00;00;00;05 - 00;00;02;19 Alex Technically speaking. 00;00;02;21 - 00;00;05;19 Chelsie Welcome to our technically non-technical technology talk. 00;00;05;19 - 00;00;08;14 Alex A NIWC Atlantic production. 00;00;08;17 - 00;00;15;27 Chelsie Hello, I'm Chelsie. The NIWC Atlantic audiovisual specialist, social media manager, and a self-proclaimed expert in travel. 00;00;16;00 - 00;00;33;24 Alex And I'm Alex, part of the media engagement team and looking forward to traveling abroad someday. For those who may not know, I use a wheelchair. And when I travel, my wheelchair goes into the cargo section of the plane. But airlines are working on allowing us to stay in our wheelchairs in the cabin. 00;00;33;26 - 00;00;48;24 Chelsie I take for granted how easy it is for me to travel. I've been fortunate enough to go to a lot of places and I'm very excited about that. But it's so easy for me. I can just get on the plane, I can do my thing. And this is a great idea, Alex, that airlines are going to do this. 00;00;48;24 - 00;00;54;22 Chelsie And I really hope they can pull it off and you can travel with ease soon. 00;00;54;25 - 00;00;59;12 Alex Definitely. I can't wait to travel one day and even visit our international team. 00;00;59;15 - 00;01;08;19 Chelsie That would be awesome. But until then, we have a wonderful world of technology to connect us. And we recently spoke with many members of our overseas team. 00;01;08;20 - 00;01;28;19 Alex That's right. And to talk about that, we've got Lieutenant Commander Tricia Nguyen and Commander Alexander Williams. We also talked with Joe Walker and John Keighley from our civilian workforce, all speaking about what it's like to represent now in Atlantic abroad. So get comfy, turn up that volume and let's get started. 00;01;28;21 - 00;01;50;28 Chelsie So I spoke with Lieutenant Commander Nguyen, who is currently in Bahrain as the officer in charge for NIWC Atlantic, and she explains why it is important for now Atlantic to have a presence in the Middle East. And she vaguely touches on how we are supporting efforts with the current political climate concerning the Israel-Hamas war. Let's take a listen. 00;01;51;00 - 00;01;56;10 Chelsie Lieutenant Commander Nguyen Can you tell us a little bit about what your role is overseas right now? 00;01;56;13 - 00;02;17;23 LCDR Nguyen Sure. Yeah. I'm the officer in charge for the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic Detachment in Manama, Bahrain. I am the forward facing element for the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command out here for the nascent and Fifth Fleet organizations. 00;02;17;26 - 00;02;20;28 Chelsie So you're out in Bahrain. Where is that again? 00;02;21;00 - 00;02;28;02 LCDR Nguyen It's an island that is adjacent to Saudi Arabia and across the Arabian Gulf from Iran. 00;02;28;02 - 00;02;29;26 Chelsie An island? That sounds nice. 00;02;29;28 - 00;02;33;23 LCDR Nguyen Yeah, it's pretty small. 00;02;33;25 - 00;02;37;13 Chelsie Now, why is it important for now Atlantic to have a presence out there? 00;02;37;15 - 00;03;10;17 LCDR Nguyen To answer that question, I think we really need to step back and take a look at the NAV war system as a whole, because the NAV war system is meant to deliver on the information warfare capabilities to the fleet. That includes not just the warfare systems but the business systems and the network and communication systems as well. And when you think about it, there's only about 11,000 nav war system, military and civilians worldwide. 00;03;10;17 - 00;03;23;13 LCDR Nguyen And to really put that into perspective of there's about 638,000 total between the active duty ready reserve and civilian employees in the DOD for the Navy. 00;03;23;15 - 00;03;25;00 Chelsie So we have a good chunk of that. 00;03;25;01 - 00;03;30;00 LCDR Nguyen And we well, the math works out to about 1.72%. 00;03;30;02 - 00;03;38;18 Chelsie Well, that's why I don't work in math or engineering. I just talk to everyone else who does. So, no, we have a small footprint in that. Okay. 00;03;38;23 - 00;03;50;29 LCDR Nguyen Yes. Yeah. And of that footprint, 96% is stationed stateside in various locations and only about 4% of those are stationed out in places like Bahrain. 00;03;51;07 - 00;03;54;03 Chelsie Wow. So you have a very small group with you? 00;03;54;06 - 00;04;15;11 LCDR Nguyen Yeah, absolutely. And that number is something like 500 personnel overseas. With only about 75 total between the European, African and Central theaters. And that's and that math is 0.68%. In case you were wondering. 00;04;15;13 - 00;04;16;20 Chelsie I was. I was. 00;04;16;20 - 00;04;19;06 LCDR Nguyen Thank you. 00;04;19;08 - 00;04;28;11 Chelsie With such a small group out in Bahrain. What work are you guys doing and how is that impacting that area? 00;04;28;14 - 00;04;55;22 LCDR Nguyen Yeah, so the team out here in Bahrain specifically is a pretty small group, about 15 of us, and we support the afloat side. So think about ships in theater and what they might need. All the networks support business system supports. We have personnel called the Fleet Systems Engineering Team that routinely helps to train sailors on systems. We have install teams who come out to help maintain and modernize systems on those ships. 