A small and rather unknown group of service members are currently operating somewhat outside the U.S. military sphere of operations across the globe. Sometimes in groups, and sometimes individually, they are offering their expertise and training to support NATO.

Much of the time, these service members and their families are required to reorient themselves into an unfamiliar organization while in a foreign county, while also typically lacking the support found at most overseas installations. To make up for this, U.S. National Support Element (USNSE) works to assist service members in these locations with overseas services and family readiness support.

"Think of a Navy installation, or an Army or Air Force base, and the services that an individual receives at those installations, like housing support, MWR, postal service: the National Support Element provides those types of services to the U.S. personnel stationed at NATO billets located at somewhat remote locations," explained Train Hatton, the NSE program manager for Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia (EURAFSWA).

In this case, "remote" refers to a location that is not co-located with U.S. installations.

"We are six plus hours from (the nearest U.S. military installation)," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Leskoff, officer-in-charge (OIC) USNSE Madrid. "In addition to this, language barriers and cultural differences can, from time to time, create operational challenges."

Cmdr. Robert Bruce, OIC USNSE Lisbon agreed that being detached from the larger overseas military structure presents challenges. "The major challenge is being away," said Bruce. "We have no commissary, no NEX, no mini-mart. A lot of those things that give people a warm and fuzzy feeling are not here. It's a challenge because we can't provide all of those support items."

EURAFSWA NSE focuses on providing as much support as possible to those members at NATO sites, Hatton explained, and directly supports members at four primary locations: Latina, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid and Valencia, Spain.

As the region program manager, Hatton regularly liaises with U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which is the overall manager for the NSE program Europe-wide. He also works closely with the other services' NSE managers.

"A big part of that coordination is to ensure that the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy are all providing the same services at each location, because we are providing services not only to Sailors, but to other service members as well," Hatton said. "The same thing applies to the Army and the Air Force national support agent individuals - they are providing services to Sailors. We are all trying to make sure we are all doing something similar."

Hatton, Bruce, and Leskoff all share the sentiment that cooperation and teamwork are absolutely essential to the success of the NSE program due to the complexities that are unique to each installation.

"All too often in the military we are taught to be independent, but that doesn't work here," said Bruce. "Teamwork and cooperation work like magic. I have an arsenal of really good guys in the region to help me solve some of the gnarly problems we face."

Hatton added that it can be challenging to work through the differences between countries and to adjust to the support mechanisms available to each country at a NATO base. Leskoff, however, added that other international NSEs share similar challenges, and that the interaction between them, aids in confronting the complexities of serving at a remote site.

"The dynamic is positive and experienced daily," Leskoff added. "We work closely with each of the seven NATO NSEs toward facilitating, learning, and bridging the gap professionally [to] improve cultural understandings and opportunities. We frequently support the other NATO NSEs both administratively and logistically toward improving relations and quality of life."

Hatton believes that it is because of this active relationship within the NSE community that they are able to continually overcome or work through challenges and added that the program's success is ultimately due to the superb NSE staffs.

"They ensure the quality of life of the U.S. personnel serving at NATO commands is on par with the quality of life U.S. personnel serving at installations across Europe," said Hatton.

"I take great pride in that. We are ensuring that their quality of life - their family and force readiness support mechanism program - is provided to a degree that they can go out and complete their mission to NATO and not worry about the things they need and the things that their families need."

Navy Region EURAFSWA provides efficient and effective shore support to the U.S. and allied forces in the region. EURAFSWA continually provides effective and efficient shore capability to sustain the fleet, enable the Forward Deployed Naval Forces, and support families.

For more news from Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, visit www.navy.mil/.