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N A S H V I L L ERD

N e w s l e t t e r

Issue 9

April 2016

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NRD

NASHVILLE

IN THISISSUE

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CO

XO9

CMC

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Outreach

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NRD Nashville Newsletter is produced by the Public Affairs Officer of Navy Recruiting District Nashville and the content is edited and approved by the command. The newsletter is an authorized publication for the members of NRD Nashville and their families. Its contents do not neccessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Navy and do not imply endorsement thereof.

Spotlight

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Departing

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CO mmander’srner Team Nashville,

In my final newsletter remarks as your CO, I want to convey the pride and appreciation I have for each and every member of our team. Over the last three years, I have watched in amazement as NRD Nashville rose to become the standard of excellence in the nation, as your diligence and hard work put this command at the front of the pack among all mission areas. Your legacy is marked by the fruits of your labor - the next generation of Sailors that will defend our nation at sea. I am so proud to have been your Shipmate and I thank you and your families for the sacrifice you have chosen in our service to this amazing country. For the rest of my life, I will always

thank you for all you have done and continue to do to make our Navy the premier force in the world.

Teamwork

Very respectfully,Skipper

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Chattanooga Strong: The Story Of One Woman’s Journey From Tragedy To Boot Camp

Alexis Deese is crying. After staring off into a window filled with bare trees and the Great Smoky Mountains, she glances at the Navy ball cap on her kitchen table.

Deese will be leaving her family and regular civilian life on Feb. 1. She only has three more days before she leaves a place that she has grown to love. But the tears welling up in her eyes are different. They are not for her departure. Instead, she cries for the departed. As she recounts what happened a little more than seven months ago in Chattanooga, Tenn., the consequences of that day sink in and overwhelm her.

“I always feel kind of guilty. I get to sit here and talk about how I made it out but there are little kids that will never get their dad to come back home,” she says.

On July 16, 2015, Deese had an appointment with Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Jonathan Green at Navy Recruiting Station Chattanooga. She was excited to join the Navy. This meeting would be her final check-in before she went to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) to choose her job and swear in.

As she prepared to leave though, she realized that there was a problem. The family car was missing. She found out that her mother had taken it. So the 10 a.m. appointment came and went.

Just 45 minutes later, a car did appear, but at a different location. A man in a silver convertible with the top down drove up to the Armed Forces Recruiting Center off Lee Highway in Chattanooga. Then he did something no one expected. The driver began firing shots at the building. Bullets ripped through the front windows of the recruiting stations and everyone dove for cover. The seat where Deese was supposed to sit and review her paperwork was inches from the glass.

As news came in that day, reports were scattered.

Story by MC1(SW/AW) Timothy Walter

NRDSPOTLIGHT

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NRDSPO

TLIGHT

Different locations and varied details were thrown about as the media tried to get a handle on the attack. It was a terrifying shock to the community and particularly to Deese when she finally heard the report that one of the targets was a recruiting station.

Miraculously, none of the recruiters from the various branches lost their life. But a few minutes across town at the Navy Operational Support Center, four Marines and one Sailor were not as fortunate.

The Chattanooga shooting quickly became a nationwide concern. People mourned in states hundreds of miles away. Some civilians organized armed patrols outside recruiting stations and others just tried to figure out exactly what had happened.

But what about the community in Chattanooga? As Deese tells it, the aftermath was striking.

“Right after that, you think people would be scared and upset. But no, everyone was positive. Everyone was together. It wasn’t just an attack on those five families. It wasn’t just an attack on the recruiter’s office. It was an attack on our community. It was an attack on Chattanooga. It wasn’t just that section. Everyone was affected,” she said.

In some ways, she is an unlikely spokesperson for the city that until the shooting was known more for scenic views and having one of the fastest internet systems in the Western Hemisphere. In fact, most of her life was spent in Florida in places like West Palm Beach, Inverness, and Cape Coral. She had only been in this city for a little over a year when the attack happened. Yet Chattanooga changed her even before her missed appointment. When asked what she considers her hometown, she is passionate.

“It’s Chattanooga,” she says.The tragedy of the shooting only cemented her love

of a city and community that at first seem strange. She recalls how she didn’t understand the immediate friendliness of strangers, who would share their life story without prompting, even at a gas station. It was a unique culture that she grew to love.

“I think that is what helped everyone get through it. It was the community. I’ve never seen anything like Alexis Deese shows a Facebook post from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

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Members of the Navy Recruiting District Nashville Color Guard parade the colors for a multi-branch Veterans Day halftime show during the Tennessee Titans football game versus the Carolina Panthers at Nissan Stadium.

