Foreign small boat training at Stennis

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. – The average Pearl River fisherman would probably be surprised by a team of tactically dressed military in fully-armed boats cruising by in the pre-dawn hours. But regulars are likely used to it. Stennis Space Center is on the east bank of the Pearl, north of I-10 on 200 square miles of land. Most of it is reserved as a buffer zone for NASA, but more there than meets the eye. About 70 percent of Stennis’ tenants are Navy, from a military-technology creating research lab to the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) where some 600 foreign military personnel train annually, command spokesperson Angela Fry told the Sun Herald. The Security Cooperation schoolhouse is operated under the U.S. Special Operations Command in south Florida. It’s a Defense Department program that provides technical support, financial support, and training to 120 allied nations’ military personnel fighting terrorism back home. (Source: Sun Herald 12/17/18)