Assistant Secretary of the Navy Brings 21st Century Sailor and Marine Initiative to Sigonella

NAS SIGONELLA, Sicily (NNS) -- Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Juan M. Garcia, visited Sailors aboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella March 22.

The visit enabled Sailors and Marines the opportunity to learn more about the Secretary of the Navy's 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative, which is designed to maximize Sailor and Marine personal readiness, maintain the resiliency of the force, and to hone the most combat effective force in the history of the Department of the Navy.

"The way this works is there are five key focus areas; readiness, safety, physical fitness, inclusion and continuum of service," said Garcia. "A decision was made by your leadership, knowing what the future holds in the terms of operational tempo and knowing the sacrifices you and your families have sustained for the last decade, to gather all those existing personnel support programs and a handful of new ones and bring them together under a single overarching rubrik we call the 21st Century Sailor and Marine."

The 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative takes a hard look at issues such as preventing sexual assaults and how to keep them from occurring, and if they occur, how to support sexual assault victims, and hold offenders accountable.

"There is no room for sexual assault in our Navy and Marine Corps team, a shipmate is a shipmate and a marine is a marine, we need everyone intervening to prevent a single incident from happening again. That's why we hired professional investigators who specialize in sexual assault to ensure that if appropriate, we prosecute to the maximum extent of the law."

During the visit, NAS Sigonella Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Coordinator, Angela Dooney discussed programs offered at the Fleet and Family Service Center in Sigonella that already supports the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative.

One program, Sigonella Safe, targets the active duty population 25 and younger and addresses high risk behaviors such as alcohol over indulgence, suicide, and sexual assault. Speakers are subject matter experts and speak about risk reduction and bystander intervention.

"We are doing great things here," said Dooney. "I'm proud of what we are doing and am grateful that I had the opportunity to talk with him about our statistics, trends that we've identified, and programs that have been put into place in support of those trends. It just shows how proactive Sigonella is in preventing sexual assault."

"We wanted to come and highlight the all-forces effort that's part of the 21st century Sailor and Marine and ensuring maximum readiness and part of that readiness is assuring that one sexual assault is too many," said Garcia. "Every Sailor is tasked with taking care of their fellow Sailor and every Marine is tasked with taking care of their fellow Marine and the folks in Sigonella are leading in that effort."

Whether supporting NATO operations in Libya, aiding in natural disasters or chasing pirates off the horn of Africa, the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative is designed to give every Sailor and Marine, and their families, the tools they need to succeed.

For more news from Naval Air Station Sigonella, visit www.navy.mil/local/nassig/.