DVIDS – News – Maritime Military Students International Conference held in Pensacola

By Lieutenant Junior Grade Camila Healey, NETC Public Affairs

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Service members and civilians from the Navy, Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard attended the 29th annual International Military Students (IMSO) Conference in Pensacola, Fla., from July 15-18. November 2022.

IMSOs are usually the first U.S. government officials that international military students hire when they arrive in the United States for training. IMSOs play a vital role in the lives of Allied foreign students by facilitating their transition to life in a new country.

The purpose of the IMSO conference was to highlight the vital role allied relationships play in global maritime security and to allow IMSOs across the United States to network.

Rear Admiral Pete Garvin, Commander of Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), stressed the importance for IMSOs to build relationships with international military allies.
“The role of an international military student officer is critical to ensuring that our partners and allies train with us in a logistically easy and professionally fulfilling way,” Garvin said. “It allows them to focus on training rather than administrative burdens. It is the duty and responsibility of IMSO to ensure a safe and secure environment for both our students and the international students they are responsible for guiding.

In 2022, the IMSO team collectively trained 8,444 international military students with 11,594 courses for more than 150 international partner nations.

“Training with our partners and allies is a critical component to improving future combat readiness,” Garvin said. “The United States cannot remotely build the necessary trust and interoperability with our allies and maritime partners.”

Captain Daniel Testa, Commander Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity (NETSAFA), outlined the goals of the conference, which provided 175 IMSOs with the opportunity to develop face-to-face relationships with their counterparts serving the same mission.

“Our goal for the conference was to assess, train and advise IMSOs in the maritime domain,” Testa said. “The purpose of this week was to re-establish the baseline and standardize IMSO knowledge and practices, as well as to recommend administrative oversight of the maritime IMSO.”

An awards ceremony was held as part of the conference to recognize IMSOs for their dedication to providing the administrative and logistical support needed to allow international military students to focus on their training in the United States. The winners included:

– Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Nicholas Turner, Naval Aviation –Technical Training Unit, Jacksonville, Fla.
– Lieutenant Alexander Hoersten, Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific, San Diego
– Mrs. Maria Jonckheere, Training Air Wing 4, Corpus Christi, Texas
– Ms. Angela Miller, Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia.
– Mr. Thomas Beard, US Coast Guard Training Center, Yorktown, Virginia.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to meet with NETSAFA program officials and continue to develop the program,” said Lt. Alexander Hoersten, assigned to the Pacific Fleet as IMSO. “It has been essential to bring the international training program back online after COVID-19. I look forward to continuing to work with international students.”

NETSAFA is the United States Navy’s agent for Navy education and training for international military students. Located at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, NETSAFA coordinates and provides training support to international governments and international organizations. As a field activity of the NETC, they serve as the focal point for all issues of security assistance and security cooperation, coordination and advisory education and training program within of the US Navy.

NETC’s mission is to recruit and hire talented civilians, provide training and education to develop civilians into sailors, and distribute membership sailors to the fleet to maximize readiness and ensure mission success; provide specialized training and educational tools to advance the personal and professional development of seafarers throughout their careers; and serve as the sole requestor for individual training and education and as the primary advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command on matters related to training and education.

For more information on NETC, visit the Command website at https://www.netc.navy.mil/ and follow MyNavy HR: Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ MYNAVYHR/, Instagram at https://www. .instagram.com/mynavyhr/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/mynavyhr