BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
The unique missions among Defense Logistics Agency Document Services sites are on full display when looking at locations alongside the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. The individuals located within these three South Carolina facilities support the U.S. Navy’s nuclear mission.
The NNPTC is in place to prepare trusted nuclear operators for service within the U.S. Navy. The Document Services members within these offices are vital to this mission succeeding as there are nearly 4,000 students undergoing training at any given time within the grounds.
“These are the brightest of the bright within the Navy,” Amanda Day, the NTTPC production supervisor said. We print the exams and every piece of learning for the nuclear students to learn how to operate the reactors. We are printing six to seven million pages per month.”
This Document Services team is responsible for printing everything for the NNPTC students to include schoolbooks and training manuals. Due to the classification levels of these documents, and the 2021 DoDI 5330.03 making Document Services the single primary provider of printer services there are no external printing options available for the schoolhouses – making this Document Services mission imperative to the Navy’s nuclear mission.
“All seven positions within our offices are electronics duplicating system technicians,” Day said. “We all handle a job from cradle to grave. We have to do everything – we don’t only print, don’t only punch holes or do bindery. We each have to know every part of the process until it goes back out the door to the customers.”
This naval schoolhouse is home to one of the most rigorous academic programs within the military. Students begin training within the fields of mechanic, electrician, or electronics technician. Their follow-on is the nuclear power school – training in the science and engineering fundamental to the design, operation and maintenance of naval nuclear propulsion plants. For Day, this is about more than academics or printing jobs.
“This is very personal for me,” Day said. “My husband was in the nuclear Navy – he retired almost three years ago after 26 and a half years. He enlisted when he was 17 and went into the nuclear program and became an electronics technician and then he commissioned after 12 years. And my youngest son just graduated prototype last month and he is deploying as a ‘nuke’. I don’t want anyone out there with nuclear operators that aren’t the best of the best, so this is important.”
Day along with her team, work around the clock to ensuring the NNPTC has the means to continue training the best and most prepared nuclear operators possible. But each member of Document Services plays an important role according to Day, and she wants everyone to remember the important role they play in supporting the Warfighter.
“It’s not just us here but it’s Document Services as a whole,” Day said. “It’s [the Warfighter] we serve and what we do for them. And who they serve and what they do for all of us. They are protecting our freedoms and protecting us around the world and that is big for me.”