Chief petty officer (CPO) selectees and their sponsors from U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet and Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Maryland participated in a community relations (COMREL) event at Overlook Elementary School in Linthicum, Maryland, Aug. 19.

The group of selectees provided maintenance to the school grounds by mowing, mulching, trimming hedges, providing tree and shrub care and leaf removal.

Amanda Salveron, the school's principal, said the support provided by the selectees was extremely important for the school and the community.

"By beautifying our grounds, such as building butterfly gardens that will be around for a long time, we are teaching our students and building community partnerships," said Salveron.

The event is part of the CPO 365 program, a year-round, multi-phase training initiative aimed at helping petty officers first class prepare to become chief petty officers.

Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician (Networks) Nicholous Lopez, who led the selectees during the COMREL, said events such as this teach future chief petty officers to be better ambassadors of the Navy for the community.

"It's a very important piece to make sure that we are showing the process to everybody, making it as transparent as we possibly can," said Lopez. "[We're] doing good deeds for the community and making sure that kind of mentality is spread throughout the Chiefs Mess, as well as the community."

Phase II of CPO 365 will come to an end Sept. 16, when selectees will don their khaki uniforms and anchors as newly-promoted chief petty officers.

U.S. Fleet Cyber Command serves as the Navy component command to U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command, and the Navy's Service Cryptologic Component commander under the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. Fleet Cyber Command also reports directly to the Chief of Naval Operations as an echelon II command.

U.S. 10th Fleet is the operational arm of Fleet Cyber Command and executes its mission through a task force structure.

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For more news from Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet, visit http://www.navy.mil/.