00;04;55;26 - 00;05;07;16 LCDR Nguyen And then a lot of the time we'll do a casualty report response. So that's if a ship has some sort of issue, they say, hey, we have this issue and then we send out some technical personnel to help. 00;05;07;19 - 00;05;25;04 Chelsie So it's partially a strategic for Doc Atlantic to make sure they have people who can support the fleet in some of these areas, including where you are in Bahrain. So it's very important that your small group can maintain and support the systems in these ships. Is that correct? 00;05;25;07 - 00;05;55;22 LCDR Nguyen Yes. And we also do some shore work to we help with the administrative computer networks. We also help deal with security systems and audio and visual systems on base. And when you think about the geographical constraints, it isn't always convenient for the warfighter to ask for help for folks stateside. I mean, just as an example, it is an eight hour difference from here to the East Coast and an 11 hour difference from here to the West Coast. 00;05;55;25 - 00;06;02;17 LCDR Nguyen So having someone here present who can respond in local time is very important. 00;06;02;19 - 00;06;11;04 Chelsie So currently, how are you impacting this climate in the current situation that we may be in right now overseas? 00;06;11;06 - 00;06;36;01 LCDR Nguyen Yeah, the geopolitical climate for the Middle East region specific actually has been extremely tense and there are a lot of ongoing operations both ashore and afloat, which we support from the information warfare domain. Generally speaking, that would be the network communications. But beyond that, I cannot really say more. 00;06;36;03 - 00;06;49;20 Chelsie And how does it feel knowing that you are playing a large role in basically upstanding the Navy mission navigate landing mission, especially right now with the geopolitical climate that we're in? 00;06;49;22 - 00;07;07;13 LCDR Nguyen For me personally, I just feel grateful to have this opportunity. It's very impactful to be able to see the operators on a day to day basis and talk to them and see what they're going through and to see the tangible impacts of the capability that we deliver to them. 00;07;07;16 - 00;07;33;21 Chelsie Yeah, a lot of people, especially in our line of work with the Atlantic where we are, you know, working on things that are mostly behind the scenes like computer systems and programs and different technologies. It's hard to get that visual and see that impact right away. So you're having a situation where you can tangibly see the effects of your work? 00;07;33;23 - 00;07;41;09 Chelsie Yes, absolutely. So what's like life like living on an island, living in Bahrain? 00;07;41;12 - 00;08;09;08 LCDR Nguyen Well, right now, because of the situation we're in something called restricted liberty. That means on your off time, you get to go between lodging spaces, work, which would be base or essential activities such as groceries, getting gas, that kind of thing. So it is pretty tough out here right now, and I think that's producing some somewhere in strain for everybody here. 00;08;09;15 - 00;08;22;17 Chelsie Do you have any advice maybe to other leaders that might be in a situation of you of how to keep your crew motivated and morale at a at a higher level? 00;08;22;19 - 00;08;39;23 LCDR Nguyen Ooh, that's a tough one. Well, I can say that from the Navy perspective. Whenever you're in what feels like a a Groundhog Day kind of situation routine is really what gets you through it. 00;08;39;25 - 00;08;45;28 Chelsie So maintaining the few comforts you have each day and then like focusing on the impacts of your mission. 00;08;45;29 - 00;08;52;01 LCDR Nguyen Yes, absolutely. It's that consistency that helps bring a little bit of mental relief, I think, to get through times like this. 00;08;52;07 - 00;09;09;13 Chelsie That's great advice and good to know. Fortunately, stateside, it's not something we are going through right now. But appreciate that you and the crew out there and I would get panic is is doing it for us and really maintaining the security of this country. So that's great. 00;09;09;14 - 00;09;10;13 LCDR Nguyen Thank you. 00;09;10;15 - 00;09;20;25 Chelsie It was enlightening hearing from your perspective out in Bahrain. And I appreciate you chatting with us and kind of filling everyone in on exactly what we do and how we support in these times. 00;09;21;00 - 00;09;24;15 LCDR Nguyen Thank you for your time. Thank you for the chat. 00;09;24;18 - 00;09;35;03 Chelsie So Alex, speaking with members of our team, like Lieutenant Commander Win, reminds me how close we are to the defense of this country and kind of reminds me how far spread and I think Atlantic is. 00;09;35;10 - 00;09;59;19 Alex That's cool. Chelsie and I also got to speak with Commander Alexander Williams in Italy. He's our now Atlantic officer in charge for the Europe Africa Division. He talked to me about what the challenges are over there and some of the benefits he enjoys about being overseas. Thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Can you please introduce yourself and explain your position with NIWC Atlantic? 