Navy

NSA Naples Holds Change of Command

Story by: Aaliyah Essex

NAPLES, Italy – Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples hosted a change of command and retirement ceremony July 7, 2023, onboard Capodichino.

Capt. John Randazzo relieved Capt. James Stewart as the commanding officer of NSA Naples.

The ceremony featured guest speaker Rear Adm. Brad Collins, Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central.

Collins praised Stewart for all of the work that has been done throughout his time at NSA Naples.

“As the Installation Commanding Officer who hosts U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, U.S. Sixth Fleet and 50 other tenant commands, including mine, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central, there is never a dull day,” said Collins. “You have deftly, like a skilled statesman, balanced the breadth and depth of priorities to keep this installation running at peak performance.”

Collins credited Stewart with leading the base through the COVID-19 Pandemic while managing Capodichino, Support Site, Gaeta, Carney Park and supporting Joint Forces Command Naples.

“For any other commander this might have seemed like an overwhelming task, but the NSA Naples team is the most professional installation in the region,” Collins added.

Following Collins’ speech, Stewart gave his final remarks as NSA Naples’ commanding officer.

“It has been an honor to serve in the Navy and here at NSA Naples,” said Stewart. “NSA Naples has presented me with a unique opportunity to work with active duty, civilians, local nationals, and partnering nations. The diversity amongst our staff and partners presents a new culture and philosophy that you, as a leader, must adjust yourself to because true leaders bend themselves to the organization. From a personal development standpoint, it is unrivaled compared to anything else I have done in the military and it has changed me for the better as a leader,” Stewart added.

Capt. Stewart assumed command in July 2020. Since then, the Suquamish, Washington native says his greatest accomplishment has been implementing the Continued Process Improvement (CPI) initiative across the command.

CPI was employed by NSA Naples’ leadership to improve the customer experience across all NSA Naples bases. NSA Naples’ is the first of its kind in Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT). Stewart hopes it will be the model program for Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) and ease processes moving forward.

“I hope I have empowered people to make changes and enabled our team to recognize where we can be more efficient—making their jobs easier and thereby, making the experience better for our customers and all the families we serve here,” said Stewart on the CPI program.

In addition to the CPI initiative, he led his Public Works department in the execution of critical base infrastructure projects to include the completion of the Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) and the contract award and successful first phase of the C4I Special Project, greatly increasing resiliency to the facilities onboard NSA Naples. He also drove significant quality of life construction efforts through lease modifications and task orders on Support Site valued at over ten million dollars.

Under his leadership, NSA Naples Operations department supported over 2,175 air terminal flight evolutions involving the movement of over 4.7 million pounds of cargo and the transit of 20,279 passengers and hosting 1,127 distinguished visitors. Two of these flights supported the safe transit of the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden.

Stewart led the NSA Naples Security department to the only CNIC-led Command Assessment of Readiness and Training (CART) in EURAFCENT, resulting in an overall assessment of 89%.

According to Cmdr. Alex Lamis, NSA Naples Security Officer, the CART results established a new standard resulting in four EURAFCENT installations greatly benefitting and applying critical observations of programmatic and drill lessons to their programs. This shared expertise resulted in the overall success of CARTs in the Region.

Stewart and his team also assisted in the transition of 43 hundred Afghan civilians and partners during Operation Allies Refuge in July – Aug. 2021.

Stewart’s next destination is retirement to Seattle, Washington, alongside his wife, Jennifer, and son, Ethan. His daughter, Sydney, will be going into her sophomore year at University of Oregon majoring in Communications Disorders and Linguistics.

Randazzo arrived in Naples after serving in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) in Washington, DC. He served as the Executive Assistant from March 2022 to February 2023 and previously as the Aviation Manpower Branch Head from July 2020 to March 2022.

Randazzo is a native of Springfield, Virginia. He joined the Navy in June of 1995, attending the United States Naval Academy Preparatory School and United States Naval Academy before receiving his commission in May of 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering. He also holds a Master of Arts Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United States Naval War College.

“I am honored to join Team Naples and to have the privilege of leading this incredible group of professionals,” said Randazzo. “I appreciate the warm welcome I’ve received from the installation staff and our Italian host nation. My passion is to support service members and their families. We will build on all the great work by Capt. Stewart and continue to enhance our command’s services to better serve our warfighters and maintain our excellent bilateral relationship with our Italian counterparts.”

NSA Naples is an operational ashore base that enables U.S., allied, and partner nation forces to be where they are needed, when they are needed to ensure security and stability in Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia.

For more news about NSA Naples and the Sailors who serve onboard the installation, please follow us on Instagram @NSANaples and Facebook at facebook.com/NSANaples/.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) and Brown University have recently entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) aimed to develop technology solutions to protect high speed craft (HSC) operators from injurious environmental conditions, specifically the repeated mechanical shock a body endures when quickly navigating open water.

The research under the CRADA was sponsored by Office of Naval Research (ONR) Code 34 Warfighter Protection and ONR Global Experimentation and Analysis (ONRG E&A). The agreement is entitled the “Development of Improved Sensor Systems and Algorithms Optimal for use in Brain and Spine Injury Research associated with the HSC Environment” and outlines what facilities, technology and data may be shared; ownership of resulting innovative technologies; and processes for publishing new findings. It also reinforces the collaborative relationship between researchers, scientist and engineers from NSWC PCD and Brown University to combine capabilities towards goal-achieving discovery and technological advancement in protection. Eric Pierce, NSWC PCD Test and Evaluation & Prototype Fabrication Division senior test director and Human Factors engineer, explained what the Navy Lab brings to the table and why these partnerships are important.

