The 22nd Naval Construction Regiment (22 NCR) completed their Command Post Exercise (CPX) 2017 onboard Naval Construction Battalion Center (NCBC) Gulfport, Mississippi, Jan. 12.

The purpose of CPX-17 was to sustain the regiment's command and control (C2) capability of construction forces as a forward command element. In this case, the subordinate unit was Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 133 and a simulated underwater construction team.

In November 2015, 22 NCR successfully completed their Navy Integrated Exercise (NIEX), which is a certification event required biennially to grade their C2 capability. To sustain their skill set, 22 NCR conducts and/or participates in exercises such as CPX-17 or Bold Alligator 2016 (BA-16) where their C2 prowess is once again put to the test.

Many factors can be attributed to any loss of C2 proficiency; however, one of the main reasons is the normal transfer of personnel to and from the command. Incoming personnel often arrive without the necessary skills and experience. Exercises such as CPX-17 and BA-16 help bridge the training gap.

Before CPX-17 kicked off, 22 NCR's Commodore, Capt. Lore Aguayo set several priorities she wanted to achieve during the exercise.

"I had four priorities for this exercise," Aguayo stressed. "My first priority was for my staff to experience real-life, human interaction with a subordinate unit and to witness the immediate feedback. There is a tremendous benefit you receive from two real units communicating, as opposed to communicating with a notional unit. My second priority was to observe how we would perform conducting 24-hour operations where I stressed proper watch-to-watch turnover. Often you lose information during turnover."

"My third priority was our continued integration with our Reserve personnel," continued Aguayo. "Over the past two years, we've been able to train many of our Reserve personnel who wouldn't normally have the opportunity to experience the C2 environment firsthand. This only enhances our command's capability. Lastly, I wanted to see the quality of the communication between 22 NCR and NMCB 133."

Aguayo was satisfied with what she witnessed during CPX-17.

"I was very pleased because we improved every day," Aguayo said. "The watchstanders were adding value to the process and the quality of information in the fragmentary orders and taskers sent to the battalion improved throughout the week. Now that CPX-17 has concluded, I continue to have the utmost confidence in our staff and their ability to exercise command and control in a real-world situation."

22 NCR's next NIEX is scheduled for December. Between now and then, 22 NCR will participate in several more exercises to further cement their C2 capability.

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