Direct Line

Lt. Karl Schonberg, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs Officer

Team Sigonella,

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to touch base with you via the Direct Line. As the NAS Sigonella Public Affairs Officer, I make an effort to talk to everyone about the role that public affairs plays onboard our community when you go through base INDOC. I understand there is a lot of information presented at INDOC and that, for some of you, that may have been a long time ago, so I want to take this opportunity to discuss the ways that we communicate important information with you and your families.

If you have a military email address, you are probably familiar with All Hands Messages (AHM). These emails are one of your best sources of timely and official information here onboard NAS Sigonella. Every Monday and Thursday at noon, we send a digest with general announcements, professional and volunteer opportunities, as well as events, classes, and workshops. Since these emails tend to be lengthy, we send them in HTML format, which allows you to look at the table of contents and click on the item you’re interested in to be taken directly to it. If you don’t see the blue links, simply click where it says “We converted this message into plain text format” and select “Display as html.” Voila!

Of course, not all news follows our regular schedule. Therefore, you may find urgent AHMs in your inbox at irregular times as well. While we know your time and inbox space is valuable, we ask that you make sure you are receiving these messages as well as reviewing them and sharing any pertinent information with your junior Sailors. We don’t want you to miss any information that directly impacts your work or your daily life.

Another excellent source of official NASSIG information is our Facebook page. At https://www.facebook.com/ nassigonella/, you will find base news, helpful tips, information from partners like MWR, and, of course, photos of people and events across our community. Just this past week, we’ve shared posts about how to stay safe in an earthquake, a timely message from Captain Pickard, and the virtual celebration of the Navy’s 245th birthday. In addition, our Facebook page is where we host virtual town halls with base leadership and subject matter experts, which are a great way to hear directly from the people making decisions that affect you.

As our recent earthquake exercise demonstrated, our AtHoc system is a vitally important system of communication. A mass emergency notification system, AtHoc allows us to quickly inform you about major threats, dangers, and natural disasters, as well as urgent issues such as road closures, thunderstorms, and water safety. AtHoc is designed to keep all personnel, including dependents, safe and informed, and if you are not currently receiving text messages or emails from this system, please sign up at W-SI-NASSIG-EMERGMGMT-STAFF- GS@fe.navy.mil.

For entertainment as well as information, we always encourage you to tune in to AFN Sigonella at 105.9 FM on your radio or via the AFN Europe app. AFN Sigonella provides exchange rates, fuel prices, weather, traffic updates, and of course you can listen to music in between informative segments, news pieces and interviews. On the AFN Sigonella Facebook page, you can find regularly scheduled guests who are subject matter experts on various topics that pertain to the Sigonella community.

Finally, I cannot forget The Signature, the publication in which you are reading this Direct Line. NAS Sigonella’s biweekly newspaper is published every other Friday and is chock full of interesting stories covering stories from around our community, in Sicily and in the Navy. You can get the full experience of our beautifully designed paper as a PDF at https:// www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnreurafcent/installations/nas_ sigonella/news/The_Signature.html or using your computer to visit https://issuu.com/nas_sigonella, but you can also read mobile-optimized stories on your phone through the ISSUU website. Lastly, we post the stories and photos from each issue throughout the following weeks on our Facebook page.

Although I’ve spent this Direct Line telling you about the ways we communicate with you, I would like to end by encouraging you to communicate with us. You can send us messages through our Facebook page or email the public affairs shop at nassigpao@eu.navy.mil. If you have a message you would like included in our regular All Hands emails, please send it to us at Nassig.allhands@eu.navy.mil. If you have an idea for an article in The Signature, please reach out to thsig@eu.navy.mil. And, of course, if you see me around base, don’t hesitate to say hello!