00;09;59;21 - 00;10;22;18 LCDR Williams I'm Commander Alex Williams and the officer in charge of NAVWAR Europe and Africa as the officer in charge over here I'm responsible for coordinating the efforts in theater to ensure that our personnel have the resources and connections necessary to be effective in their project execution. I'm a local and forward facing point of contact for customers to voice their concerns and express feedback. 00;10;22;20 - 00;10;29;17 LCDR Williams Really following any end of project execution or the customer may have some additional issues or concerns where they want address. 00;10;29;20 - 00;10;34;15 Alex And what is it like day to day for you in how you support those customers overseas? 00;10;34;17 - 00;10;54;27 LCDR Williams They were pretty well plugged into the different customers out here with sixth Fleet and NCTS and all the different commands. Region Over here in Naples and folks up there in Stuttgart, we get to see the ins and outs of how they execute the mission and offer information warfare capabilities for the future and identify some of the gaps that could be developed. 00;10;54;29 - 00;11;03;13 Alex That's great. And given the global climate, what are some of the challenges you face in providing information warfare solutions? 00;11;03;16 - 00;11;16;08 LCDR Williams I'd say one of the biggest challenges being overseas and being with the customer is that the customer always wants the capability yesterday. So we want to deliver capability as fast as possible and make sure that we deliver it effectively. 00;11;16;08 - 00;11;30;19 Alex On a lighter note, What drives you for being able to to be that point person overseas and being able to support the war fighter and support our customers? What drives your satisfaction while you're in that environment? 00;11;30;21 - 00;11;55;24 LCDR Williams I'd say really being engaged with the customer over here, being part of the operational fleet, working with them on a day to day basis keeps me in tune with their requirements and their needs. And it's really it's on a personal note, helpful to me, and it drives me to give them the capability they desire as quick as possible things that they may not know exist within our enterprise. 00;11;55;27 - 00;12;02;06 LCDR Williams I have access to to try to connect the dots together so that we can bring the capabilities forward to the warfighter. 00;12;02;12 - 00;12;13;10 Alex And as we get into this holiday season. What is it like to live overseas or sort of away from your family but sort of made Italy your home away from home? 00;12;13;13 - 00;12;36;08 LCDR Williams Great question. So it's a little bit challenging. Keeping in touch with friends and family back in the United States due to the time difference of 6 hours from here to the East Coast and 9 hours from here in Naples over to the West Coast. Keeping in touch with folks works really well through video conferencing, but you just have to plan really well on when you want to do those meetings or those calls. 00;12;36;08 - 00;13;04;04 LCDR Williams So when we were getting ready to go to bed, they're just waking up over on the other side of the world. So that's a little bit of a challenge. But I'd say, thank goodness the technology that we have these days to really stay in touch with folks, we really enjoy being over here for the travel. The work is amazing, but having the opportunity to just step away when you have some free time and go visit some of the different Christmas markets or different parts of Europe that honestly, I never thought that I would ever get an opportunity to visit at least this early in my life. 00;13;04;06 - 00;13;12;10 Alex That's good. That's a really fun way to to spend the time when you're not working and give you that work life balance. 00;13;12;12 - 00;13;13;02 LCDR Williams Definitely. 00;13;13;05 - 00;13;19;01 Alex And thanks again for being a part of the podcast. Is there anything else that you would like to share? 00;13;19;04 - 00;13;40;12 LCDR Williams You just like to say thanks to the team, both OCONUS and CONUS. We over here, of course, welcome folks to come out and visit and better understand the mission and talk with the warfighter. Of course, if you're looking for a great opportunity to not only see the world but work directly with warfighters, we always welcome folks over here to apply and join the team. 00;13;40;14 - 00;14;04;22 Chelsie Well Alex, it sounded like you guys had a great chat and we learned a lot and we wanted to make sure that we included all perspectives of our overseas team. So Alex and I reached out to some of our civilian workforce in Europe to hear what their experience is like abroad. So let's listen to this. So just to start, can you please introduce yourselves and explain your role with NIWC Atlantic and where you are currently? 