The year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City. In 1945, then Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal established the U.S. Navy Mine Countermeasures Station in Panama City, Florida, with a mission area focused on mines and mine countermeasures.

While we have remained firmly rooted in Mine Warfare, we have added several mission areas along the way, namely: Diving and Life Support Systems, Naval Special Warfare Systems and Amphibious/Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare Systems, which are all among the most relevant missions conducted by the Navy, Marine Corps, and Department of Defense today.

From our humble beginnings in July 1945 with ten officers and three civilians it has been our community's dedication, all of us working as a team, which has enabled the Warfare Center to ensure that the United States Navy maintains its supremacy of the seas.

Physicist Harold A. Johnson was the first civilian aboard the U.S. Mine Countermeasures Station, arriving on Aug. 10 1945. This excerpt from our archives recounts Johnson's early days.

"After a war, the economy tends to shrink rather than expand, so CDR Frost, the driving force behind the mine countermeasures effort, had a tough time in Washington convincing people to come here. Panama City was isolated away from towns of any size and commuting back and forth to Washington would be an ordeal. There were no educational facilities past Bay High, no hospital except the Adams Clinic. In fact, the biggest thing Panama City had to offer was recreation - fishing, the beach. People were afraid that if they came down here they'd be caught when places closed and they'd have to head back to Washington to hunt for jobs that might not be there. The Depression was etched in history and their memories. But Frost did a masterful selling job. He said we knew from history that mine warfare was here to stay. He did such a good job of selling, that I packed up my wife and kids - one in the first grade and one in the fifth - and came here. I was sold. We arrived on Sunday, Aug. 9 1945 and I started to work August 10th. Frost told me to get the first significant project going, get the gear streamed, the closed loop sweep, so that people in Washington would know that Panama City was serious business and the experiments underway were proof. He said, 'Johnson, I want you to go down there and make this thing work.'"

Well, some things haven't changed, like our interactions with Washington. But seriously, what hasn't changed is the quality of our people and their desire to do their very best each and every day. We are serious about our business! NSWC Panama City will end the fiscal year on September 30th with over 1,400 government service civilians, a military complement of 45 and over 700 defense industry partners on our team; a workforce complement that will ensure Panama City remains the recognized leader in the littoral missions of our Navy.

We are receiving many high level visitors and that is important because it tells us that the work we do is relevant.

This year, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral James Winnefeld was so impressed with our work that he invited a friend to visit, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work. It is a testament to the work we are doing at this lab.

In 2015, we joined the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in celebrating the Year of the Military Diver (YOTMD). Representative Gwen Graham visited during our YOTMD event in June and she came to appreciate Panama City as the home of military diving.
Recently, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert and Representative Jeff Miller visited Pensacola to inspect our preparations of the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package (MCM MP) equipment.

Admiral Greenert noted that the MCM MP is one of the Navy's top priorities, and testing is underway aboard USS Independence. On his Facebook page, the CNO remarked, "We were both very impressed with the high-caliber crew and civilians who are focused on introducing this enhanced capability to our Fleet."

More recently, Secretary Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, made a personal visit accompanied by many senior Flag level sponsors to assess and encourage our progress.

We are the Navy's Technical Center of Excellence for Littoral Warfare and Coastal Defense! Our work is relevant and our business is strong, which means we are hiring. In fiscal year 2015 we will have hired over 210 people and 41 STEM students interned with us this past summer, including 8 students from FSU PC and 6 students from Gulf Coast State College. Our hiring forecast for 2016 looks very positive.

Our economic forecast looks promising as well. The Warfare Center business base for FY15 will be over $550 Million and the forecast for FY16 is projected to be very strong again.

Our community should be very proud. For 70 years, we have been providing a technical advantage to our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line to defend our country.

I submit that we should all be exceedingly proud of the contributions Bay County makes to the Department of Defense and to our Nation.

For more news from Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, visit www.navy.mil/local/NSWC/.