Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Theodore Quintana
PEARL HARBOR – A 2004 Plymouth Regional High School graduate and Thornton, New Hampshire, native is serving in the U.S. Navy as part of the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC).
Petty Officer 1st Class Clayton Norwood is a fire controlman aboard USS Dewey, currently operating out of San Diego.A Navy fire controlman is responsible for the safe operation and accuracy of the Dewey 5-inch gun.
Norwood applies the lessons he learned from Thornton to his work in the Navy.
“I learned to always be willing to go the extra mile,” said Norwood. “Not everyone will step up. This has gotten me into a lot of positions of leadership in my command.”
As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring safety at sea and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
The theme of RIMPAC 2018 is Capable, Adaptive, Partners. The participating nations and forces exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program includes, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as amphibious, counter-piracy, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal and diving and salvage operations.
“I am looking forward to doing joint gun exercises with other nations,” said Norwood. “I am also interested in seeing how they do my job.”
This is the first time Israel, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are participating in RIMPAC. Additional firsts include New Zealand serving as sea combat commander and Chile serving as combined force maritime component commander. This is the first time a non-founding RIMPAC nation (Chile) will hold a component commander leadership position.
“I’m most proud of making the rank of petty officer first class,” said Norwood. “Also, my team and I recently scored the highest score in the naval surface fire support training - qualifying with a 99 percent.”
Twenty-six nations, 46 surface ships, five submarines, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel will participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise. This year's exercise includes forces from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
As a member of the U.S. Navy, Norwood and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.
“Serving in the Navy means helping people who may not be able to help themselves and valuing others,” said Norwood. “I lost one of my friends on the Fitzgerald and it taught me to value everyone because you never know what may happen.”
Additional information about RIMPAC is available at http://www.cpf.navy.mil