By Mass
Communication Specialist 3rd Class Theodore Quintana Navy Office of
Community Outreach
(MILLINGTON, Tenn.) – Navy Midshipman Tyrell Burke from Jacksonville,
Florida, participated in the 2017 spring Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC)
ship selection draft as a future member of the U.S. Navy’s Surface Warfare
Officer (SWO) community.
More than 280 midshipmen at Navy
Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) units around the country have selected
to serve in the Navy as surface warfare officers. Each selecting midshipman is
ranked according to his or her grade point average, aptitude scores, and
physical fitness.
“The NROTC program has granted me the opportunity to enhance
my leadership skills and further my naval knowledge,” said Burke. “The bonds
that I have made through the NROTC program will follow me for the rest of my
Naval career as well as the rest of my life.”
According to their
rankings, each midshipman provided their 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.
“The SWO ship selection process is a bitter sweet moment,”
said Burke. “It will be the moment that I commit myself from the college
lifestyle I have become accustomed to over the last four years to a new place,
with a new job, and a new purpose. It is where my new life begins.”
Burke, a 2013 Terry Parker High School graduate, has
selected to serve aboard USS Stockdale. Burke is majoring in Criminal Justice while
attending Savannah State University. Upon graduation, NAME will receive a
commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard Stockdale as a surface warfare
officer.
Stockdale is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer home-ported in San Diego.
“I am most looking forward to meeting the sailors in which I
will have the opportunity to lead,” said Burke. “I am excited and eager to do
whatever I can to further the development of the greatest minds that the United
States has to offer.”
The midshipmen’s selection of their ship is not only a
milestone for them but also an important day for the ships in the fleet. Not
only do the midshipmen choose where they are going to start their Naval career,
but the ship they choose will also gain a motivated, eager, young officer to
help lead and improve an already great team.
While NROTC units are spread out
across the country and vary in size, they all teach midshipmen the values,
standards, abilities and responsibility that it takes to become a Navy officers
and lead this nations sons and daughters in protecting freedom on the seven
seas.
“The leadership traits that I will bring to the ship are some
of the same leadership traits that I would hope any new officer would bring,”
said Burke. “I will learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, I will also
learn from the mistakes of those around me. Hopefully, I can help make the ship
better in some way that it was lacking before.”