(MILLINGTON, Tenn.) – Navy Midshipman Jaden Fields from Stuttgart, Germany, participated in the 2018 winter Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) ship selection draft as a future member of the Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) community.
More than 40 midshipmen from NROTC units around the country chose to serve as surface warfare officers. Each selecting midshipmen are ranked according to their grade point average, aptitude scores and physical fitness.“NROTC has given me the groundwork to achieve my personal goals,” said Fields. “I have learned discipline, tact, and bettered my communication and leadership skills. These helped me throughout college in my classes and outside whether it be pursuing a club sport or simply waking up early to work out. On a professional level I have learned how to present myself and adapt to a situation to best achieve my goals. In addition, my professional knowledge has been expanded by the naval science classes and through conversation and mentorship from active duty staff.”
According to their rankings, each midshipman provided a preference of ship or homeport to the junior officer detailer at the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee. If these preferences were available, they were assigned as requested.
“I am most looking forward to meeting the sailors on board,” said Fields. “The people on board are what make a ship great and I am looking forward to engaging with the ship and sailors as I start my career.”
Fields, a 2014 Patch American High School graduate, has selected to serve aboard USS San Diego. Fields is majoring in mechanical engineering while attending Rutgers University. Upon graduation, Fields will receive a commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard San Diego as a surface warfare officer.
Commissioned in 2012, San Diego is home ported at Naval Base San Diego. San Diego is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. The ships are generally designed to transport troops into a war zone by sea, primarily using landing craft, although invariably they also have the capability to transport helicopters.
“I am a hardworking and driven person and look forward to motivating, mentoring and leading the sailors around me to be the best that they can,” Fields said.
The midshipmen’s ship selection is not only a major personal milestone but also an important day for the ships in the fleet. Not only do the midshipmen choose where they are going to start their Navy career, but the ship they choose will also gain a motivated, eager, young officer to help lead and improve an already great team, according to Navy officials.
"NROTC units across the country instill essential warfighting fundamentals, professional core competencies, and ethics required in a Navy or Marine Corps officer," said Rear Adm. Mike Bernacchi, Commander, Naval Service Training Command, which includes the NROTC Program. "I am enormously proud of our graduating midshipman for completing this demanding program, and look forward to them joining the fleet."
“The SWO ship selection process is the step into true adulthood,” Fields said. “While in NROTC we are a weird in-between status: not normal college students, but also not entirely in the Navy. Selecting a ship is the first decision of my Navy career and a decision that recognizes the responsibilities I am about to assume. It is exciting to finally be 'in the real world.'"