Groton — Lt. Jacob Webb, with the advanced training and readiness department, was named as the Officer Instructor of the Year.

As the pre-deployment training and fleet responsive coordinator, Webb was responsible for not only the instruction but also the administration, development, and coordination of fleet responsive training. He was also involved in continually updating and improving exercise control guides to ensure submarine crews were provided with the most up-to-date training in a constantly evolving and technical field, assisting to maximize their capabilities as a fighting force.

The Senior Enlisted Instructor of the Year, Chief Petty Officer Stephen Johnson, is the leading chief petty officer of apprentice technical training.

Johnson mentored and developed more than 600 initial accession sailors while leading his division of eight instructors through a Human Performance Requirements Review resulting in the material readiness of training materials being restored to 100 percent while increasing training capability by 27 percent.

Petty Officer First Class Gregory Hawkins was selected as Mid-Grade Enlisted Instructor of the Year. As the Leading Petty Officer for sonar fleet team training, Hawkins' experience and seasoned leadership of 13 Subject Matter Expert Sonar Technicians led to the successful completion of two Submarine Command Courses, 10 Intermediate Pre-Deployment Training evaluations, 15 submarine officer pipeline courses, 14 submarine proficiency trainings, numerous officer pipeline courses, and more than 500 hours of fleet responsive training.

Hawkins is also one of two Naval Submarine School Master Training Specialist Command Assistants, responsible for the coordination and participation of five Instructor of the Quarter, two Instructor of the Year and 12 Master Training Specialist qualification boards. His engagement and involvement in the qualification goals contributed to more than 40 sailors qualifying Master Training Specialist in 2016, improving the overall size of the Naval Submarine School Master Training Specialist community by 2 percent.

The Junior Instructor of the Year, Petty Officer Second Class Frank Phelan, delivered 336 hours of instruction in submarine escape procedures, resulting in the graduation of 2,321 initial accession and fleet level students. Phelan organized 28 hours of Master Training Specialist training which resulted in the qualification of 11 additional Master Training Specialists at Naval Submarine School.

Phelan also supervised 24 sailors through 178 hours of incident-free bottom time leading to the completion of 1,170 high risk buoyant-free ascents. He coordinated and supervised 35 proficiency and re-qualification scuba dives for an additional 175 sailors directly contributing to fleet diver readiness for 11 submarines in the Northeast region.

All four were Naval Submarine School's nominees to the Submarine Learning Center, SLC, for consideration as their Instructors of the Year with finalists recognized by the Naval Education and Training Command, NETC as the best instructors in the Navy.