SAN DIEGO – Chief Petty Officer Savannah Dukes, a native of Sumter, South Carolina, wanted to do something different than going to college.
 |
| Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jackson Brown |
Now, 12 years later, Dukes is stationed with the Navy Service Support Advanced Training Command (NSSATC) San Diego, a new training command tasked with improving fleet readiness.
“The impact that we have on the sailors is meaningful,” said Dukes. “You meet so many every time you have a course. I spend a lot of time with them and sometimes they reach out to me later to tell me I've had an impact on them.”
Dukes, a 2007 graduate of Lakewood High School, is a personnel specialist at the training center located in San Diego.
“I teach Personnel Specialist Fiscal, Personnel Specialist Travel, Command Pay and Personnel Administrator and Personnel Specialist Afloat Disbursing Operations courses,” said Dukes.
Dukes credits success in the Navy to many of the lessons learned in Sumter.
“Don't become a product of your society,” said Dukes. “Sumter was a really good place but as I started to grow up there was a lot of crime and I saw a lot of talented people that I graduated with fall victim to that atmosphere.”
NSSATC was established in March 2019. It develops and delivers advanced education and training opportunities that build personal, professional, and service support competencies to achieve fleet readiness. Headquartered at Naval Air Station Oceana, Dam Neck Annex, Virginia, the command executes training at 10 globally dispersed learning sites with military and civilian instructors and staff personnel.
NSSATC is responsible for Advanced Administration courses, Advanced Logistics courses, Navy Instructor Training Course (NITC), Command Career Counselor (CCC), Command Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) Manager, Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor (DAPA), and Alcohol and Drug Abuse for Managers and Supervisors.
There are many reasons to be proud of naval service, and Dukes is most proud of a deployment to Afghanistan.
"I was there for almost a year and that deployment made me feel like I had a greater purpose because it's not very often that a sailor gets to experience that,” said Dukes. “Even working in admin, it felt good to know I was taking care of the sailors and Marines so they didn't have to worry about pay or travel arrangements.”
A key element of the Navy the Nation needs is tied to the fact that America is a maritime nation, according to Navy officials, and that the nation’s prosperity is tied to the ability to operate freely on the world’s oceans. More than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water; 80 percent of the world’s population lives close to a coast; and 90 percent of all global trade by volume travels by sea.
“Our priorities center on people, capabilities and processes, and will be achieved by our focus on speed, value, results and partnerships,”said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. “Readiness, lethality and modernization are the requirements driving these priorities.”
“The impact that we have on the sailors is meaningful,” said Dukes. “You meet so many every time you have a course. I spend a lot of time with them and sometimes they reach out to me later to tell me I've had an impact on them.”
Dukes, a 2007 graduate of Lakewood High School, is a personnel specialist at the training center located in San Diego.
“I teach Personnel Specialist Fiscal, Personnel Specialist Travel, Command Pay and Personnel Administrator and Personnel Specialist Afloat Disbursing Operations courses,” said Dukes.
Dukes credits success in the Navy to many of the lessons learned in Sumter.
“Don't become a product of your society,” said Dukes. “Sumter was a really good place but as I started to grow up there was a lot of crime and I saw a lot of talented people that I graduated with fall victim to that atmosphere.”
NSSATC was established in March 2019. It develops and delivers advanced education and training opportunities that build personal, professional, and service support competencies to achieve fleet readiness. Headquartered at Naval Air Station Oceana, Dam Neck Annex, Virginia, the command executes training at 10 globally dispersed learning sites with military and civilian instructors and staff personnel.
NSSATC is responsible for Advanced Administration courses, Advanced Logistics courses, Navy Instructor Training Course (NITC), Command Career Counselor (CCC), Command Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) Manager, Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor (DAPA), and Alcohol and Drug Abuse for Managers and Supervisors.
There are many reasons to be proud of naval service, and Dukes is most proud of a deployment to Afghanistan.
"I was there for almost a year and that deployment made me feel like I had a greater purpose because it's not very often that a sailor gets to experience that,” said Dukes. “Even working in admin, it felt good to know I was taking care of the sailors and Marines so they didn't have to worry about pay or travel arrangements.”
A key element of the Navy the Nation needs is tied to the fact that America is a maritime nation, according to Navy officials, and that the nation’s prosperity is tied to the ability to operate freely on the world’s oceans. More than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water; 80 percent of the world’s population lives close to a coast; and 90 percent of all global trade by volume travels by sea.
“Our priorities center on people, capabilities and processes, and will be achieved by our focus on speed, value, results and partnerships,”said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. “Readiness, lethality and modernization are the requirements driving these priorities.”
As a member of one of the U.S. Navy’s most relied-upon assets, Dukes and other sailors and staff know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes, serving as a key part of the Navy the Nation needs.
“Once you are adapted and fully invested in what the Navy is about, you see what our big purpose in the world is,” said Dukes. “For me, there is nothing greater than giving back when you have been given so much.”
“Once you are adapted and fully invested in what the Navy is about, you see what our big purpose in the world is,” said Dukes. “For me, there is nothing greater than giving back when you have been given so much.”