TRACEN Yorktown, Yorktown, Va., July 5, 2024 —
Imagine you’re a country trying to build a coast guard. Maybe not quite from “scratch” – you’ve got some committed people, some assets, and you perform some basic functions. But you’re ready to take your nation’s coast guard to the next level. You’re pushing for unprecedented levels of growth and development and your people are going to need to learn to lead, maintain equipment, and face all kinds of new and different scenarios as you expand your mission set.
So, your people need detailed, quality training. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?
Nope. For the U.S. Coast Guard’s partner nations, that’s when you call Training Center Yorktown’s Mobile Training Branch (MTB). The MTB dispatches Mobile Training Teams (MTT) packed with Coast Guard subject matter experts internationally to export the U.S. Coast Guard’s training curriculum.
“Top to bottom, what we teach is derived from the very same courses a certified U.S. Coast Guard officer would get,” said LCDR James Bruce, International Mobile Training Branch Chief at TRACEN Yorktown. Not only is it important to be able to stand up and vouch for the quality of U.S. Coast Guard training outside the United States, but such consistency also increases regional cooperation, interoperability, and good communication between the U.S. and partner nations. “So, in the event that the U.S. government has an international or interagency operation or training, we’ve already been working off the same sheet of music and can speak the same language,” said Bruce.
MTT’s spread out across the globe to provide cost-effective training to more than 40 countries in 5 key areas: maritime law enforcement, small boat operations, fisheries inspections, small boat engineering, and damage control and emergency response. These aren’t just the occasional one-off trips, either. In one year, these 3 to 4-person teams will conduct about 120 different exported trainings. The teams travel to countries across the world including Philippines, Kenya, Malaysia, Tuvalu, and Tonga, just to name a few.
“We’re very privileged to have these jobs,” said Bruce.
MTTs are staffed by a variety of Coast Guard members with different skill sets, depending on the training topic. For example, the MTB’s staple Outboard Motor Maintenance (OMM) course has a team made up primarily of machinery technicians who cover the specifics of a country’s 100-hour small boat engine maintenance.
Bruce is thoughtfully diplomatic when asked if he has a favorite international destination to visit. “They’re all pretty fantastic. Each place is super unique and it’s a great learning experience culturally,” he said. “You get some real social and cultural context for the rest of the world. We run the spectrum of places we visit. We end up in some places that are very economically challenged and it can be intense. We can go to places that don’t have electricity and refrigeration, but then go to places that are established and very well developed. It gives you a new perspective and appreciation for some of the things that are very easy to take for granted.”
But he’s quick to note that even in resource-challenged environments, it’s important to meet the students and their programs where they are, versus simply applying a one-size-fits-all strategy to the situation. “One of the first things we do when we show up to a place is ask the questions ‘what do you need? How can we help? What are your challenges?’ and we let them teach us. We never go in and just say ‘let me explain it to you’ – none of us would ever presume to know what a country or agency needs, we always ask.”
Naturally, the primary objective of MTTs’ is sharing their expert knowledge with fellow maritime guardians. They’re still U.S. Coast Guard members traveling to other nations, however, making everyone a sort of ad-hoc cultural ambassador. And they receive a great cultural education in return.
“Every culture, every head of state, every agency from the bosses down to the newest mechanic have always been really open to sharing their culture with us,” said Bruce. “Whether that’s through ceremonies, foods, or experiences like a football (soccer) game – where we always get whooped on.”
Lackluster soccer skills notwithstanding, Bruce and his colleagues speak highly of the opportunity to represent Training Center Yorktown around the world. “Our teams are kind of like deckplate diplomats because they go in as instructors who are doing the work, doing the mission with a vast amount of experience in the U.S. Coast Guard. They’re able to sit down and talk with the various mechanics and administration and operational people all over the world. There’s a real common ground there because everybody’s wearing a uniform and just trying to do the right thing.”
“We basically have like the best job in the world because we get to do what any training center gets to do, but we get to do it in the coolest places across the globe.”
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Stay tuned to Gear & Grit for Deckplate Diplomats Part II where we’ll share more about how the Philippine Coast Guard ended up modeling their Balagtas Training Center after Training Center Yorktown.