By Mass
Communication Specialist 3rd Class Theodore Quintana Navy Office of
Community Outreach
(MILLINGTON, Tenn.) – Navy Midshipman Julia Collins from West
Palm Beach, 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.
“Being a Midshipman in NROTC has afforded me numerous
opportunities to stretch myself personally and as a leader that I couldn’t have
gotten anywhere else, said Collins. “I’ve come to understand excellent time
management, stress management, and task management throughout my time in the
program. It has also taught me the importance of physical fitness. Throughout
my four years, I have had numerous opportunities to interact with active duty
members of the Navy in training evolutions that have served to get me ready for
the fleet.”
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.
“It is motivating to have my four year performance be ranked
nationally among my peers,” said Collins. “I am honored to have the spot that I
do, and I attribute it to the mentorship I have received from the active duty
members of our battalion. I also get the sense that the ships on the list are eager
to have fresh faces aboard their ships in May. I am excited to join the ship
that I choose.”
Collins, a 2013 King’s Academy High School graduate, has
selected to serve aboard USS Iwo Jima. Collins is majoring in Engineering Science
while attending Vanderbilt University. Upon graduation, Collins will receive a
commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard Iwo Jima as a surface warfare
officer.
Iwo Jima is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship home-ported in Mayport, Florida.
“In NROTC, we talk constantly about ship life – being on the
bridge, going on deployments, leading a division, etc,” said Collins. “I am
excited to begin actually experiencing those things first hand and learn about
the ship.”
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 am a very hardworking person, and I am also very
organized and task oriented,” said Collins. “I have also been given the
opportunity to be the Midshipman BNCO of my unit and I am confident that the
leadership growth it has given me will benefit me in my division.”