Photo By Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan Wilber | Chief Navy Petty Officer Surgann Coker-Bello, counselor (left), from Florence, S.C.,...... read more read more
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan - In a naval message dated Dec. 30, 2009, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 was named among the Retention Excellence Award winners for 2009. This makes the sixth consecutive win for the battalion, the most consecutive wins for an NMCB in recent years.
The exact criteria for the award changes from year to year, but centers on retention percentages for each career zone, attrition percentage and a command career counselor program assessment grade. The three zones (A, B and C) are based on how many years a service member has served on active duty, zone "A" represents the least and zone "C" the most years. A navy counselor from the command's Immediate Superior in Command performs the assessment.
According to the message, eligibility for this year's award required each command to meet or exceeded the 48 percent zone "A" re-enlistment rate , 58 percent zone "B" re-enlistment rate, 82 percent zone "C" re-enlistment rate, and meet the zone "A" 6.2 percent or lower attrition rate, or earned at least two quarterly honor roll awards. In addition to retention and attrition, a command must score a minimum 80 percent on the career counselor program assessment to be eligible for the award. To win the award this year, NMCB 74 earned three consecutive honor roll awards, met the zone "A" attrition rate and passed the assessment with a score of 98 percent.
When asked what contributed to the battalion winning the award, Chief Navy Counselor Surgann Coker-Bello, NMCB 74 command career counselor, gave much of the credit to her retention team. She also stated that completing career development boards help the command know a Sailor's career intentions and in turn helps Sailors meet their career goals whether the service member "stays Navy" or not.
"We had some very dedicated career counselors who were out to ensure that the Sailors were taken care of. Once they realized what the programs were all about, the career counselors really went to work," said Coker-Bello. "Whether they stay or leave to me is beside the point. I just want to make sure they are smart when they make their final decision. I don't want anyone to make a decision and they were given the wrong information. I think that now that we are empowering our Sailor's with the correct knowledge about their careers, they can make informed decisions on where they want to take it. Whether it's to stay in the Navy or to go ahead and separate to continue their college or civilian job, at least I know they are making an informed decision."
Every NMCB in the Navy won the Retention Excellence Award in 2009 and Coker-Bello indicated that there are a number of reasons why a Seabee would make the choice to reenlist, besides pure patriotism.
"The skills that they learn here in the Seabee community translate very easily to a civilian sector job. What I've been finding out is that the longer they stay and the higher rank they are, they are able to obtain U.S. Map certificates, and along with those certificates and skills they learn here, they are able to negotiate a better paying salary or higher position in some of the construction work they want to do once they get out. Some of that same skill and the certificates also allow them to earn college credits to obtain their college degree a lot faster," said Coker-Bello.
Chief Construction Electrician Derrick Stephens, Headquarters Company career counselor, feels that a Sailor's knowledge of available opportunities contribute to a Seabee's decision to re-enlist. Getting the word out is part of his job as a member of the retention team.
"To find out there are other things out there besides the battalion is kind of like a treat. [If a service member] just did five or six years in the battalion, why not treat [themselves] or reward [themselves] with shore duty and find out about a shore duty they would like to take with a "C" school that they feel like is something they would enjoy doing," said Stephens. "There are different [opportunities] out there that I don't think people knew about besides guys who had done it before... I see people starting to try and go [different] routes now."
Coker-Bello has been conducting paygrade appropriate training on the battalion's training days to get information about career incentives to as many Seabees as possible. It is anticipated that initiatives such as this will allow them to take full advantage of Navy programs and the battalion to win award number seven next year.
| Date Taken: | 01.06.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 01.18.2010 18:52 |
| Story ID: | 44074 |
| Location: | HELMAND PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 403 |
| Downloads: | 285 |
This work, NMCB 74 Wins Sixth Consecutive Retention Excellence Award, by SCPO Ryan Wilber, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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