00;14;04;24 - 00;14;23;02 John Yeah, I'll go ahead and start on this. John Keithley. I am currently located in Stuttgart, Germany for Norway Atlantic. I am the Overseas Engineering Competency Lead. Joey I am Joey Walker. I am the Logistics and Lifecycle Engineering Senior Competency Manager in Naples, Italy. 00;14;23;04 - 00;14;28;19 Chelsie So you guys are in Germany and Naples and your supervisors to a lot of our employees overseas? 00;14;28;20 - 00;14;39;18 Joey Yep, absolutely. We're growing and expanding our footprint overseas in all of our locations between Naples, Bahrain and Rota. Currently. 00;14;39;21 - 00;14;43;19 Alex in your opinions what do you feel it is important for NIWC Atlantic to have a presence overseas? 00;14;43;21 - 00;15;08;22 Joey It's important to have our experts ask me subject matter experts within NIWC Atlantic to be located in the in the areas in the area responsibility for that that the fleet is concentrated so that we can support the mission. 00;15;08;22 - 00;15;33;04 John There are a lot of Navy base is actually throughout the entire region that we have projects that we execute both from from the United States.We fly people in and then the ones that we try to support that are kind of bigger projects where we need a consistent group of people that are forward depoloyed. There's Suda Bay, Crete, we have now Romania and we also have Poland, which are the to two sites had recently come on line as well. They are. Plus there's Djibouti in Africa. 00;15;33;05 - 00;15;52;19 John So there are a number of locations where we're executing and managing projects on a daily basis from the United States. But we often look at projects there. We really need a consistent person that can execute and or work directly with the warfighters that are deployed. 00;15;52;21 - 00;16;00;22 Alex I think that's really great that we're strategically located all over the world and appreciate that you all are there to help support the warfighter. 00;16;00;24 - 00;16;23;05 John People who come out here and actually work out here, get a real good sense of what it means to support the warfighter that you don't always get when you're back in the United States. But here you really see it and you really feel it. You know, we are in the situation with supporting conflicts and in Ukraine and conflicts now and in Israel. 00;16;23;08 - 00;16;41;05 John We feel that on a daily basis with the people that we work with and the the op tempo, the operational tempo that they're having to maintain and and asking us to continue to support, we can provide a little quicker support than we can reaching back to the to the US. 00;16;41;07 - 00;16;50;17 Chelsie And the support we're giving that technical support for a different technologies and programs that we've provided. Can you explain a little bit more about the support we give. 00;16;50;19 - 00;17;19;10 Joey The majority of what we're doing is modernization and sustainment support for the fleet customer. So we're supporting the upgrades of systems from C4I capabilities, you know, comms and networks across the across the fleet as well as, you know, in service sustainment and and maintenance support for the systems that are in the sea for our information warfare domain. 00;17;19;16 - 00;17;28;16 Chelsie And what is it like working with active duty military? How are you guys coming together to collaborate on these, you know, different projects? It's information warfare solutions. 00;17;28;19 - 00;17;55;10 John Most of the military out here rotate in and out. Some are on two year tours, some are on three years. Even in Bahrain specifically, they may only be there for a year. So there's a high turnover. And one of the nice things about us being out here is often the people that are out here because we have the ability to be here at a minimum three years, but we can go to five years out here in the overseas environment. 00;17;55;12 - 00;18;27;29 John We can become that consistency in the project execution. As the military rotates in and out. Many of our projects last anywhere from a year to sometimes two years in the execution phase, and you may see two or three different military people during that time on that project. So it's definitely a different environment. And then you also have things that occur real world events that occur, and you have to learn how to navigate and work that with the military customer as well. 00;18;28;02 - 00;18;58;07 Joey Yeah, And as John said, to add to that, working in the States previously, primarily for the first 20 years of my career, you know, the engagement with the fleet customer was, was limited. The majority of the interactions we had were internal with NAVWAR or NIWC teammates. And then here is the complete opposite. The majority of the interaction is with the customer that's actually utilizing the technologies that we provide. 00;18;58;10 - 00;19;02;07 Chelsie Has that helped with your collaboration to be so close to the military? 