Navy Reserve Readiness Command Southeast hosts chief's conference

Some of the NOSCs from Louisiana and Texas were part of REDCOM South and joined the REDCOM Southeast team Oct. 1.

The two-day conference was an opportunity for the command chiefs, senior chiefs and master chiefs from the region to spend some face-to-face time and bring nearly 500 years of combined Navy experience to work on the issues enlisted leaders face as the Navy continues to integrate its active and reserve components.

To kick off the event, CMDCM Matthew Davis of REDCOM Southeast, proposed the creation of several new enlisted programs for the newly expanded region. These included a regional chief petty officers association, a regional Sailor of the quarter for full-time-support and Selected Reservists (SELRES) and a regional enlisted leadership award. All were approved and the newly-formed REDCOM Southeast chiefs mess got down to business-the business of readiness.

REDCOM Southeast Chief Staff Officer Cmdr. Dan Harris set the tone when he said, ''The whole reason we exist is to serve our drilling Reservists, to make sure they are ready to answer the call. The drilling Reservists are why we are here.''

There are many areas that affect a Reservist's ability to meet the needs of the Navy. Two days of briefings by more than a dozen subject matter experts, some of whom manage or developed the programs they were presenting, covered everything from medical and dental readiness to family readiness, funding, physical fitness, drug abuse, the government travel charge card and manpower issues.

Not only did the enlisted leaders learn about new programs like National Call to Service, online detailing and electronic service records; that will impact their centers in the immediate future, they could give feedback to leadership about the challenges they deal with daily, at the deckplate level.

Another challenge facing the expanded REDCOM Southeast is disaster preparedness. As the NOSCs in Louisiana and Texas join, it becomes the region where most hurricanes will likely strike. The readiness commander's priorities are protection of personnel, protection of other assets and continuity of service.

''We are going to be the hurricane region. We have to be ready to muster our SELRES and families,'' said Capt. Don Burns Southeast Readiness commander. ''We cannot forget the families of mobilized Reservists either.''

Disaster preparedness doesn't end with hurricanes either. Commands also face the real threat of flooding, fire and a chemical, biological or radiological attack.

Although it was a long trip for many of the command chiefs to come to Jacksonville, they all agreed it was well worth the effort. ''When I first found out about this, I had reservations about the value. Now I think it's the best thing they could have done,'' said EMC(SW) John Kummer from NOSC Corpus Christi, one of the new centers in the region.

Davis said he received similar responses from many attendees. ''The importance of the conference was for the centers to understand that we are here to support and assist them. If they are failing, we are failing, and we don't plan to fail,'' said Davis.