The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Howard (DDG 83) conducted an Integrated Training Team (ITT) drill, July 22, testing its casualty response readiness.

The ITT drill combined simulated scenarios of possible shipboard and personnel casualties that the crew could experience while at sea.

"An ITT drill incorporates a variety of different organizations of the ship, including combat, damage control, medical and seamanship," said Lt. Christopher Girouard, Howard's damage control assistant, from Limerick, Maine. "ITT emphasizes how a team functions with multiple casualties happening all at once. The more we stress and flex our teams, the better prepared we will be in an actual environment."

At any time during the drill, any Sailor could become a simulated casualty, which would prompt their shipmates to tend to their medical casualties while also continuing their damage control efforts.

"Adding the medical casualties to the already complex shipboard combat and damage control drills that the crew is dealing with better prepares the Sailors aboard Howard to step into any role they may find themselves during an actual emergency," said Chief Hospital Corpsman Eulogio Gutierrez, from Oxnard, California.

Extensive trainings such as ITT drills are designed to improve team proficiency by familiarizing the Sailors with the unexpected.

"As Sailors train together, they get better at anticipating what each respective organization needs," said Girouard. "The more we train, the better we get at exercising these skills and preventing damage. Only by working together and practicing can we succeed."

Howard is deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of maritime security operations designed to reassure allies and partners, and preserve the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce in the region.

For more news from Nimitz Strike Group, visit http://www.nimitz.navy.mil/.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Navy Public Affairs Support Element, visit http://www.navy.mil/.