REPRESENTING NAVYthat where everyone just came together,” she says. She points to her phone with a picture of the flags

and trinkets that made up the impromptu memorial outside the recruiting station in the days that followed. At first, she didn’t want to even look at it because of what it meant. But she finally did visit and she was surprised at what happened to her.

“I was looking at it and I was crying. And this lady — I didn’t even know her — just comes up and hugs me and she’s crying. She says, ’I see your shirt and I’m so grateful.’ And before I knew it I had three people hugging me. And I’m like, I haven’t even done anything. I wore a shirt and people were already so grateful.”

The shirt she wore was a simple blue shirt with a Navy logo right above the heart. However, it meant that she was a future Sailor.

Her recruiter wasn’t sure she would wear one. After the attack, he figured she might change her mind.

“I thought she was going to run away after that,” said Green, a native of Lumberton, N.C. “But I called her up and she was still motivated. She still wanted to join.”

Just a few weeks after the attack, she raised her right hand and swore in as one of the newest members of the U.S. Navy. It was a choice that was recognized on Aug. 15 by the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter during the memorial service for the fallen service members in Chattanooga. In fact, Carter called her out by name.

“She had been talking to recruiters in Chattanooga before the shooting, but this senseless violence only made her want to serve her country more. It only strengthened her resolve to stand up against fear and hatred,” Carter said of Deese.

Deese cried when the Secretary of Defense mentioned her. In part, she felt unworthy to be named because she could see the families who lost so much sitting just a few feet in front of her. Yet her resolve was strengthened.

“Everyone is getting so mad over this stuff but they are running away from the fire. Who is going to run into it to put it out? I want to be that person. People need to do something. And I believe you can. You just

have to put your mind to it,” she says. She adds that something more than idealism though

brought her back to the Navy. It was something that in a time of tragedy brought sanity.

“If it wasn’t for the recruiters in Chattanooga, I probably wouldn’t have gone back. They really are some of my best friends,” she says.

A couple months after the attack, her family moved north to Sevierville, Tenn. It took her away from the community of Chattanooga. So whenever she needed to gather something from her storage unit in the city, she made a point to stop in with cookies to see the recruiters who helped her make sense of a terrible day and helped give her a means to express her conviction.

Today, she sits at her kitchen table with just three days before she finally leaves for boot camp. She thinks about the recruiters, about the attack, and about her family. Her cat sits in the chair next to her, seemingly unaware of what is about to happen. And those who know her keep asking if she is nervous.

“I’m anxious. I’m more nervous about saying goodbye to my parents then I am about actually going. I just want to go. I’ve watched probably every video on YouTube about boot camp. I could probably draw the place for you. I’m just ready to go,” she says.

She quickly switches to excitement as she thinks about all the opportunities that may be around the corner.

“If I can go on a submarine, I want to go on a submarine. Not a lot of people can say that they are doing this, or were able to, or got the chance or opportunities to do what I’m about to do,” she says.

At 3:38 a.m. on Feb. 1, she is sitting on a bus and she is nervous. She is surrounded by others on the same journey to boot camp. She sends out a text.

“It’s finally hitting me that I’m actually leaving. Saying goodbye is so hard, but I know it’ll be good eventually. I have butterflies so bad though. I’m so excited!” she writes.

Soon she is in a different world with uniforms and new rules. But no matter where her Navy career takes her, she already made up her mind about Chattanooga.

“When I’m done, I’m coming back. This is where I want to end up.”

160415-N-FU443-089 LOUISVILLE, Tenn. (April 15, 2016) A member of the U.S. Navy parachute demonstration team, the Leap Frogs, parades the state of Tennessee flag and the University of Tennessee flag during the Smoky Mountain Air Show which concluded the Knoxville Navy Week. The Navy Week program is designed to raise awareness about the Navy in areas across the coun-try that traditionally do not have a naval presence, and to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects through community relations projects, speaking engagements, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) demonstrations and media interviews with flag hosts and local areas Sailors. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Re-leased)

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A member of the U.S. Navy parachute demonstration team, the Leap Frogs, parades the state of Tennessee flag and the University of Tennessee flag during the Smoky Mountain Air Show which concluded the Knoxville Navy Week.