“NSWC PCD has extensive expertise, capabilities and information in Special Warfare Maritime Mobility Mission Systems, Mission Support Equipment, Human Factors Engineering, Impact Injury Research and Development of Human Worn Instrumentation,” said Pierce. “Teaming with Brown University [will offer] answers to the problems that we are seeking in terms of protection from mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and better human-worn instrumentation to characterize these problems and provide some form of eventual dosimetry and impact injury tracking over the years of a career.”

As an educational and research university, Brown’s efforts aim to discover fundamental knowledge and train the next generation of scientists to solve real-world problems. As part of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored PANTHER (Physics-bAsed Neutralization of Threats to Human tissuEs and oRgans) and TIGER (Towards Injury prediction using G-sensor-based strain Estimation and motion Reproduction) programs, a team of scientists from Brown University have developed two wearable inertial measurement systems, the Accelo-Hat and Accelo-Harness. Collectively known as the Accelo-Suit, these systems were designed to fasten inertial measurement units (IMUs) at several locations distributed across the human body so that the IMUs may measure kinematics data (namely, linear acceleration and rotational velocity) at those points. Dr. Haneesh Kesari, Associate Professor of Engineering from the solid mechanics division at Brown University, provided some insight on the collaboration’s impact and trajectory.

“The human brain itself does not have pain sensors…so if a person gets injured through some of the very strenuous training conditions and military exercises, there is no direct way to know that they are getting injured until far after the fact. Even with the performance of computer simulations and calculations, they are not directly applicable because there are numerous assumptions and information we don’t have with [just] a computer model,” said Kesari. “So this experiment is very valuable because it ties together two very disparate fields of expertise and knowledge. One is the know-how of 20 years of high speed craft biodynamics research experience that Mr. Pierce brings and the other is the most state-of-the-art algorithms, computer software, math and physics being developed. When merging these together, we’ll be able to figure out from a rational and rigorous mathematical sense of how to quantify injury and thus be able to have a more predictive and rationally designed preventative measure.”

In Fiscal Year 2023, NSWC PCD and researchers from Brown, with biomechanics expertise from Cameron R. Bass LLC, collaborated to assess the suitability and effectiveness of the Accelo-Suit under simulated at sea conditions. Future tests may continue to utilize the Moog 6DOF motion simulator located in the NSWC PCD Human Systems Integration Team’s Biodynamics Laboratory.

“One of NSWC PCD’s missions is to conduct research, development, test and evaluation [RDT&E] for Naval Special Warfare [NSW] Systems,” said Pierce. “Ensuring NSW warfighter dominance includes addressing the collective desire of NSW to strategically maximize human capital, sharpen battlefield performance, and extend the operational service life of the warfighter.”

These CRADAs serve as excellent opportunities to help organizations achieve their respective goals collectively. They can allow private industry to license federal technologies, demonstrate good stewardship of taxpayer money, and increase development of commercial technologies, which supports the national defense and economy. The benefits can also include increased efficiency, more rapid solutions, lead to future partnerships and provide academia with opportunities to expose their students to impactful on-site training.

“Having strong partnerships with academia using technology transfer agreements allows us to be more agile in our research and development. This translates to direct mission support and warfighting dominance,” said Paige George, NSWC PCD Technology Transfer manager.

This isn’t the first time the Navy Lab and Brown have collaborated together. In FY22, they conducted a Human Subjects Research (HSR) study determining the efficacy of exoskeleton leg braces in mitigating potentially injurious repeated mechanical shock aboard HSC.

“NSWC PCD and Brown University have already begun a strong working relationship. It is my sincere hope that this CRADA will further strengthen that relationship and ensure continued collaborative efforts intended to protect and improve warfighter performance,” said Pierce.

NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY BAHRAIN – Earlier this week, Marines assigned to Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team Company Central (FASTCENT) facilitated a Close-Quarters Battle (CQB) Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) with Sailors and Soldiers aboard Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain. U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Forces Southwest Asia Maritime Engagement Team hosted the exchange in their “ship-in-the-box” training facility aboard the installation.

U.S Navy Sailors assigned to Naval Security Force Bahrain, and U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Task Force Blackjack, U.S. Army Central Command’s Crisis Response Task Force (CRTF) worked together with FASTCENT Marines to individually display how different obstacles encountered in a CQB environment can be overcome.

The SMEE allowed for the service members to share tactics, techniques, and procedures while increasing interoperability amongst units. The units present at the training have worked together operationally and may work together in the future in response to real-world crises within the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility.

The training began with the fundamentals of CQB, including individual movement, identifying interior terrain, door procedures, and room entry. It further progressed to more advanced concepts such as room clearing, hallway procedures, stairwells, opposing danger areas and detainee procedures and scenarios.

The exercise culminated in a force-on-force scenario-based final exercise that required personnel to problem solve utilizing best practices and methods learned over a three-day period.

“Overall, this SMEE is important due to interoperability between different units but also to allow personnel to foster a learning environment that increases mutual proficiency in the profession of arms, and garners confidence from each team in its adjacent units,” said Capt. Rico Rodriguez, a FASTCENT Platoon Commander. “We are now more able to mutually support one another as Americans serving in the CENTCOM region.”

FASTCENT’s mission is to provide rapid response expeditionary anti-terrorism and security forces in order to protect vital naval and national assets, and to conduct other limited duration contingency operations as directed in support of U.S. Central Command. FASTCENT Marines are trained to deploy tactical forces, conduct anti-terrorism operations, conduct ground security operations, and conduct embassy reinforcement.