MILLINGTON, Tenn. – U.S. Navy sailors from across the fleet are headed to Ohio for Columbus Navy Week, Aug. 18 to 24, to volunteer in the community and discuss why the Navy matters to the heart of the Buckeye State.
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| Cmdr. Jason Wehmeyer (left) poses with his wife. |
While many of the sailors are from all over the country, this Navy Week will carry special meaning for visiting sailors with connections to the area, including Cmdr. Jason Wehmeyer, a graduate of the Ohio State University.
Wehmeyer earned his commission and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Ohio State in 2004. For Wehmeyer, OSU was the only option for higher education because of his strong family ties to the university going back two generations.
His late grandfather, retired Capt. Wilbur Wehmeyer, served as the commanding officer of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) at OSU from 1965 through 1968, and his mother, Stacey Peterson, is also an Ohio native and an OSU alum. Since early childhood, Wehmeyer heard stories about High Street and the OSU campus.
“As I entered my final years of high school, I knew I needed to attend college and OSU was the only school I ever considered applying to,” Wehmeyer said. “However, in order to afford higher education, I knew it would require a scholarship of some sort, and since I wanted to join the military anyway, applying for a ROTC scholarship made sense. I missed the window for application for my freshman year, so my mom graciously took out a loan to pay for my first year with the understanding I would earn a scholarship to pay for the remainder of my time and that I would take over the loan payments once I graduated.”
Cmdr. Wehmeyer’s family has a deep history of service on both sides of the family. Both grandfathers, one grandmother and his father all served. On his mother’s side, his grandfather, Walter Mills, served in the Army Air Corps in Korea. On his father’s side, his grandfather, Wilbur Wehmeyer, was a Navy pilot who served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and was an ensign stationed in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. His paternal grandmother, Bonnie Wehmeyer, was one of the first women to serve in the Women Accepted for Voluntary Service in World War II, and his father, Eric Wehmeyer, is an Air Force veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm.
“I grew up on Air Force bases all over the U.S. and Okinawa,” Wehmeyer said. “I was first introduced to the Navy when we moved to Virginia Beach in the middle of my eighth-grade year. Interestingly though, the thought of joining the Navy never crossed my mind. I always thought I’d be a ground pounder, shooting bad guys and blowing stuff up.”
Raised in a military family, Cmdr. Wehmeyer moved often and learned the skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy from that experience.
“Since I don’t claim a hometown, I think I’ve been able to learn and take away life lessons from every place I’ve lived,” Wehmeyer said. “The experiences I gained from experiencing life in different places and interacting with people from all backgrounds and cultures are something hard to quantify. I feel that it helped make me more empathetic, understanding, and accepting of people and places that are not as familiar to me.”
At Ohio State, Cmdr Wehmeyer joined ROTC with hopes of earning a Marine Corps scholarship.
“If I didn’t get the scholarship, I would not have the funds needed to continue at OSU, and I would be forced to return home to Virginia and continue my education at a local community college in Hampton Roads,” Wehmeyer said. “As my freshman year came to a conclusion, it wasn’t looking promising that I would pick up one of the handful of Marine scholarships available. The Marine Officer Instructor advised me to apply for a Navy scholarship instead, and if selected, I could always apply to transfer it over to a Marine Corps scholarship the following year. So, I did. As fate would have it, three years later, I ended up in the Navy.”
After graduating and commissioning as an officer, then-Ensign Wehmeyer reported to his first ship, USS Gunston Hall, an amphibious dock landing ship, as a division officer for the ship’s Deck Department.
“I experienced life on an amphibious ship during my second-class midshipman cruise and immediately knew this was the kind of ship I wanted to serve on,” Wehmeyer said. “Amphibs are the only ships in the Navy that purposefully flood themselves to onload and offload Marines in support of land assaults. I might not have been able to join the Corps, but I would get to serve alongside them and support them on their way to the fight.”
Wehmeyer is part of the first Navy Week to be hosted almost entirely in Columbus. Navy Weeks are a series of outreach events coordinated by the Navy Office of Community Outreach (NAVCO) designed to give Americans an opportunity to learn about the Navy, its people, and its importance to national security and prosperity.
