PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - Lt. j.g. Ariana McKenzie, a native of Potomac, Maryland, serves aboard USS Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy warship operating out of San Diego, California, and participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around the Hawaiian Islands.
McKenzie graduated from the Bullis School in 2016. Additionally, McKenzie earned a degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2021.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Potomac.
“I ran track and played basketball in high school and just being in a team environment is a lesson I have carried with me,” said McKenzie. “Taking care of the person to your left and right is the bare minimum you can do, but it might be the most important thing because it becomes more than that.”
McKenzie joined the Navy three years ago. Today, McKenzie serves as a surface warfare officer.
“I joined the Navy because I wanted to try something I’d never done before,” said McKenzie. “I wanted to set myself up for success after college and it also gave me the opportunity to travel the world.”
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| Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jerome Fjeld |
McKenzie graduated from the Bullis School in 2016. Additionally, McKenzie earned a degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2021.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Potomac.
“I ran track and played basketball in high school and just being in a team environment is a lesson I have carried with me,” said McKenzie. “Taking care of the person to your left and right is the bare minimum you can do, but it might be the most important thing because it becomes more than that.”
McKenzie joined the Navy three years ago. Today, McKenzie serves as a surface warfare officer.
“I joined the Navy because I wanted to try something I’d never done before,” said McKenzie. “I wanted to set myself up for success after college and it also gave me the opportunity to travel the world.”
As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel will participate in RIMPAC 2024. This exercise 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 2024 marks the 29th exercise in a series that began in 1971.
The theme of RIMPAC 2024 is “Partners: Integrated and Prepared.” 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.
McKenzie plays an important role in the exercise.
“I’m serving as a protocol officer during RIMPAC and I make myself available to give other ships the chance to experience our ship,” said McKenzie. “I want everyone to have a chance to take a piece of Lt. Fitzerald (the ship’s namesake) with them. Our motto is ‘Protect your people,’ and after our tragedy a few years ago, it is what we live by.”
McKenzie serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation's prosperity and security.
“Serving in the Navy means I have a sense of pride and commitment to what I do every day,” said McKenzie. “This job is about helping others to fulfill our mission.”
McKenzie is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.
“I want to thank my parents, Alfred and Felicity,” added McKenzie. “My dad, who passed away in November of 2023, was instrumental in facilitating things for me. He was always there to encourage me, and to let me know I was making him and everyone else in the family proud. He was my light at the end of the tunnel. My mother has picked things up where he left off and is a constant source of support.”
McKenzie said the Navy offers opportunities and benefits that aren’t easily found elsewhere.
“You do not get an opportunity to serve in the Navy and become a surface warfare officer every day,” said McKenzie. “I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference and the camaraderie in the Navy is not something you will find anywhere else.”
Hosted by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2024 will be led by Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, Vice Adm. John Wade, who will serve as Combined Task Force (CTF) commander. For the first time in RIMPAC history, a member of the Chilean Navy, Commodore Alberto Guerrero, will serve as deputy commander of the CTF. Rear Adm. Kazushi Yokota of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will serve as vice commander. Other key leaders of the multinational force will include Commodore Kristjan Monaghan of Canada, who will command the maritime component, and Air Commodore Louise Desjardins of Australia, who will command the air component.
During RIMPAC, a network of capable, adaptive partners train and operate together in order to strengthen their collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2024 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.
More information about RIMPAC is available here: https://www.cpf.navy.mil/RIMPAC/