The Surface Warfare Officers School's mission is to ready sea-bound warriors to serve on surface combatants as officers, enlisted engineers, and enlisted navigation professionals in order to fulfill the Navy's mission to maintain global maritime superiority.

Now two Sailors are carrying out that mission at Commander, U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo. Surface Warfare Officer School Learning Site Sasebo has begun teaching Sailors with its instructors, Machinist's Mate 1st Class Bryan Gilstrap and Machinist's Mate 1st Class Brandon Pittman.
Gilstrap said he speaks for both of them on why they wanted this duty.

"I wanted to give back to the Navy and it helps us professionally grow," said Gilstrap. "I wanted to teach and engage with junior Sailors."

Being the first SWOS detachment in Sasebo, it is slated to have a rotating crew of two instructors. They are tasked with the training of shipboard Sailors in the skills necessary to complete their jobs such as gage calibration, water tight door maintenance, and fuel testing.

In the past, Yokosuka's mobile training team visits to CFAS would serve a maximum of 100 students twice per year. Since their arrival, one year and a half ago, Pittman and Gilstrap spent nearly eight months learning how to instruct the courses necessary. After getting qualified as instructors, they've trained over 400 Sailors, and have over 20 classes scheduled for the rest of 2017, for a fraction of what it used to cost for training according to Pittman.

"You can already kind of see the benefits," said Pittman, "With them [Yokosuka] coming down doing the mobile training teams twice a year, they would be here for maybe two or three weeks and they would get a couple hundred students through. With us being here we'd have classes that we teach quarterly and classes that we teach semi-annually."

For those that could not be trained during the visits, the Navy would send sailors to Yokosuka, San Diego, and Pearl Harbor to receive the same training. These trips would cost the Navy money for each TAD Sailor's travel, per diem and lodging.

Training conducted by Pittman and Gilstrap currently covers enlisted engineering courses, but will soon include Quality Assurance Officer and Quality Assurance Inspector courses.

"SWOS Learning Site Sasebo is here to stay," said Gilstrap, "We have certainly made a positive impact on the level of knowledge here on the waterfront by greatly increasing the availability and accessibility of formal Navy Schools in the area."

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