PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - Petty Officer 3rd Class Sharelynn Skiwo, a sailor from Koror, Palau, 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.
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| Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jerome Fjeld |
Skiwo graduated from Tian High School in 2022.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Palau.
“I've learned to stay humble and that whenever a person tells you no it means you're asking the wrong person,” said Skiwo.
Skiwo joined the Navy two years ago. Today, Skiwo serves as a culinary specialist.
“I joined the Navy because I grew up on a small island and I wanted to see what the world has to offer me,” said Skiwo.
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.
Skiwo plays an important role in the exercise.
“RIMPAC is like the Olympics of the Navy,” said Skiwo. "Everybody is here to compete and figure out who has the best sailors in a friendly environment."
Skiwo serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation's prosperity and security.
“I think it's cool that I get to see everybody's faces and make connections with different rates,” said Skiwo.
Skiwo is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.
“I would like to thank my mentor, Yeoman 2nd Class Gentry, because when I first joined the Navy, he helped me understand the military and grow as a person,” said Skiwo.
Skiwo is trying to learn how to generate secondary forms of income while in the Navy.
"Learning how to do real estate wouldn’t only benefit me professionally but personally as well, while using things like the GI bill,” added Skiwo.
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/