The National Training Conference (N-Train) 2005 will be held 28-30 January 2005 in St. Louis, Missouri. This year’s conference theme is Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).

Mr. Jeffrey High, the Coast Guard's Director for Maritime Domain Awareness will be a guest speaker on Friday evening. Mr. High will talk about what MDA is; present some of the Coast Guard programs that achieve MDA; and will identifycontributions of the Coast Guard Auxiliary to MDA.

The Keynote Speakers at the Conference will be RADM David Kunkel, Director of Operations and Capabilities. RADM Kunkel is responsible to the Assistant Commandant for Operations for the allocation, distribution, management, and recapitalization of all Coast Guard operational forces (aircraft, cutters, boat forces, shore facilities, and operational command infrastructure) and for the administration and integration of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Other Guest Speakers include RADM James Van Sice, Director of Reserves and Training who will speak on various training initiatives within the Coast Guard that are available to the Coast Guard Auxiliary membership; CAPT Dean Lee, Chief – Office of Boat Forces who will speak on Coast Guard Sector Integration and CDR William Kelly, Chief – Officer Candidate School and Deputy Chief of the Leadership Development Center at the Coast Guard Academy who will speak on the Coast Guard Leadership Development Program and how the Coast Guard Auxiliary can take advantage of it.

There will be presentations on Coast Guard Programs and Budgets, Recruitment, Prospective Membership, and Coast Guard Auxiliary Training Strategies to mention a few.

Likewise, this years National Training Conference will host an Aviation C-School. In attendance this year will be District Staff Officers from each District/Region from Operations, Aviation, Marine Safety, Member Training, Public Education, Personnel Services RBS Visitor Program and Legal with specific training directed toward each discipline.

I would recommend all members to inquire of their District Staff Officers the direction and information gathered at their training sessions at the N-Train.