The Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 5 participated in the first Sea and Air Parade event in eight years during San Diego Fleet Week, Sept. 10.

The event featured U.S. Navy cruisers, amphibious ships, destroyers, frigates, submarines, a demonstration of SEAL capabilities, Coast Guard search and rescue, a fly-over of contemporary Navy and World War II aircraft, along with ship tours, a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fair, and static displays.

"Our team brought out water-testing equipment, microbiology tools, insects, health promotions and giveaways as part of our static displays," said Lt. Nickita Brown, NEPMU-5 Education and Training Division officer, who organized the event for NEPMU-5. "Our goal was to provide hands-on equipment displays that shed light on the capabilities of NEPMU-5 to not only San Diego as a community, but to our Navy counterparts as well."

"In addition to demonstrating our strategic capabilities, we always strive to provide public health education and awareness regarding tobacco cessation, proper nutrition and combating obesity," commented Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Hayashi Morris, NEPMU-5 leading petty officer, Public Health Surveillance Department. "The participants really responded well to our nutrition information and asked lots of questions regarding portion control and healthy dietary guidance."

The microbiology tools were also popular with event attendees.

"People were very interested in how we are able to perform cultures and molecular techniques to determine what micro-organism is the culprit in an outbreak, or determine if an environmental sample contains a bio-threat agent," said Lt. Mari Brown, NEPMU-5 assistant Laboratory Department head.

"Our goal was to increase awareness of our capabilities to not only the citizens of San Diego but to our Navy colleagues as well," said Cmdr. Shelton Lyons, NEPMU-5 officer-in-charge. "Fleet Week is about showcasing the Navy's operational forces and sea power. However, it is important that we show people the forces working behind the scenes to keep our warfighters safe using preventive medicine."

This year was the first year NEPMU-5 participated in Fleet Week. However, the unit regularly volunteers at local schools and charitable organizations.

"We plan to continue to engage the community and the fleet, showcasing both the deployable and organic capabilities of the unit at future Fleet Week San Diego events," added Lyons.

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

For more information on Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 5, visit http://www.nepmu5.med.navy.mil.

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit http://www.navy.mil/.