CPO 365 instills joint heritage

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Ashley Hawkins
  • JIOCEUR Analytic Center Public Affairs
RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom --  Editor's note: Due to the sensitivity of the joint intelligence mission, the last names of personnel have been removed in this article.

As part of the first phase of the Chief Petty Officer 365 program, which includes fostering team building, Navy personnel assigned to the U.S. European and Africa commands joined together for a heritage run at RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom June 19.

Started in 2010 by U.S. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Rick D. West, CPO 365 was designed as a year-round, three-phase training program allowing unit chief petty officers to train board-eligible first class petty officers to become chiefs themselves, in lieu of the standard noncommissioned officer academy.

"A lot of the time it's classroom training and lectures," said Cryptologic Technician Collection Senior Chief Kristofor, Joint Intelligence Operations Center, Europe Analytic Center senior enlisted leader. "This was different in that we planned physical training, classroom training and heritage all into one."

Due to the joint environment, the Navy heritage portion in phase one was replaced with the heritage of Molesworth.

"We have a lot of heritage here at Molesworth," said Kristofor. "It was a fun way to do our training instead of [slides] all day."

In order to execute all of these into one, according to Petty Officer 1st Class Burton, AFRICOM analyst, it took three to four weeks of planning and coordinating with security forces, the fire department in case of emergencies, and internal coordination between peers.

With approximately 40 petty officer first classes and 15 active-duty, reserve and retired chief petty officers across Molesworth involved in the program, maintaining focus was crucial.

"When everything is taken into consideration, both commands are very busy but, there was still a really good turnout," said Burton. "To plan a run seems easy to do, but considering operation management and delegating roles within the peer group to decide who was responsible for what is difficult. Everyone can bring in what they learned from success in the past, so what we did was develop plans, got feedback, then re-briefed the plans so the execution could go smoothly."

During the run, the group stopped at four "stations" to learn about the historical value of that particular area.

The areas were the 303rd Bombardment Group, (Hell's Angels), memorial, the JAC, the aircraft hangars and the mobile nuclear armed Ground Launched Cruise Missiles area.

"These were the four locations with historical value," said Burton. "The hangars used during WWII are still here and still in use today. Everyone passes the Hell's Angels memorial at the front gate. Hell's Angels is a big part of American history. I didn't even know the bunkers here used to have nuclear missiles. It's a privilege to learn what this base is really about and for people to be able to come here and see it."

With the knowledge gained from the event, Kristofor hopes to pass on the information to all of Molesworth.

"The heritage run program is built now, this benefits everyone," said Kristofor. "We will disseminate it out in case the Army, Marine or the Air Force elements want to use it here at the JAC or at AFRICOM.

Throughout the event, the group made sure to stay on track with the focus of the first stage - team building.

"Camaraderie was very important," said Burton. With having to juggle two commands, it was extremely essential to have team building."

According to Burton, everything went according to plan in making sure the CPO 365 at Molesworth continues to live out the plan MCPON had in mind of building esprit de corps, gaining constructive knowledge through mentoring future Navy chiefs, all while having fun 365 days of the year.