58th year, No. 10
Serving the Nato, Naples and Gaeta military community in italy
Friday, March 15, 2013
Saharan Express 2013 Kicks Off in Senegal By MC3 Brian Glunt, Navy Public Affairs Support Element East Detachment Europe
Participants from 14 nations attended a pre-sail conference March 7 in Dakar, Senegal to kick off Exercise Saharan Express 2013 (SE-13). SE-13 is a maritime exercise designed to improve cooperation among participating nations in order to increase counter-piracy capabilities and deter maritime crimes in West Africa. This exercise provides African, European and U.S. maritime services the opportunity to work together, share information and refine methods in order to help West African nations better monitor and enforce their territorial waters. “Saharan Express is important because the skills we will practice over the next few weeks can be used to enforce African maritime laws, and that will ultimately improve the lives of the people from the nations represented here,” said Capt. Andrew Lennon, U.S. exercise director. Although focused on counter-piracy and maritime security operations, the exercise includes a wide variety of training for all participating forces, including at-sea ship boarding and queries, medical familiarization, air operations, communication drills and regional information sharing. SE-13, which has occurred annually since 2011, is one of four African express-series exercises known as Africa Partnership Station (APS). The regional maritime exercises test skills learned from previous APS training events. “Since 2011, Exercise Saharan Express has become the most privileged time of year in the annual event calendar of the Senegalese navy,” said Rear Adm. Cheikh Bara Cissokho, Senegalese chief of navy staff. “Saharan Express is a pertinent concept that contributes to raising the operational level of our forces and the fight against trafficking at sea.” SE-13 takes place following the successful completion of Exercise Obangame Express 2013, another APS regional exercise focused on the Gulf of Guinea. As part of the U.S. Navy’s global maritime partnerships, APS was developed to support sustained, focused training and multinational and organizational collaboration on a regional scale in order to increase maritime safety and security in Africa. APS serves to strengthen global maritime partnerships through training and collaborative activities in order to improve maritime safety and security in Africa. Eight West African and six European nations are scheduled to participate in SE-13 including Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, France, The Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, The Netherlands, Portugal, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.
Above: Royal Moroccan Navy sailors practice boarding techniques aboard the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll (F231) in Dakar, Senegal March 9 as part of Exercise Saharan Express 2013. Saharan Express is an international maritime security cooperation exercise designed to improve maritime safety and security in West Africa. (Photos by MC2 John Herman) Left: Royal Moroccan Navy sailors train Liberian sailors in proper security techniques aboard the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll (F231) in Dakar, Senegal Saturday as part of Exercise Saharan Express 2013.
CREDO Offers One-Day Marriage Workshop By MC3 Caitlin Conroy-Feddersen, Navy Public Affairs Support Element-East Detachment Europe
Cmdr. Charles Pumphrey facilitates a one-day marriage workshop hosted by CREDO aboard NSA Naples, March 7. CREDO is a Chief of Naval Operations initiative and offers several retreats to help people develop personally, professionally and spiritually. (Photo by MC3 Caitlin Conroy-Feddersen)
Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation (CREDO) program offered a one-day marriage workshop to military couples aboard Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples, March 7. The workshop included tips and exercises to help couples learn to communicate more effectively and covered problem-solving skills and techniques that couples can implement into their marriage. “What we try to do in CREDO through
our marriage workshops like this, or through our weekend long marriage enrichment retreats, is provide something special, to provide skills and tools for individuals and couples to draw on to meet all the challenges of military and married life successfully,” said Cmdr. Michael Pumphrey, CREDO director and class facilitator. This is the second one-day marriage workshop held in the Naples area, with approximately four scheduled each year. Communication, problem solving, handling stress as a couple and learning to have fun together were topics included in the workshop. “The military in general is constantly putting families in a position where they’re separated for long amounts of time, which equals a lot of stress on relationships. My husband and I wanted to use the resources available to us to try to strengthen our marriage,” said Krista Riester, workshop participant. see Marriage Workshop Page 6
FRIDAY High 50 / Low 37 Mostly Cloudy
W HAt ’ S I NSIDE
SATURDAY High 48 / Low 41 Partly Cloudy
C6F Visits Destroyers Barry and Gravely
Highlighting Navy Nutrition Month Page 6
Page 7
Transition GPS: Prepare for the Civilian World Page 10
SUNDAY High 54 / Low 48 Partly Cloudy