Vice Adm. Bill Moran, the Navy's top personnel officer, stressed the importance of modernizing the way the Navy and U.S. military train, during his keynote address at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Dec. 1.

The conference, which is the world's largest modeling and simulation event, brought together members from industry, academia, government and each military service.

"We must learn faster and quicker," said Moran. "We must increase the tempo and efficiency with which we train, and adapt our processes to be inherently receptive to innovation and creativity. And this change must occur at every level; as individuals, as teams, and as an institution."

As head of Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education for the Navy, Moran is responsible for making sure that the Navy's newest Sailors are ready for the litany of jobs they will be asked to perform. This includes finding and recruiting talented individuals to serve, as well as executing training pipelines that take young Sailors through their initial education.

On any given day, there are approximately 32,500 Sailors in the Navy's training pipeline. The new generation of Sailors has grown up in an information era where they have instant access to information, and have been raised to operate in a mobile environment.

"We want to meet Sailors where they are, and how they learn best," Moran said. "We're employing the best technologies to accelerate learning, make it more efficient, and are looking for more ways to continue to move these types of technologies to the fleet. I am encouraged by what I've seen here; from flight simulators, to gaming technology, to live-fire weapons, to virtual and augmented reality. There's a lot of new and cutting edge technology at I/ITSEC this year."

As the chief of naval personnel, Moran answers to the Chief of Naval Operations on matters of the Navy's manpower readiness. He also serves as the deputy chief of naval operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education/N1) and oversees the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Navy Personnel Command, Naval Education and Training Command, and Navy Recruiting Command.

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