JAX AIR NEWS, NAS JACKSONVILLE, Thursday, October 30, 2008 17

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ByAWO1(AW)A.CarpentierVP-30

Th e V P - 3 0 P - 8 A Fleet Integration Team (FIT), in con-

junction with the Boeing Corporation, offered sev-eral briefings and guided tours Oct. 7 of the mobile P-8A demonstration sys-tems exhibit to officer and enlisted students at the Naval Aviation Schools Commands.

To provide a glimpse of the future for the maritime patrol and reconnaissance community, the Boeing Business Development Division is taking the P-8A systems exhibit to Navy commands across the U.S. The 53-foot tractor-trailer houses a 737 commercial airplane cockpit with out-the-window visuals, as well as three functional P-8A operator workstations.

“This is awesome! Is this what the plane will look like inside?” asked one stu-dent. “I can’t believe I’ll be operating all of this high-tech stuff.”

Students from AW A-School, Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), were provided an up-close look at the touch-panel, interactive workstations and also invited to sit in the seat and operate the

mission software. Most of the students, with mini-mal instruction, navigated through the mission soft-ware and managed the sta-tion controls with ease – as if it was designed just for them.

“This is a terrific experi-ence for the students,” said AWOC(AW/SW) Shelton,

an NATTC instructor. “This is motivation for them to excel in their studies…see-ing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Additionally, the Navy’s future maritime patrol and reconnaissance pilots, visit-ing from Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) School, were able to ‘fly’ the P-8A

in a simulated test flight. They experienced the per-formance qualities that the actual aircraft will exhibit in an anti-submarine war-fare tactical scenario and environment.

“I can’t tell you how much I think this worked out for all of us,” said J.T. Breeden of the Boeing P-8A

Demonstration Team. “This is history in the making, and with your help we’re bringing the good word to future P-8A operators.”

The P-8A, a military derivative of the next gen-eration 737-800 commer-cial aircraft, is the Navy’s replacement platform for the P-3C. Designed to oper-ate with current and future forces including unmanned systems, its primary mission is to provide persistent anti-submarine warfare. The P-8A also will contribute to anti-surface warfare, intel-ligence, & surveillance and reconnaissance war fighting capabilities, as defined in the Sea Shield and FORCEnet elements of the Navy Sea

Power 21 program.The Boeing P-8A dem-

onstration systems exhibit was also open to the public at the 2008 NAS Jax Air Show Oct. 24- 26, where the VP-30 P-8A FIT answered questions regarding the P-8A fleet transition.

ByKristineSturkieNEXCOMPAO

NE X h a s l a u n c h e d a Facebook page to help it take customer service to

the next level.The NEX Facebook page fea-

tures a list of upcoming events, the latest merchandise available for sale in the store, the newest

CDs and DVDs being released, promotions and sweepstakes and links to the NEX website and weekly sales flyer.

“We wanted a way we could consistently communicate in a relevant way to our customers ages 18 to 24,” said Mike Conner, Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) vice president of mar-keting.

“These young customers are harder to reach because they are typically living in barracks, on ships or deployed. By having a Facebook page they can access from anywhere, it helps them con-nect with friends as well as find out what’s going on at their NEX.

We encourage all our customers to become NEX Facebook fans.”

Customers save an average of 20 percent on the items they pur-chase from the NEX, not includ-ing sales tax. Customers will find even greater savings on items identified by the “Bonus Buy” and

“Price Cut!” signage throughout the store. Bonus Buy merchan-dise includes new products and special buys that are available for a limited time and have a limited quantity. Price Cut signs alert customers to especially low prices on items used every day.

P-8A Poseidon FIT briefs Pensacola commands

PhotoscourtesyofVP-30AWO1(AW) Steven Smith coordinates a simulated scenariowith threeAviationWarfareOperatorstudentsfromNavalAirTrainingTechnicalCenter(NATTC)Pensacola,asotherstu-dentsawaittheirturns.

Coordinators of the P-8A systems demonstration atNavalAviation SchoolsCommand in Pensacolawere J.T. Breeden,BoeingDemonstrationTeam;AWO1(AW)B. Rafael,VP-30P-8A FIT;AWO1(AW)A. Carpentier,VP-30 P-8A FIT; Lt.AdamSchantz,VP-30P-8AFIT;and JamesDetwiller,BoeingDemonstrationTeam.

Therewasalonglineofavia-tion students eager to sitat the controls of the P-8APoseidonflightsimulator.

NEX enhances customer service, launches Facebook page