Serving the NATO, Naples and Gaeta Military Community in Italy Russell Egnor Navy Media Awards – 2016 Best Newspaper in the Navy
62nd year, No. 25
Friday, June 30, 2017
New Web Tuition Assistance Automation Significantly Speeds Approval Process From Navy College Program Public Affairs
Soldiers of the Polish and Romanian Army conducted low-level mechanized training including IED drills and air assaults with U.S. Army Chinooks on June 11, 2017. For the full story see page 11. MoD Crown Copyright Photo by Cpl Ben Maher
OSHA Recognizes U.S. Naval Hospital Naples as Navy OCONUS Voluntary Protection ‘Star’ Site By Lt. Cmdr. Willie Barksdale U.S. Naval Hospital Naples Public Affairs
U.S. Naval Hospital (USNH) Naples achieved Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program “Star” recognition from the DoD Safety Management Center of Excellence during an onsite visit to the hospital last month. OSHA’s VPP recognizes workplaces that maintain effective safety and
health management systems and maintain injury and illness rates below national Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries. “Our involvement in this program confirms our commitment to keeping our patients and staff safe, healthy and on the job,” Capt. Steven Blivin, USNH Naples commanding officer, said. “Ensuring we maintain this Star status if further proof of how we provide the best, world class
care to our patients, keeping warfighters in the fight.” USNH Naples is the fourth Navy OCONUS facility to achieve this outstanding distinction. The VPP Star recognizes the command’s safety programs among the best in the world. During the presentation, Chris Chaffin, Safety Management System Implementation team lead, remarked on the many positive impressions he and his team noticed during the assessment. USNH NAPLES
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CAPTAIN’S CORNER. . . . . . . . . 2 BASE NOTES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 FFSC CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . 5 SOUND OFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MOVIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 JOBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
MAKE A SPLASH WITH MWR . . . . . . . . . page 6
2017 FESTA AMERICANA . . . . . . . page 14
USO TOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 WORD SEARCH / COLOR ME 14
As part of the Navy’s transformation to a virtual service delivery model, the Navy College Program launched an update to the My Education portal June 27, significantly improving the Web Tuition Assistance approval process for Sailors taking off-duty education courses. “We’ve automated a major portion of the WebTA authorization process to improve accuracy, reduce the time it takes to complete the application, and get vouchers authorized,” Cathe Waters, Naval Education and Training Professional Development Center Voluntary Education (VOLED) lead program analyst, said. “Not only does the new process give commanding officers greater authority in the TA authorization process, the improvements will enable faster enrollments, grade posting, invoice payments, and make voluntary education less stressful for our Sailors.” Previously, Sailors had to wait for the Navy College staff to manually verify and authorize their WebTA applications after command approval. The new process automatically checks/validates the Academic Institution’s (AI) course/tuition information, validates a Sailor’s status, including degree plan, counseling, no missing grades, EAOS status, TA annual usage, etc. As part of the update, the My Education portal also adds an AI module where Sailors can select their courses/tuition rates and have those automatically uploaded to the WebTA voucher. WEB TA PROGRAM
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