Surface Warfare Officer School Unit (SWOSU) Great Lakes hosted an annual leadership summit for senior engineer officers and enlisted throughout the Navy, onboard Naval Station Great Lakes, August 22-23.

SWOSU Great Lakes Commanding Officer Cmdr. Eric Williams and staff welcomed more than 50 attendees with information and tours of training facilities, and introduced them to the staff that trains Sailors going out to the fleet.

"It is an honor to bring everyone here to Great Lakes so they can see training provided today and where we are heading in the future," Williams said. "It also gives those out in the fleet to offer their input and concerns. We owe it as deliverers to the customer to take the information they give us to try and solve any issue that may arise in our training."

The summit demonstrated the broad scope of training techniques utilized by SWOSU staff in the classroom including use of virtual technologies, and offered participants tours of the trainers including the steam plant, gas turbine, diesel and firefighting.

Senior Chief Engineman Jerry Fegen, from USS Germantown (LSD-42) homeported in Sasebo, Japan, was impressed by the virtual trainer utilized in the LPD 17 ECS Maintainer Course.

"It is eye-opening to see the training that is being provided to students at SWOSU," he said. "The command is making great strides in technique and technology to deliver a better trained Sailor to the fleet."

Williams also wanted put on display the highly skilled staff that are training the Navy's future leaders.

"I want attendees to see that we have professional engineers here that are training these Sailors," he said. "I take pride in watching my staff brief participants on our training. Stand in the back of the room watching my staff up front briefing senior leaders in the fleet over the past couple confidently telling them what they do, reaffirms that we have true professionals at SWOSU."

SWOSU offers 63 total schools featuring nine "A" schools, two accession pipeline schools, and 52 "C" schools covering all surface engineering rates (DC, EN, EM, GSE, GSM, HT, MM, MR), as well as Quartermaster "A" school, and awards 22 total NECs (Navy enlisted classification).

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For more news from Training Support Center, Great Lakes, visit http://www.navy.mil/.