by Mass
Communication Specialist 2nd Class Amanda L. Owens, Navy Office of Community
Outreach
(MILLINGTON, Tenn.) – Navy Midshipman Carter J. Bowman from Rocky
Mount, North Carolina, 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 humbled me, and has taught me how to
accept failures and to learn from them,” said Bowman. “In many cases, I have
learned much more from my failures than from my most of my successes.”
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 process of
selecting my first ship is not as important as the mindset one has to have in
arriving at their first ship,” said Bowman. “Whether a Midshipman got their
first choice or was more limited in their selection process, it is important to
arrive at the ship ready to lead and with a positive attitude as it will set
the tone for the division you will lead. Regardless of homeport, platform, or the
command climate of the ship it is that Midshipman’s responsibility to bloom
where they are planted and do the best job they can.”
Bowman, a 2013 Walter M. Williams High School graduate, has
selected to serve aboard USS Chafee. Bowman is majoring in biology while attending
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon graduation, Bowman will
receive a commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard Chafee as a surface
warfare officer.
Chafee is an Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer home-ported in Pearl Harbor. Guided-missile destroyers are
multi-mission surface combatants capable of conducting Anti-Air Warfare,
Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Surface Warfare.
“Leading a group of men and women and developing them
professionally,” said Bowman. “Leadership is not about the self, it is about
the people around you.”
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.
“I will bring dedication to my ship, working tirelessly to get
done what needs to get done,” said Bowman. “I will always remember that my
subordinates are people. I will always be respectful and humble in my position
as I lead the men and women in my command.”