San Diego native prepares to serve as Navy Civil Engineer

By Kiana Chun, Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering Public Affairs

PORT HUENEME, Calif. - A native of San Diego and 2020 San Diego State University graduate is currently serving with the U.S. Navy as a civil engineer corps (CEC) officer, overseeing construction projects that support the Navy’s high-tech fleet of ships, aircraft, equipment and personnel around the world.

Ensign Ehrick Costello completed the Civil Engineer Corps Basic Qualification Course at the Naval Civil Engineer Corps Officers School (CECOS) Oct. 29, 2021. Graduation from the course is a requirement for new U.S. Navy CEC officers before they go on to their initial assignments for Navy and Marine Corps projects, including facilities management, administration, contract management, public works, and specialized military roles such as construction battalions.

 

“In CECOS I got an understanding of not just my role as an officer but the CEC as a whole,” said Costello, who has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Ecology from San Diego State University. “I learned a lot about the Naval Construction Force and its operations which will help me at my command.”

 

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the 15-week-long course continues, covering a wide range of U.S. Navy CEC topics from division officer leadership, professional development, and public works to construction technology, expeditionary construction, and combat operations both virtually and socially distanced in a classroom.

 

“I joined the Navy because I want to be a dive officer at the underwater construction teams,” said Costello. “The opportunity to be both an engineer and a diver was too cool to pass up. Add that to the fact that the Navy sets the standard for diving, and I had to give it a shot.”

 

Costello is heading to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 in Gulfport, Mississippi, where he will be a part of a team that provides an adaptive and scalable Naval Construction Force ready and capable of executing quality construction in combat or in support of civic action, humanitarian assistance, and disaster recovery around the world.

 

While a small community of only 1,300 officers, CEC officers are found all over the world in highly visible positions supervising skilled personnel while working on construction projects, infrastructure repairs and maintenance, facility support contracts, real estate management, natural resource management, environmental planning and management, and many other facilities engineering areas. From the very beginning, CEC officers obtain engineering management and leadership experience far exceeding that of a typical recent college graduate in engineering or architecture.

 

CECOS provides Seabees, civil engineer corps officers, facility engineers and environmental professionals with the necessary skills, knowledge and education to enhance lifelong learning and to provide quality support to the fleet.

 

For more info about CECOS, visit www.netc.navy.mil/CECOS/ or follow CECOS on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CivilEngineerCorpsOfficersSchool/.  To learn about a Navy career in civil engineering, visit https://www.navy.com/careers/civil-engineering.