The Source for Navy News

'We Own It, We'll Solve It, Together'
Story Number: NNS130628-02
6/28/2013

By Utilitiesman 3rd Class Jennifer Stewart, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 Public Affairs Office

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3 completed a 46-mile Pier-to-Pier run, April 19, to help raise awareness about sexual assault.

More than 135 participants kicked off their early morning run at the Santa Monica, Calif., pier and finished at the Port Hueneme pier, handing out informative flyers to onlookers at each mile's highway marker.

"We wanted to do a sexual assault awareness event that would include the service members' loved ones, and we wanted to bring it to the community," said the run's coordinator Chief Builder Jesse Garcia-Montes. "This was a challenging way to show our courage to learn, to prevent, to intervene, to support victims and to commit to changing the way people think about sexual assault, to own it; to solve it, together."

The day's run provided participants a chance to spread the word on an important topic that impacts all service members. The Navy, in addition to the rest of the branches, conducts regular, mandatory Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) training for all Sailors. The training builds service members ability to intervene before and during situations leading up to a probable sexual assault. These situations are not always obvious and service members would normally not recognize. Thanks to the training, Sailors can prevent sexual assaults, support sexual assault victims and help the DoD hold offenders accountable.

A key component of SAPR training is bystander intervention. It helps take onlookers and those not directly involved in an assault, victim and offender, off the sidelines and makes them directly responsible for their fellow service member.

"For people who have never been through this kind of situation, they may have a hard time noticing the actions leading up to an assault," said Builder Constructionman Nathan Carrasco. "Some people are just straight up scared to step up. The SAPR training helps give everyone that kind of confidence to intervene and for it to be socially okay."

Bystander training covers each phase of an average outing or activity in which a sexual assault could happen. Factors such as drinking and situational awareness are analyzed and discussed to illustrate the outcomes of both positive and negative decisions.

"These kinds of negative choices are disgusting," added Carrasco. "If I see something going on that looks wrong, I'm going to step in; I couldn't let that happen."

According to the U.S. Justice Department, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every two minutes. One in four girls will be sexually assaulted by the age of 18 and one in six women has experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

Raising awareness concerning these negative facts allowed NCMB 3 Seabees the chance to effect positive change while enjoying a sunny day on the California coast.

"You have people honking at you that don't really know what's going on," said Chief Utilitiesman Miguel Fernandez. "When they read about this event, we created that awareness. It's a win-win situation."

NMCB 3 provides combatant commanders and Navy component commanders with combat-ready warfighters capable of general engineering, construction and limited combat engineering across the full range of military operations.

For more news from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, visit www.navy.mil/local/nmcb3/.