During the visit, Caudle and Perryman toured classrooms, laboratories and training simulators, where they observed students developing the technical knowledge and watchstanding skills required to safely operate Navy nuclear propulsion plants.
For Caudle, a career submariner and nuclear-trained officer, the visit marked a return to familiar ground.
"It's great to be here. It's so good to be back in the cradle of nuclear power," Caudle said to a crowd of Sailors during his tour. "For me, it's a bit like coming home. I've spent a lot of time in nuclear power throughout my career."
The leaders spoke with students, instructors and members of the command's support staff throughout the tour. They also received briefs on the training curriculum and discussed how the command combines demanding technical instruction with the discipline, judgment and attention to detail required aboard the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
"I think our standard that we set with nuclear power really sets the standard for the entire Navy," Caudle said. "The foundation of our nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines is so vital to our national security."
Caudle and Perryman also toured the barracks and other quality-of-life facilities used by students, including fitness and dining areas. The tour provided the Navy's senior uniformed and enlisted leaders a firsthand look at where students live, exercise and eat while completing one of the service's most academically demanding training pipelines.
The visit concluded with an All-Hands Call attended by more than 500 staff members. Caudle and Perryman thanked the workforce for its role in building fleet readiness and emphasized that the program's success depends on instructors, support personnel and leaders who hold every student to exacting standards.
"We know how to train and prepare students for the complexities they're going to see when they get to the fleet," Caudle said. "We understand how to build warriors here. That's embedded into the curriculum, and I just think we know how to build great people - high-caliber professionals who know how to operate our power plants."
Perryman highlighted the caliber of the Sailors who complete the program and the responsibility they assume when they report to operational commands.
"The Sailors who graduate from this program represent the very best of our Navy," Perryman said. "They are intelligent, disciplined and committed to mastering a demanding profession. When they arrive in the fleet, their shipmates trust them to operate some of the most complex machinery in the world, and this staff ensures they are ready to earn and uphold that trust."
The Navy's nuclear-training program traces its roots to July 1952, when the first crew of USS Nautilus (SSN 571) reported to Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory for instruction. Adm. Hyman G. Rickover established the program around the principle that nuclear operators must understand not only what actions to take, but why those actions are required.
The first formal Nuclear Power School opened in New London, Connecticut, in January 1956 with six officers and 14 enlisted students. The school later operated at several locations, including Bainbridge, Maryland; Mare Island, California; and Orlando, Florida. Nuclear Field "A" School and Nuclear Power School combined to form Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in 1993. The command's move from Orlando to the Charleston area began in 1998 and was completed in January 1999.
Today, Nuclear Power Training Unit Charleston provides advanced training and practical experience to enlisted Sailors, officers and civilian personnel preparing to operate and maintain nuclear propulsion plants aboard submarines and aircraft carriers.
The visit underscored the connection between the training delivered in Charleston and the Navy's ability to deploy combat-ready forces worldwide. For more than seven decades, the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has relied on rigorous instruction, disciplined operations and uncompromising standards to safely operate the fleet's nuclear-powered warships.
"There is no one that has anything close to this," Caudle said. "We've been doing this for multiple, multiple decades, and we've really set the standard."
