By
JEAN B. REYNOLDS
Editorial Assistant
More than 5,000
NSCC (Naval Sea Cadet Corps) and NLCC (Navy League Cadet Corps) Cadets
participated in 1999 summer training programs aboard U.S. Navy ships and
U.S. Coast Guard cutters at various naval/military air stations
throughout the United States and at numerous other land-based training
sites of all of the nation's armed services.
"The 1999
summer training program was among the most productive ever in terms of
numbers--and quite possibly the richest both in terms of the quality of
training provided and the varied spectrum of training choices available
to Cadets," said NSCC National Chairman Bruce B. Smith (the Navy
League's national vice president for youth programs). "In addition
to recruit training--carried out this year at 13 regional training
sites--and both basic and advanced courses in seamanship, port
operations, leadership, music, medicine, master at arms duties,
aviation, and other naval/military skills and specialties, Cadets had
the opportunity to participate in SEAL training, attend advanced
submarine seminars at naval submarine bases in Bangor [Wash.] and Groton
[Conn.], hone their construction skills with the Seabees, or train
alongside the Young Marines in the mountain-survival courses offered at
the Marine Corps' Mountain Survival School in Bridgeport,
California."
Navy League
National President John R. Fisher expressed his appreciation to the
estimated 500 NSCC adult volunteers "who gave so much of their time
and talent to ensure the success of the 1999 summer training
program"--which, he emphasized, "was truly a joint-service
effort, with the Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force making numerous
training sites and instructors available, particularly in areas where
Navy and Marine Corps facilities are few or nonexistent."
Fisher also
emphasized the importance of the NSCC and NLCC not only to the armed
services, but also to the home communities of the Cadets and to the
nation. "These outstanding Cadet programs are in my opinion the
best citizenship programs available to young Americans anywhere
in the country," he said. "They pay great dividends to the
armed services in many ways, but their greatest value is to the nation.
The bright, dedicated, hard-working young men and women who go through
the Sea Cadet and League Cadet training programs are better citizens for
the rest of their lives, and history shows that many of them will assume
significant positions of leadership and responsibility in their adult
lives." |
