Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl Hurtt, a master-at-arms with Mobile Security Squadron 7 at U.S. Naval Base Guam, was the first sailor to complete the Navy’s new Expeditionary Warfare program. He received the Expeditionary Warfare device he’s wearing — seen larger on the wall behind him — at a ceremony Friday. (Frank Whitman / Special to S&S)
The Expeditionary Warfare device was pinned on a member of the U.S. Navy for the first time Friday.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl Hurtt, a master-at-arms with Mobile Security Squadron 7 stationed at U.S. Naval Base Guam, was the first sailor to complete the Expeditionary Warfare program.
Hurtt was pinned by Rear Adm. Donald Bullard, commander of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, which was created in January and includes MSS 7 as well as Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Naval Coastal Warfare, Riverine Forces, Combat Camera Atlantic, the Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support functions and the Seabees. Friday’s pinning took place at a change-of-command ceremony for the squadron.
“The Navy has always had expeditionary forces,” Bullard said during the ceremony. “But since the tragedy of 9/11, they have never been more in demand.”
Hurtt and others began the five-month training program while deployed to an Iraqi oil platform. He completed it after his return to Guam.
“It’s the most challenging program I’ve done; it’s harder than surface warfare,” Hurtt said. “It covers an environment that most people don’t operate in. They usually leave this job up to the Marines or the Army. Now we have Navy personnel doing it.”
The new program — for the first new Navy warfare device in six years — standardizes the training and “recognizes the special sailor skills that cross all of NECC forces,” Bullard said.
The first part of the program “is a core set of competency skills that has to be demonstrated and tested within expeditionary skills: shoot and maneuver, force protection and things like that. The second portion is a set of qualification skills specific to the unit.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Timothy Bruns also was pinned with the Expeditionary Warfare device Friday after Hurtt’s ceremony.
“This is the most meaningful qualification yet,” he said. “We had to push hard and show excellence in skills that the Navy does not usually do.”
