Rear Adm. Clifford S. Sharpe, former commander of Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), returned to serve as the reviewing officer for the weekly Pass-In-Review (PIR) graduation at the Navy’s only boot camp, Recruit Training Command (RTC) here, Sept. 28.
    The visit was hosted by the current commander of NSTC, Rear Adm. David F. Steindl, and included a tour of RTC’s facilities as well as the weekly PIR graduation, where more than 1,000 recruits became Sailors.
    More than 5,000 family members, RTC staff and Sailors also attended the graduation, during which Sharpe addressed the attendees.
    “I opened up my comments that it is a sense of renewal and promise and that’s how I really felt coming back here,” said Sharpe, who told the crowd he was retiring this month after 30 years of Navy service. “I asked to do this as I was closing out my Navy career. There isn’t any place where I’d rather be than to come here where there is an energy and rebirth every week. You can’t have been here, like my wife and I had for two years, and not have this be a part of our lives forever.”
    Sharpe commanded NSTC from August 2008 to August 2010. Prior to reviewing the graduation ceremony, the admiral toured training facilities on RTC including the Navy’s largest simulator, USS Trayer (BST 21), a 210-foot-long mock-up of an Arleigh Burke destroyer inside a warehouse of RTC’s USS Iowa headquarters building, where the recruits complete Battle Stations 21.
    Battle Stations is a 12-hour event where recruits complete 17 shipboard scenarios on board Trayer. The state-of-the-art training facility uses theme park special effects technology to simulate a variety of shipboard emergencies from shipboard fires and compartment flooding. The recruits must pass Battle Stations before graduating from boot camp. During his tour as NSTC commander he over saw the completion of a $775 million recapitalization of RTC.