Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) San Diego hosted its annual Fall Festival for staff and families, Oct. 25.

The event included various competitions to test Sailors’ skills and conditioning, while raising money for the command’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program. As a method of promoting esprit de corps, as well as ensuring the staff’s shipboard skills stay sharp, the command incorporated a damage control olympics competition into the festival which challenged participants to patch pipes, throw mooring lines, sprint between stations and more. The Fall Festival is a key event in bringing Sailors together, and helps the MWR program raise funds for future command events.

“The Fall Festival brings camaraderie and morale across different buildings at IWTC San Diego,” offered Information Systems Technician 2ndClass Kaila Lammert, who is president of IWTC San Diego’s MWR team. “This [also] allows the command to be able to raise funds for the MWR’s hosted holiday party.”

In addition to the Fall Festival, IWTC San Diego’s First Class Petty Officers Association (FCPOA) hosted their third annual Halloween Party. Staff dressed their children in spooky Halloween costumes and brought them into IWTC San Diego’s schoolhouse to roam the command’s haunted hallways, where staff members waited in character to provide both tricks and treats to visitors. After battling through the horrors, the children and their families were rewarded with pizza, games and candy. The kids also got to practice their pumpkin carving after surviving the scare. In addition to fun for family and friends, the event provides an outstanding opportunity for staff to display the work they do at IWTC San Diego.

“This is the third time I have helped coordinate and setup the Halloween Party, and this year was by far the best,” said Information Systems Technician 1st Class Grafton Rodriguez. “The kids and parents all had a great time and it made all of the hard work from the FCPOA worth it.”

IWTC San Diego, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), provides a continuum of training to Navy and joint service personnel that prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT is recognized as Naval Education and Training Command’s top learning center for the past three years. Training over 21,000 students every year, CIWT delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians and officers in the information warfare community.

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