Groton — Eighteen sailors of USS Skipjack Class 14RO-18-02 graduated on March 22 from the Submarine Communications Electronic Rating Field Apprentice Course.

Seaman Tuiletuli Fua was class honor graduate, Seaman Apprentice Brian Milke was honored for personal excellence and Seaman Apprentice Jonathan Lennon was the William Purdum Award recipient. Fua was also meritoriously advanced.

Submarine Communications Electronic Rating Field is a 20-week course of instruction that teaches naval message drafting and basic electronic key management system for encrypting and decrypting voice and data. Sailors learn about the various communication circuits used in a common submarine radio room, including fundamentals of radio frequency spectrum theory and hands-on application of the multipurpose reconfigurable training simulators to create and edit complex circuits used in communications aboard a submarine.