(MILLINGTON, Tenn.) – Navy Midshipman James Beckwith, from Hampton, Virginia, participated in the 2019 spring Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) ship selection draft as a future member of the Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) community.
“NROTC has provided me with experience and knowledge of how to be a leader,” said Beckwith. “It has helped me grow as an individual both through being successful at tasks delegated to me, as well as my failures that I have learned from.”
According to their rankings, each midshipman provided a 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.
“This is the first step in my military career,” said Beckwith. “It’s a realization that I am about to join the fleet and be responsible for peoples’ lives.”
Beckwith, a 2014 Bethel High School graduate, has selected to serve aboard USS Gonzalez. He is majoring in computer science at Hampton University. Upon graduation, he will receive a commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard Gonzalez as a surface warfare officer.
Commissioned in 1996, Gonzalez is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. Guided-missile destroyers are multi-mission surface combatants capable of conducting Anti-Air Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, and Anti-Surface Warfare.
“I am looking forward to meeting and bonding with my division,” said Beckwith. “Additionally, I look forward to providing them with leadership and a hard work ethic for a quality working environment.”
The midshipmen’s ship selection is not only a major personal milestone but also an important day for the ships in the fleet. Not only do the midshipmen choose where they are going to start their Navy career, but the ship they choose will also gain a motivated, eager, young officer to help lead and improve an already great team, according to Navy officials.
"NROTC units across the country instill essential warfighting fundamentals, professional core competencies, and ethics required in a Navy or Marine Corps officer," said Rear Adm. Mike Bernacchi, Commander, Naval Service Training Command, which includes the NROTC Program. "I am enormously proud of our graduating midshipman for completing this demanding program, and look forward to them joining the fleet."
“I am hard-working, honest, disciplined, and conscientious,” added Beckwith. “As for leadership traits, I am accountable, a good decision maker, and passionate.”