LEAPING INTO KNOXVILLE

160415-N-FU443-089 LOUISVILLE, Tenn. (April 15, 2016) A member of the U.S. Navy parachute demonstration team, the Leap Frogs, parades the state of Tennessee flag and the University of Tennessee flag during the Smoky Mountain Air Show which concluded the Knoxville Navy Week. The Navy Week program is designed to raise awareness about the Navy in areas across the coun-try that traditionally do not have a naval presence, and to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects through community relations projects, speaking engagements, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) demonstrations and media interviews with flag hosts and local areas Sailors. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Re-leased)

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Navy Diver 2nd Class Marcus Yensick, attached to Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, interacts with visitors at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies as part of the Knoxville Navy Week.

INSPIRING THE FUTURE

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XO NotesTeam Nashville,

We are already half way through the fiscal year...and we are doing great in all areas! Our production teams are really operating well, we continue to build on past performances and make improvements.

We are finishing up the bi-annual PFA and I hope to continue our positive trend and approach it with a 100 percent pass rate as a command goal. I look forward to the CPO Board promotion list - Nashville has remained above fleet averages during my time on board. This only happens when we are all committed to excellence, personal growth, and taking care of each other.

Our Navy Core Values must always be at the forefront of how we operate. They will continue to guide us to the right outcomes in our interactions with the community, treating others with dignity and respect, recruiting with integrity, and remaining positive influences in our communities will always be key factors to our success.

At the end of the day, our jobs are all about people. Taking care of people, offering positive futures and opportunities. Continue to take care of your shipmates, and continue to make NRD Nashville the best command in the Navy.

I look forward to seeing each of you during my travels this spring and summer.

With much respect, XO

INSPIRING THE FUTURE

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Connecting the Circuit: Navy STEM meets the STEM Scouts

As the young boy connected the electrical circuits to form a new device of resistors and switches, he let out an incredible and unprovoked declaration.

“I wish I could do this every day,” he said to his friend, who was standing next to him, equally engaged in forging his own new circuit.

Both boys were glued to their projects just as their fellow STEM Scouts were operating wireless robots provided by the Navy as part of the Knoxville Navy Week.

That spark of interest in his words was precisely the desired goal of the latest efforts in education to promote STEM-related studies. The U.S. simply needs more people across the age spectrum to have that same desire to pursue specialties in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

However, the Department of Education has found that only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career.

That is one of the reasons why the Navy teamed up with the scouts to hold a STEM Night to help the students understand how a passion for robotics and technology can translate into exciting career opportunities later in life.

This particular event allowed more than 100 STEM Scouts to bridge the gap between demonstration robots and operational platforms that change the world around them.

In one corner, they were able to explore the Navy’s STEM tour with members of Navy Recruiting Station Knoxville. The setup features two wirelessly controlled robots and a virtual reality experience with an underwater vessel utilizing the Oculus Rift headset.

Just a few feet away stood members of Explosive

Story by MC1(SW/AW) Timothy Walter

NRDOUTREACH

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HOrdnance Disposal Mobile Unit 6. Most people would simply call them the bomb squad. Their job is to find dangerous devices around the world, on land and at sea, and safely disarm them. One of the tools they use is a tracked-wheel vehicle, which can remotely capture and move delicate objects across varied terrain. It is called the Boeing 310 SUGV and the STEM Scouts were able to operate it with their own hands. Eyes widened and kids jumped as the device quickly skirted across the concrete. Few of them were aware that this device was worth more than a small house.

And it wasn’t just the boys controlling the robots. The STEM Scouts is a coed program that welcomes students from grades 3-12.

The organization is the newest offshoot of the Boy Scouts of America and the program offers a scouting experience with less emphasis on the outdoors and more focus on lessons and experiments that are experienced through weekly labs. The first pilot program of the STEM Scouts was started in the Knoxville area in April 2014. The enrollment in the program has doubled in the last year and it recently expanded to 12 more cities across the country.

“One mother told me that she used to have to drag her son to school but now he looks forward to it because of STEM Scouts,” said Sarah Barnett, a STEM Scout district executive.

Barnett added that the Navy’s participation in this lab event offered a chance for the students to think of STEM in a way that was new and enlightening.

“They get to see how the Navy has integrated STEM and maybe what careers in the Navy are STEM orientated that they never thought of. They can broaden their horizons for what is out there for careers in the future,” she said.

One of those scouts was a young boy named Evan. He had tried out traditional scouting at an early age and found out that it didn’t fit his liking. But he happened to attend the school where they had the first pilot program of the STEM Scouts. He has been hooked ever since. Now two years after he first started, he gives a very clear assessment of his passion for STEM.

“I love science, technology and engineering,” Evan said confidently. Most would call it a success for a 10-year-old to only leave out

mathematics. Yet he wasn’t so consumed with the whirling robots that he missed the Sailors standing in front of him.

