Under Secretary of the Navy Robert O. Work conferred the DoD Security Fundamentals Certification on the first 45 DoN security professionals completing the program at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes Sept. 13. Also attending were directors from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Defense Security Service’s Center for Development of Security Excellence.
“Today we are here to recognize a very special group, individuals that rose to the challenge to prove they had the requisite knowledge and skills needed to be called security professionals,” said Mark Clookie, director, NCIS. “These individuals have mastered the initial requirements to be certified as security professionals by the Department of Defense.”
Of the 45 recipients, 27 were NAVAIR employees from NAVAIR’s Headquarters and Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft and Weapons divisions.
“As a group, we represent 65 percent of the certified Security Professionals across the Department of the Navy,” said David Atchison, NAVAIR Security director. “That’s quite impressive given our community makes up less than 10 percent of the Navy’s security personnel.”
“The 45 individuals we recognize today answered over 350 questions covering every facet of security,” said Work.
“You volunteered, put your reputation as a security professional on the line and did yourself and the Department of the Navy proud.”
The Security certifications are the result of DoN’s implementation of the DoD’s Security Professional Education Development (SPeD) program. This program is a key component of DoD’s initiative to professionalize the security workforce.
“It’s important that we implement [the program] without delay to enhance our strategic human capital development objectives,” said Work. “The challenges we face every day are not getting easier and show no sign of going away. It’s imperative that we prepare our work force to meet the challenges ahead so we as a department can support and defend our way of life.”
“These certifications highlight the professionalism of our NAVAIR security employees and NAVAIR’s continued commitment to developing a long-range, highly-skilled workforce to sustain our mission capability,” said Gary Kurtz, NAVAIR assistant commander for Corporate Operations and Total Force.
The professional certification program applies to all civilian and military security specialists and will eventually be open to contractors as well. Level one security specialists will be required to obtain additional certification levels based on their duties or assignments.
The first phase is to identify and code all Navy civilian personnel billets that involve 50 percent or more security-related duties and determine the appropriate level(s) of certification for that assignment.
“All civilian personnel that perform security functions at NAVAIR will be coded,” Atchison said.
Current specialists will not need to be certified to retain their positions, according to Atchison.
However, new hires and those moving to new security positions with different responsibilities will need to meet the applicable certification requirements for that position.
This certification program is expected to be fully implemented over the next five years.