Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education Fleet Master Chief Russell Smith and Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) Force Master Chief Karim Cole visited the Presidio of Monterey (POM), Calif., for a site visit, June 13.

Master Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Chris Stevens, Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Monterey's senior enlisted leader, took visitors on a tour of the facilities used for the initial training of Sailors in the cryptologic technician (interpretive) (CTI) rating. Cole took this opportunity to get feedback from CTI students to ensure that their experiences were up to standards. Both master chiefs engaged junior Sailors on topics ranging from the initial entry "phase" system to challenges of barracks living and general quality of life issues.

Seaman Shelby Soto, a new accession Sailor waiting to start the Chinese Mandarin course, participated in the discussion.

"They were genuinely concerned about what is going on here", she said. "It's cool, because they could have stopped at a higher level, but they came to us instead. It's nice to know that we have a voice."

Smith had lunch with a group of Navy students currently attending various intensive foreign language courses at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). During their discussion he assured them that their hard work now would pay off later.

"It is incalculable what you [CTIs] do," said Smith. "You have the potential to affect national policy someday. What you are going to be doing with your language on the other end of this is very important and certainly worth every aspect of it."

After lunch, the master chiefs toured the Persian-Farsi schoolhouse and attended an office call with POM garrison command sergeant majors, gaining valuable insights from the perspective of both students and leaders in order to ensure everything possible is being done to support the command's mission of producing highly capable Navy linguists.

IWTC Monterey, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training, provides a continuum of foreign language training to Navy personnel, which prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more on Information Warfare Training Command Monterey, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ciwt/IWTCmonterey/ and http://www.monterey.army.mil/Service_Units/IWTC_Monterey.html, or find them on Facebook.

For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ciwt/, http://www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or http://www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.