A student from Coast Guard Special Missions Training Center pre-deployment class 19-01 fires the M870 Shotgun during a training exercise on a Camp Lejeune, North Carolina firing range on Friday, February 8, 2019. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
Camp Lejeune, N.C. – The Coast Guard celebrated the graduation of the first pre-deployment training class at Special Missions Training Center, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Friday.
SMTC-PDT Class 19-01’s 104 students mark the first class to graduate from the Camp Lejeune location since the course was relocated from Portsmouth, Virginia, in May 2018.
The SMTC crew made preparations for the inaugural Camp Lejeune-based course, which convened September 10, 2018, to be the first to graduate from the new location; however, Hurricane Florence forced the staff and 90 students to evacuate to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Improvising, the SMTC staff utilized makeshift classrooms at a hotel for classroom training and capitalized on relationships with Naval Operations Support Center, Charlotte, for medical screening and initial weapons classroom training. The students received weapons qualifications, water survival training master and responder qualifications, tactical combat casualty care instructor training, maritime tactical-egress and firearms instructor school qualifications. After moving several times, the storm passed, but no one was allowed to return home or to SMTC due to the devastation incurred to the Marine Corps base.
“SMTC trains over 300 members deploying to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia each year,” said Capt. Adrian West, commander Special Missions Training Center, Camp Lejeune. Our highly trained and competent instructor staff does a great job each course preparing our Coast Guard men and women for deployment to the U.S. Central Command area. “
Vice Adm. Scott A. Buschman, Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander, attended today’s graduation as the key note speaker and Capt. J. Paul Gregg, PATFORSWA commodore, watched as his first class of students graduated pre-deployment training on the Camp Lejeune location.
