ET2(SCW) Dante Marasco gives Midns. 2⁄C Zach Jackson (left) and Erik Knebel some pointers in an electrical engineering lab. USNA photo by Martha Thorn.

Cmdr. Matthew Carr serves as the course director for EM300 Naval Engineering: Propulsion and Auxiliary Systems, which has an annual ''throughput'' of about 650 Midshipmen. He recalls how the role of the enlisted Sailor in the Division of Engineering and Weapons has changed at the Naval Academy over the last six years.

Originally, enlisted Sailors served as laboratory technicians, setting up the labs and reading from a script. Now, they’re actually standing in front, teaching the labs.

''We challenged them to step up and develop better instructional techniques and materials,'' Carr said. ''We had some go-getters who answered the challenge.''

According to MM1(SW) Michael Myers, a group of enlisted Sailors instituted the change about three years ago. They worked with the Chief of Naval Education and Training to set up a program where Sailors could earn their Master Training Specialist (MTS) qualification.

''The Master Training Specialist program qualifies you to write or rewrite a curriculum,'' Myers said. ''You write your own lesson plan and instruct it to a classroom with zero flaws.''

The MTS qualification is thorough, detailed, and very challenging. Those who earn it are recognized as expert instructors.

''The qualification is not required but it’s career enhancing for those Sailors who want to go up for chief,'' said ETC(SW) Craig Harris, department leading chief petty officer for the Division of Engineering and Weapons.

Harris has 13 enlisted Sailors assigned to him now and expects to have 15 by the end of September.

''They are all great representatives of the fleet,'' said Carr. ''They have technical skills and are experienced on the deckplate level. They know how to troubleshoot.''

''They all have a vast amount of hands-on experience from the fleet,'' Harris agreed. ''They know how to run the equipment and do the readings. There’s what the theory says and then there’s the quirks they see in the fleet.

Their knowledge of the equipment is better than any books because it’s hands-on knowledge.''

The Sailors represent such rates as electronic technicians, fire controlmen, fire technicians, and machinist mates, and they teach labs in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, marine propulsion, hydrodynamics, oceanography and naval architecture.

Since the Sailors also teach engineering labs for non-engineers, every Midshipman takes at least one of their lab classes.

''They have a vested interest in seeing the Midshipmen develop because the students who pass through their hands here will be their new bosses in the fleet,'' Carr said.

DC1(SW⁄AW) Tyrone Sessom teaches hydrodynamics labs; ET2(SCW) Dante Marasco, electrical engineering labs, and MM2(SW) Clint Cummings, mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering labs. They are very aware that this is their chance to make an impact on the fleet and to affect the caliber of the Navy’s future leaders, and they have advice for the Midshipmen based on years of fleet experience.

''Learn from your Chief and the blue shirts out there. If you don’t have them, you don’t have anything,'' Sessom, who has been in the Navy 9 1⁄2 years, advises his Midshipmen. ''I’ll see you out there and if I see you messing up, I’ll set you straight, because I want you to be the best leaders that you can be.''

Cummings, who has spent five of his seven years in the Navy at sea, and the rest of his Navy career in places like Sasebo, Japan; and Keflavik Naval Air Station in Iceland, gives the Midshipmen similar advice.

''Trust your fellow officers and your senior and junior enlisted,'' Cummings said. ''That fireman recruit who’s been around the world three times knows a lot and so do your fellow officers.''

Marasco has spent five of his six years in the Navy at sea and has worked closely with the Seabees. ''You don’t have to know every single thing,'' Marasco reiterates. ''Enlisted Sailors know their rates, and you can learn from them.''

He said the Navy is diverse and each assignment and warfare specialty is different.

''The Naval Academy provides the basic training to be an officer,'' he said, ''but every job is different. You need to depend on your troops to learn the job.''