Naval Education and Training Commander Visits USNA

Commander, Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) Rear Adm. Michael White toured the U.S. Naval Academy Feb. 2.

For White, a 1983 graduate of the University of Colorado, it was his first visit to the historic institution, which has been training and educating future naval officers for 170 years.

His tour included visits to classrooms, physical exercise facilities and the many monuments that scatter the Yard.

“The grounds at USNA are something to behold,” said White. “I am very interested in how we mold our Sailors, morally, ethically and of course in their technical field. This gave me an interesting perspective on how we can do better in the schools we run.”

NETC’s mission is to transform civilians into highly skilled, combat-ready warfighters and enable their career-long growth and development. The amount of time spent in NETC schools is significantly shorter than the 4-year program at USNA, but both institutions share the goal for creating better, smarter and ethically stronger students.

“It is slightly different in that USNA has its midshipmen for four years, and we have ours for a much shorter period of time,” said White. “USNA does an incredible job of molding the ideas of technology into training, bringing ethical decision making into its learning, and overall character development. We want to be able to further incorporate those ideas into our schools.”

While observing the faculty, staff, and facilities and interacting with midshipmen, White recalled the initial impression he had of USNA, further clarified by today’s visit.

“I have had many peers over the years who have graduated from USNA,” he said. “I’ve always had great respect for the institution both educationally and professionally, and what I saw here today matched that exactly – incredible professionalism by everyone I met today on the staff, and a compassion for learning and developing our country’s future officers. All matched by the spectacular venue that is USNA.”