by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
A week ago Herb Babin didn’t think he’d have a day job.
The retired Navy officer had been doing freelance consulting for Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s new anti-terrorism training alliance with the Navy for some time, but he wasn’t expecting to make the strategic weapons training facility at Kings Bay, Ga. a regular commute.
It is at Kings Bay that men just out of boot camp are enrolled in six-week courses, preparing them to defend Navy bases all over the world in the nervous days after Sept. 11.
Dr. Bruce Brunson, FCCJ’s dean of work force development, called Babin and asked him to serve as the program manager for the five-year, $10 million contract designed to leverage FCCJ’s expertise in law enforcement with the manpower of the Navy. The idea is to develop an internal security infrastructure to the branch of the military which has traditionally policed the world via the sea.
Brunson, Babin and about eight other experts in military training and law enforcement wrote the proposal that garnered the contract last year, and so now Kings Bay, in addition to serving as the home to 10 submarines and 5,500 military personnel, is also home to classes of 25 new sailors every six weeks — the future masters at arms of the U.S. Navy, the ones who protect the bases and secure the weapons and keep the peace at home.
“Today, they’re having a black and blue session,” said Babin, referring to baton training where the “students” use plastic sticks to strike fear into the guy holding the padded shield while screaming, “Move back. Move back.” Baton training is part of the general law enforcement training, which along with maritime search and seizure, anti-terrorism and shipboard security — general force protection — comprise the bulk of the curriculum that will qualify them to enter Phase II, or more direct on-the-job training at installations all over the world.
Charlie Smith, who has had over 20 years in weapons instruction for the Marines, is a certified baton trainer. He said that once he’s done with the indoor training, he will take the group outside for more “realistic applications.”
The Navy always had masters at arms who protected the base, but the position wasn’t very big and not nearly as solidified as in other branches of the military. Most bases, according to Babin, would outsource internal security to the Department of Defense, an organization that has recently been a little too busy for outsourcing projects.
But not FCCJ. One of the largest community colleges in the nation, FCCJ has been quietly landing major contracts recently to convert both corporate and military content into educational material. Clients like CSX and the Cecil Commerce Center have utilized FCCJ to design specific curriculum tailored for their specific training needs. According to Babin, the Criminal Justice Center, located at FCCJ’s North Campus, as well as a long-standing relationship between the Navy and FCCJ for distance learning programs provided the perfect synergy for the alliance.
Currently, the six-week course at King’s Bay will generate nine credits towards a criminal justice degree from a school in Florida. J.T. Revenaugh, the military program coordinator, who does most of the hiring (there are eight full time trainers plus adjuncts), is helped by the fact that there is such a high concentration of ex-military and ex-law enforcement in this area who Babin said, “Want to stay in the game.”
The overall course includes open patrolling, training for traffic control and ticketing, crisis intervention, rape awareness, child abuse awareness, handcuffing, fighting skills, protection for ships, crime scene analysis, search and seizure, recognition of threats and fire arms training.
Tobin Guy, who spent nine and a half years in the Air Force, is helping with Visit Board Search and Seizure, or VBSS, teaching how to board ships for cargo and weapons inspection. The ship boarding part of the course is run out of Mayport. According to Guy, searching the ship is just the beginning.
“There is all sorts of mechanical knowledge that goes along with making sure the ship is seaworthy before you board,” he said. “There are lessons in how to identify hazardous materials.”
There are instructors at Kings Bay from all branches of the military, something that Babin thinks will enhance the program by offering different perspectives and different backgrounds. Babin, who was career Navy, was in the aviation division, and there’s a Coast Guard veteran at Mayport. According to Babin, the instructors “cross train.”
FCCJ is currently involved in bringing an arms sentry course online for the Navy — a two-week course in weapon protection for ships in the harbor. Babin said they may even broaden the course to include things like working dog training.
The lead instructor at Kings Bay is Rick Higinbotham. He sets the schedule and serves as a liaison with the Navy and the Criminal Justice Center. He’s a retired gunner’s mate and the last chief of the former Cecil Field.
Babin praised the positive economic impact the alliance will have on the community. He said the flexibility written into the agreement means that depending on what the Navy’s needs are after five years, FCCJ will be there to meet them.
He recalled being in an airport in Tel Aviv in the 1970s (Babin traveled all over the world with the Navy) and standing next to a plaque that honored the people who died in that very spot when a bomb exploded a few years before.
“The kind of reflection I remember having at that moment is what America is now dealing with, something we’ve never dealt with before,” said Babin. “Sept. 11 will cause an increase in our vigilance forever.”