Commander, Submarine Force U.S. Pacific Fleet

Pearl Harbor Based Submariners Receive Mentors in Violence Prevention and Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Training
By MC2(SW/AW/SCW) Ronald Gutridge
COMSUBPAC Public Affairs

Release Date: 05/06/2010

(PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii) – Submariners from USS Bremerton (SSN 698) and USS Chicago (SSN 721) are currently participating in the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) and Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) train-the-trainer courses onboard Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) launched the pilot training programs on April 16 with train-the-trainer sessions occurring April 19-22 and ongoing fleet training for the next six months.

Bremerton and Chicago were the first Submarines from Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC) to participate in these programs. The success of this is intended to pave the way for future training on all submarines within the fleet.

“This training pilot program is unique because it involves a target group for individual training versus the lecture and PowerPoint type training.” said Chief Sonar Technician Submarine Shane Finck, Bremerton pilot coordinator. “This is much better training due to the fact that it includes several different scenarios that depict situations that could arise during a normal day-to-day basis, therefore requires trainer-to-trainee participation and feedback throughout each training scenario.

The submariners participating in this pilot program will in turn lead MVP discussions within their own units during a six-month timeframe.

“The training scenarios implemented in the programs provides my students the knowledge to recognize red light behavior and what course of action to take, before it escalates into something that may have a devastating outcome,” said Machinist Mate 1st Class William Lewis, USS Chicago MVP program instructor. “Participating in these scenarios stimulates all the forms of learning and retaining all the information that is presented, therefore resulting in a higher success rate.”

The MVP and SAPR programs are skill-based training pilot programs focused on gender violence prevention and education designed to influence bystanders to intervene in situations that may lead to a sexual assault. Leadership throughout the Navy frequently highlights the importance of taking care of our people as both the right thing to do, and a readiness issue.

“Bystander intervention, which is core to the Navy's sexual assault prevention strategy, gives every Sailor a role in preventing the command's problem of sexual violence,” said Maricar Davis, PACFLT pilot instructor. “The pilot programs will help the Navy determine the best way to implement and deploy bystander intervention, and the sustainability and viability of the MVP to the fleet.”

“These pilot programs provide practical tools and techniques focused on teaching our Sailors how to recognize early abusive warning signs, when to intervene, and how to prevent certain situations from developing into negative behaviors,” said Master Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Marion Rush COMSUBPAC Force Equal Opportunity Advisor.

MVP was established in 1993 as a multi-racial, mixed-gender training program geared towards high school and college-age students, as well as professional athletes in the fight against all forms of violence against women. The training is a very interactive, facilitated instruction. The MVP concept uses a bystander intervention model to create mechanisms and a culture that actively engages our Sailors as part of the sexual assault prevention effort. The model was designed as a gender violence, bullying and violence prevention approach to encourage young men and women from all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to take on leadership roles in their schools and communities. This model has been successfully implemented in professional sports organizations and on some college campuses and is being tailored for use in the armed forces.

The Navy's formal SAPR program, originally called Sexual Assault Victim Intervention, was created in 1994 and served as the template for the other military services. In the past year, the Navy has placed greater emphasis on sexual assault prevention as well as maintaining quality victim response with a goal of eliminating sexual assault from its ranks.

These programs have inspired several initiatives to include waterfront leadership interaction, first responder workshops and a pilot peer-to-peer training program, currently underway at U.S. Fleet Forces and PACFLT.

The Fleet pilot programs will be used to determine the potential usefulness and sustainability to the Fleet. The pilot program will help determine the way ahead for fleet wide implementation. Sailor attitudes towards intervention in SAPR related behavior and incidents of sexual assault behavior will be tracked during the pilot period. Results of the pilot program will be evaluated by multiple surveys and focus groups. A formal report to the DoN Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Cross Functional Team will be presented by the end of this year, including a recommendation on how to implement bystander intervention training fleet wide.