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| Capt. Wilbur Wehmeyer, Cmdr. Jason Wehmeyer’s grandfather, served as commanding officer of Ohio State’s Naval ROTC from 1965 through 1968. |
“It’s not often that we get to share our experiences with people outside of the military, especially in places that don’t have a large Navy presence,” Wehmeyer said. “We’re such a relatively small subset of the population, and it’s critical for the people we serve to understand not only what we do but who we are and what we stand for. As an OSU alum, this is the first time I’ve had an opportunity to return in an official capacity, and as I approach the final years of my career, I want to share with the public how grateful I am for the opportunities and life experience the Navy has provided me.”
Today, Wehmeyer is a surface warfare officer and serves at Navy Personnel Command as a Navy placement officer for major staffs across the Joint Force.
“My current position requires me to oversee the placement of officers to over 420 commands across the Joint Force,” Wehmeyer said. “These include the Combatant Commands, Numbered Fleets and NATO. My day-to-day involves working with detailers from every Navy community to find the right officers for the jobs and work to align their career timing. I also communicate directly with my commands to assist them with any officer manning issues they may be experiencing.”
Cmdr. Wehmeyer has had many opportunities to excel in the Navy and sees military service as more than just a job – it represents a chance to become a better person and make a difference in the lives of others.
“I’m not sure it counts as an accomplishment, but my proudest moment in the Navy was when a former sailor of mine asked me to be the presiding officer at his retirement 16 years after we served together,” Wehmeyer said. “Really, seeing your sailors succeed is what it’s all about. I’m not sure I have a singular, tangible accomplishment that brings me a sense of satisfaction. It may be hard to conceptualize for civilians, but this is my job, my career, and I feel that any accomplishments I achieve along the way are just part of the job. My motto has always been, ‘Do your job and take care of your people,’ and any pride I feel comes from the knowledge I’ve done my best to execute that.”
Cmdr. Wehmeyer is grateful to all those who helped make a Navy career possible, from his family, his high school friends who also served in the Navy and Marine Corps, his wife, who also serves in the Navy, and the friends and colleagues he’s met along the way. However, his most important influence is his mother.
“I’d like to say thank you to my mom,” added Wehmeyer. “An Akron native and OSU alum, she was my mentor, confidant and disciplinarian, and was always there to support and push me. I learned my work ethic from her; she taught me the importance of working hard for the things you want. She helped me start a neighborhood lawn care service when I was 13, which I continued all the way through my freshman year of college. She also got me my first job working as a farm hand at a local farm when I was 14, which I also continued through my first years of college. I worked several other service-related jobs all the way through college up until the day I reported to my ship. In hindsight, this provided me a better appreciation not only for what my civilian peers have to go through on the outside but also the types of labor-intensive and absolutely critical jobs that our junior enlisted sailors provide on a day-to-day basis.”
Since 2005, the Navy Week program has served as the Navy’s flagship outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence, providing the public a firsthand look at why the Navy matters to cities like Columbus.
“For 250 years, the U.S. Navy has ensured the security and prosperity of our nation by keeping global trade routes safe and deterring threats around the world,” said Cmdr. Julie Holland, director of the Navy Office of Community Outreach. “Columbus, with its rich history, thriving innovation sector, and passionate sports culture, is the perfect place to showcase America’s Navy. Navy Week allows communities that may not see the fleet every day to connect with the sailors who operate around the clock, from the sea floor to cyberspace. We’re excited to bring this experience to Columbus and highlight the Navy’s vital role in protecting our way of life.”
While in Columbus, sailors will participate in community service projects and engage with kids in the area at youth programs and schools. Sailors will meet with the public at events around the city throughout the week, such as Tribute Tuesdays '90s Rap at Bicentennial Park, Navy Night with the Columbus Clippers, the Age-Group CrossFit Games at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, CAP City Festivals, An Evening with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels at National Veterans Memorial and Museum and the Columbus Air Show, featuring the Blue Angels. The U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Band will perform live at venues across the city, bringing Navy pride and energy to Columbus residents.
For a list of public events, visit https://outreach.navy.mil/Navy-Weeks/Columbus-2025/