00;19;02;09 - 00;19;30;10 Joey Absolutely. Yes, it does help. It's been eye opening for me. John One of the funny things we laugh about over here, you might not see the customer for two days, but then you'll see them in the in the food court, on the base, and you get hit up about an issue. And you so you end up doing as much work in the food court or in the in the in the exchange or in the in the commissary or the grocery store. 00;19;30;12 - 00;19;43;13 John And you run into customers all the time. So it's it's not like you're you're part of the community when you're overseas and you're part of that group. And sometimes that interaction is very different than what you get in the US. 00;19;43;15 - 00;19;49;24 Alex Speaking about being overseas, what is it like to live there versus here in the United States? 00;19;49;27 - 00;20;14;15 Joey This is my first experience. It's my first overseas tour. So the culture and the environment here in Naples is of course a whole lot different than what I was, you know, used to back in Charleston and back in the States. But, you know, I can say that the military and the footprint here is very close knit. You know, it's kind of a family between the the people who are deployed here from a forward deployed standpoint. 00;20;14;15 - 00;20;21;25 Joey But the benefit of being here is being able to get out and see, you know, things that some folks don't get to see. Maybe once in a lifetime. 00;20;21;26 - 00;20;39;09 Chelsie The sounds like the cultural difference is the gap is bridged a bit by the kind of family you make. Being out there together with the military and on that base. So like the people around you become sort of an extended family. They get you through holidays and different parts where you may be missing home. 00;20;39;11 - 00;21;02;01 John Yeah, I do totally agree with that. This is my second tour overseas. One of the things you learn when you're out here is that you lose that extended family that you have back in the U.S., but you build a brand new extended family because we have close to, I think, 29 people here in Stuttgart, Germany. And we as a group constantly do things together. 00;21;02;01 - 00;21;18;09 John The bases do a good job of trying to help create that, especially around holidays for the members that are actually here. So you have both your your new internal family of coworkers and then you have the extended military community. 00;21;18;16 - 00;21;38;20 Chelsie I'm so glad to hear this. I used to be active duty Air Force and was stationed overseas just for a little bit, actually in Turkey, in Incirlik Turkey. And that's how I felt. It was very much a lot of events on base, a lot of a family that you create that seems to be a common thread whenever you're overseas, whether no matter what branch of military in. 00;21;38;20 - 00;21;50;18 Chelsie So I'm so glad that as civilians you're experiencing that same feeling. So that's great. Is there anything else you guys would like to add just in general about NIWC Atlantics mission and your experiences overseas? 00;21;50;20 - 00;22;16;06 Joey So I would just add, like I said, that, you know, from my perspective, I've done my first 20 years of my career being, you know, CONUS based and like I said, having that interaction, this has been, you know, an eye opening experience as, you know, seeing the being here, the tip of the spear with the with the customers and seeing how they, you know, actually exercise and utilize the capabilities that we provide them. 00;22;16;09 - 00;22;22;27 Alex Well, thank you both for joining us today and sharing your experiences working abroad. Thanks for being on the podcast with us. 00;22;23;00 - 00;22;27;09 John and Joey Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. 00;22;27;12 - 00;22;39;06 Chelsie Alex speaking with both our military and civilian workforce abroad, was so eye opening. They have different but similar experiences and the big thing is they have a common goal. 00;22;39;13 - 00;22;53;18 Alex Yes, it's amazing to see the global impact of NIWC Atlantic from all over the world. And so we are able to really make an impact on providing information warfare solutions. And it's amazing to see that. 00;22;53;20 - 00;23;05;02 Chelsie That's important work that we do. As always, for the latest news and events at NIWC Atlantic, check out our social media is under NAVWARP or or our NIWC Atlantic website. Links are in the description. 00;23;05;05 - 00;23;18;18 Alex We appreciate you for listening and tune in next time. If you have a similar story that you think should be included in this podcast, please contact us at our public Affairs email address, which is listed in the description. 00;23;18;20 - 00;23;33;19 Chelsie Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, also known as NIWC, which is the East Coast branch of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command within the Department of the Navy. We develop a range of technologies that provide state of the art capabilities to the United States military.