Facility tours bolster relationships with local community

PORT HUENEME, Calif (NNS) -- Seabees from the Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC) at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC), Port Hueneme hosted a facility tour for nearly 30 distinguished guests from throughout the county Aug. 23.

The tour is part of a series of "Friends of NBVC" tours organized by NBVC for local community, government, law enforcement and school leaders aimed at familiarizing visitors with NBVC's mission and facility capabilities.

The NCTC tour started off with a briefing from Cmdr. Scott Loeschke, commanding officer of NCTC Port Hueneme.

"We build Seabees," Loeschke said. "We take that really to heart."

Approximately 100 active duty Navy and Air Force members staff NCTC, training approximately 1300 Seabees and Air Force students a year in basic and journeyman skills. A new basic course starts almost weekly with 12-24 students.

The tour began with an in-depth look at the construction mechanic rate training. Air Force trainees huddled around a diesel engine in the first room and full-sized pick-up truck bodies filled another, prompting a visitor to lean over and ask a fellow tour group member whether the Seabees learned anything other than mechanic skills at Port Hueneme.

The question served as an unintentional segue into the next building, where construction electricians were training.

Tour attendees were eventually exposed to the training basics for all seven Seabee rates. The visitors were led through the training areas by the Seabees who teach the individual courses.

"I had no clue that so many skills were taught to our Seabee students so quickly," said Kathleen Sheehan, chief of police for the city of Port Hueneme. "I especially enjoyed how the commander gave us an overview to put the curriculum and coordination between the disparate schools all into perspective, then broke the training down into understandable chunks."

"It certainly helped our understanding to have the actual instructors take the time to lead each of the individual sessions," said John Moore, editor of the Ventura County Star newspaper.

Several tour members, including members of the city councils, county supervisors and representatives from state and federal government offices, expressed surprise and pleasure at the depth of training offered at NCTC as well as the unprecedented access the tours offer.

"I have been on numerous tours of Naval Base Ventura County throughout the years," said Brian Miller, district chief of staff for Congressman Elton Gallegly, "but most were just 'drive-bys' of facilities with very little explanation of the activities that occur inside the buildings. This tour was excellent because it concentrated on one aspect of the base and gave us an in-depth overview of that activity."

For NBVC, tours such as this are critical tools in community engagement and outreach efforts, allowing the community to learn more about the base and its mission.

"We are reaching out to the leaders in our community and offering them the opportunity to come learn more about their neighbors at NBVC," said Capt. Larry Vasquez, NBVC's commanding officer. "The chief of naval operations has stated that our Navy will be ready to fight and win today, while building the ability to win tomorrow. The training and operations that occur at Naval Base Ventura County, from Seabees to cutting-edge weapons testing to flight operations, are all critically important to our nation's defense."

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

For more news from Naval Base Ventura County, visit www.navy.mil/local/nbvc/.