Having achieved a cumulative grade point average of 0.7 during my first four semesters of college, I saw no other choice but to join the military. I had never given much thought into enlisting, though my parents had mentioned it a few times, usually after learning of my latest failing grades. I lacked motivation and self-discipline, and it was truly affecting my chance at succeeding in the real world.
I enlisted in the United States Navy and began my journey on August 13, 2003. It was the best choice I ever made.
I was stationed aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), at the time it was the Navy’s newest and most formidable nuclear aircraft carrier measuring 1,092 feet in length and weighing 103,000 tons. I worked in Deck Department in the Navy’s oldest rate, or job, as a Boatswain’s Mate.
When I first arrived it seemed that all I did was stand watch, paint compartments, clean a lot, and then clean some more. We had been docked in the shipyards in Virginia for close to a year, but the fun started when we finally got underway toward the ship’s current home port of San Diego, California.
My job actually began to excite me once I was able to put my training into use.
Anchoring: Deck Department was charged with carrying out the ship’s anchoring operations, and standing mere feet away from a 30-ton anchor while it free-falls will get anyone’s heart racing.
Mooring: We moored the ship and made our lines so taught that they would start smoking, one mistake and you were all-but-guaranteed to be sliced in half by the line’s snap-back or pulled through a chock after stepping in a bight of line.
Underway Replenishment: We performed underway replenishment operations by connecting what is basically a wire rope between the ships and bringing across thousands of tons of ordnance and millions of gallons of fuel. I have seen wire rope snap causing loads to drop underwater and have been sprayed with hundreds of gallons of JP-5 aircraft fuel because of equipment failure.
At the Helm: Some of my civilian friends still do not believe it, but we steered the aircraft carrier so often that we would dread the long, tedious walk up to the bridge multiple times each day. I vividly remember and will never forget my first time on the ship’s helm during flight operations. My commanding officer Terry B. Kraft walked over just before the first flight and asked if it was my first time on the helm during flight ops and I replied that yes, it was. He said “Keep in mind that you have the life of every pilot in every plane and the lives of all your shipmates on the flight deck in your hands. Don’t screw up.” Thankfully, everyone lived.
In the end I decided not to reenlist and instead went back to school. The military gave me the self-discipline and direction I previously lacked and I can now boast of a GPA just short of 3.9. I serve on the executive committee of San Diego Veterans for Peace and volunteer with The Unseen Wound, a non-profit organization that helps combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress succeed in civilian life, neither of which I would have done prior to enlisting.
While my views on war have changed substantially the past few years, my opinion on the personal and professional gains one receives by enlisting has not.
