US Navy,
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va: Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) established Expeditionary Training Command (ETC) in a ceremony held at Drexler Manor on Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek April 13.
The new ETC’s main function will be to deploy teams to foreign countries to train their militaries in such areas as port security, non-commissioned officer (NCO) professional development, control craft operation, maintenance management and operational risk management.
According to Lt. Cmdr. Scott Chafian, ETC executive officer, the new command will assess what partner countries and allies need in terms of maritime security training, construction and explosive ordnance disposal — any of the disciplines that NECC encompasses.
“We will develop training programs to meet those needs,” Chafian said. “And then, depending on the size of the training package required and the degree of expertise or proficiency that we are targeting, we will either conduct the training ourselves or we will look to the NECC organization, big Navy, or even our sister services for the subject matter experts to lead the training.”
The command is still in its developmental stages.
“We are building the command right now,” said Cmdr. David Somers, ETC commanding officer. “Ultimately, we will have 75 people in the command; there are 15 right now. The 75 will be split between 50 active duty and 25 Reservists.”
Somers said ETC is in search of motivated Sailors in the expeditionary field to join the new command.
“We are looking for subject-matter experts with personalities that are mature,” said Somers. “Other things help, such as if they have foreign language skills they would like to use more than they are using now and if they are instructor qualified — that’s a plus but not required.”
Foreign language skills will be vital to the training that will be taking place when ETC deploys teams to the U.S. Southern Command area of operations.
“I’m going to be teaching the NCO course in Spanish,” said Construction Electrician 1st Class (SCW) Marlon Borjas. “Right now, I am preparing myself to teach it the proper way.”
ETC will contribute to the Chief of Naval Operations’ 1,000-ship Navy initiative, which aims to unify allied navies in protecting their coasts against terrorism.
“The concept of the 1,000-ship Navy is being explained and endorsed in an effort to increase our capability beyond just a simple hull count number,” said Somers. “It is being measured more in terms of functional effectiveness [and] of how well we can engage the other nations globally.”
ETC is part of NECC, a global force provider of adaptive force packages of expeditionary capabilities to joint warfighting commanders.
