past experiences working with junior officers," said Midshipman 4th Class Peter Carlin, 18, from Frederick, Md., and a freshman at Northwestern. "This discussion will really help me figure out what to do and what not to do when I get to my first command."

Boynton said the Chicago Consortium will continue looking to set up more sessions in the future that bring in senior enlisted for lectures on what a junior officer can expect when reporting to his or her new command.

"We feel these sessions are really important to have the midshipmen get the senior enlisted points of view," said Boynton. "It lets the midshipmen know what they can expect once they get to the fleet and understand the dynamic of the relationship between themselves and the chiefs."

Located minutes north of downtown Chicago and nestled on the shore of Lake Michigan, the Northwestern NROTC unit has been training and commissioning midshipmen for more than eight decades to become U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers. The NROTC scholarship midshipmen study at what is considered one of the most prestigious and the only private school in the Big Ten.

The NROTC program is overseen by Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), headquartered at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill. NROTC develops young men and women morally, mentally, and physically, and instills in them the highest ideals of honor, courage, and commitment. The program educates and trains young men and women for leadership positions in an increasingly technical Navy and Marine Corps.

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. This training includes the NROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities that either host NROTC units or have cross-town enrollment agreements with a host university. NSTC also oversees Officer Training Command (OTC) in Newport, R.I., Recruit Training Command (RTC) at Great Lakes, Ill., as well as the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) citizenship development program at more than 580 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NROTC, visit www.nrotc.navy.mil/ .

For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.