Navy Warrior Transition Center goes operational

Courtesy Photo | U.S. Navy Capt. Charles Stuppard, left, and Capt. Jeff McKenzie uncover the photographs and certificate of Cmdr. Phillip Murphy-Sweet that will be hung on a wall inside a facility named for him at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Dec. 14. Murphy-Sweet was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, April 2007. The facility houses the Warrior Transition Program, designed to assist Sailors going back to their families and jobs after deploying to a combat zone.  

CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT

12.19.2007

Courtesy Story

1st Theater Sustainment Command

By Petty Officer 1st Class Victor W. Jeffries, U.S. Navy Customs Battalion Tango

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – The first permanent facility for the Navy Warrior Transition Center in Kuwait was dedicated here by U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff McKenzie of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, Dec. 14.

McKenzie, from Little Creek, Va., opened the center which houses the Warrior Transition Program. The WTP is modeled after a program set up to assist Seabees – whose missions are land-based, and often, for long deployments – reintegrate into their communities and families.

The Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center, located in Norfolk, Va., looked at the Seabee program and designed the WTP to assist Navy Reservists and active-duty Sailors redeploying home.

U.S. Navy Capt. Charles Stuppard, commander of WTP, explained the concept of the program.

"The Warrior Transition Program is a three-day program designed to decompress Sailors from the stresses related to serving in a combat zone," said the Newport, R.I., native. "Classes are available to address the Sailor's physical, emotional and spiritual well being. All of the Sailor's battle rattle (protective vest and equipment) and weapons are turned in to the Warrior Transition Program. On the third and final day of the program the sailor is given a going home brief."

U.S. Navy Chaplain Kyle Fauntleroy, the lead instructor for WTP, said that the object of the classes is to "... educate, inform and debrief the sailors before their redeployment home." His team consists of Chaplain David Rodriquez and social workers, Cmdr. Kevin Bradshaw and Lt. Cmdr. Lynn Brinkley.

McKenzie likened the center's inception to the movie, "Field of Dreams."

"Build it and they will come," he said. "We grew this warrior transition program from an ad hoc enterprise that saw maybe one hundred Sailors per month to one that can now serve a thousand."

McKenzie said that many Sailors were involved in the completion of the project. "From NECC back in Little Creek, Va., to the Naval Component Commander in Bahrain, this effort took a lot of coordination," he said. "But the heaviest lifting occurred right here at Camp Arifjan," referring to Maj. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, deputy commander of Third Army (Forward), and their involvement in building the center.

The center is dedicated to Cmdr. Phillip Murphy-Sweet. Murphy-Sweet was killed by a roadside bomb in April 2007 in Afghanistan a few weeks before he was scheduled to return home. McKenzie said Murphy-Sweet would have used this facility and could have benefited from the program.

"I cannot tell you how much she and her three children appreciate that we would honor her husband this way," McKenzie said when he told Murphy-Sweet's wife, Cheryl, about the dedication. "Phil would have been proud to be associated with this mission."

• Date Taken: 12.19.2007
• Date Posted: 12.19.2007 10:58
• Story ID: 14835
• Location: CAMP ARIFJAN, KW