New course to train sailors in ground combat skills.

• Author: Jean, Grace

LITTLE CREEK, Va. -- The Navy is planning to introduce a new training course designed to teach sailors how to fight on the ground.

The expeditionary combat skills course will be an eight-week course required of all 40,000 sailors who are assigned to the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command. It will focus on four aspects of ground warfare: moving, shooting, communicating and administering first aid, says Capt. Robert McKenna, assistant chief of staff for training at NECC.

"Sailors know how to survive on a ship. They know how to survive in an airplane. But most of them have never been in a situation where they're on the ground, maybe having to fight for their life," he says. "Our goal is to give them a basic level of training so that they can survive."

For most sailors, the only combat skills training they ever receive is standing on the flight deck of a ship as it's steaming over the horizon, shooting a 9 mm gun, he says.

Some ground units, such as the explosive ordnance disposal teams and the naval construction force, already have their own basic combat training courses. The expeditionary combat skills course...