“The best thing about tonight is getting to meet people, like these guys, who have done so much for our country.”

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Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Corrie Parrish, right, speaks with attendees of the 27th annual International Women in Aviation Conference to explain the opportunities for women in naval aviation.

AVIATION RECRUITING

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SPEAKSCMCGreetings Shipmates,

What a busy second quarter this has been. I have to say that you all have been performing flawlessly. I am very proud of each and every one of you. I hope this newsletter finds you and your families doing well!

The upcoming month is going to be a very busy time for All Hands. The Senior Chief results as well as the First Class Petty Officer results should be out soon. Frocking for the First Class Petty Officers will take place in June following completion of the PO1 Selectee Leadership Course. We have a LPO conference as well as the Change of Command!

As we prepare for the Change of Command, please join me in thanking Skipper Hernandez for his leadership and loyalty this command. This command is BETTER because of Skipper Hernandez and his leadership. We are all better because of Skipper Hernandez!

As always, I sincerely appreciate your hard work and dedication to our Navy and NRD Nashville. You are all “Great Americans”!

I will see you about the deckplates!

V/R R/ CMC

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Electronics Technician 1st Class Shay McClurg supervises a student at Clayton-Bradley Academy as she uses an Oculus Rift from the Navy STEM Tour. Members of Navy Recruiting District Nashville joined Sailors from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, Navy divers, and the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, to present the varied opportunities available through naval service during a visits to local schools as part of the Knoxville Navy Week.

EXPANDING OUTLOOKS

160414-N-FU443-060 MARYVILLE, Tenn. (April 14, 2016) Electronics Technician 1st Class Shay McClurg supervises a a student at Clayton-Bradley Academy as she uses an Oculus Rift from the Navy STEM Tour. Members of Navy Recruiting District Nashville joined Sailors from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, Navy divers, and the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, to present the varied opportunities available through naval service during a visits to local schools as part of the Knoxville Navy Week. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Released)

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NRDAWARDS Advanced Recruiter

EM2 Jacob Buchannon QM2 Katie Sluder BM2 Corrie Parrish

AM1 Shaun Greager AM1 Trevor Hoagland AT2 Bryan Bourke

160414-N-FU443-060 MARYVILLE, Tenn. (April 14, 2016) Electronics Technician 1st Class Shay McClurg supervises a a student at Clayton-Bradley Academy as she uses an Oculus Rift from the Navy STEM Tour. Members of Navy Recruiting District Nashville joined Sailors from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, Navy divers, and the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, to present the varied opportunities available through naval service during a visits to local schools as part of the Knoxville Navy Week. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Released)

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NRDAWARDS Super Recruiter Award

Master Chief Navy Counselor Michael Davis, right, presents the Chief Recruiter’s Super Recruiter award to Electrician’s Mate 1st Class Damien Cooper, center right, during an awards presentation at Navy Recruiting District Nashville Headquarters.

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NRDDEPARTINGAD2 Daniel McCoy

NCC Sheyla Williams

STG2 Theodore Shambeau

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A child waves to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician 1st Class Tyler Dunbar, while in a dive tank at the Smoky Mountain Air Show, which concluded the Knoxville Navy Week.

UNDERWATER OUTREACH

160416-N-FU443-003 LOUISVILLE, Tenn. (April 16, 2016) A child waves to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician 1st Class Tyler Dunbar, while in a dive tank at the Smoky Mountain Air Show, which concluded the Knoxville Navy Week. The Navy Week program is designed to raise awareness about the Navy in areas across the country that traditionally do not have a naval presence, and to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects through community relations projects, speaking engagements, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) demonstrations and media interviews with flag hosts and local areas Sailors. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Released)

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Chief Electrician’s Mate Jeremy Smith, left, and Chief Navy Counselor Michael Hanson cut a cake to commemorate the 123rd birthday of the Chief Petty Officer rank.

CHIEF’S MESS

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Lt. Dennis Tate, an officer recruiter from Navy Recruiting District Nashville, speaks to students from Gibbs High School during a presentation by representatives of the Navy as part of the Knoxville Navy Week.

NAVY WEEK KNOXVILLE

160411-N-FU443-016 CORRYTON, Tenn. (April 11, 2016) Lt. Dennis Tate, an officer recruiter from Navy Recruiting District Nashville, speaks to students from Gibbs High School during a presentation by representatives of the Navy as part of the Knoxville Navy Week. Sailors of Navy Recruiting District Nashville joined with members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, Navy divers, and hospital corpsman to inform the students about the varied career options available to them through military service. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy Walter/Released)