Personal Narrative: My Experience As A Surface Warfare Officer

5. It would be an honor and a privilege to continue my service as a Surface Warfare Officer. I had the pleasure of being assigned to the USS Chung-Hoon during my senior Midshipman cruise. While on the Chung-Hoon, I was tasked with assuming the role of conning officer. I was held to the same expectation as my running mate; I was to have in-depth knowledge of the ship’s navigational capabilities, report for duty fully prepared to assume responsibilities, and, at all times, be diligent when working in unison with the different departments of the ship in order to assure safe navigation. Working with the officers and crew on the Chung-Hoon was the greatest lesson in leadership I experienced, and serves as the point in my life where I knew I was destined to be a warfighter. I know that as a Surface Warfare Officer,
I took these lessons and applied them when I was the Physical Missions Officer (PMO) for the varsity cheerleading team. As the PMO, it was my responsibility to ensure athletes were held to a standard for both collegiate-level competition, but more importantly, to the standards set for the Physical Readiness Test. In order to ensure the team met the standard, I reached out to many strength and conditioning coaches from different universities and did my own research on proper nutrition and exercise in order to formulate an effective workout regimen. I used a modern, electronic application to help keep track of each individual athlete in order for them to see their improvements, as well as a way for them to identify which areas need improvement. This application kept track of strength, endurance, flexibility and performances for gymnastics, stunts, and PRT preparation. When I assumed the position, the cheerleading team had many PRT failures and by the time of the spring PRT, the team saw a 100% pass rate with a number of perfect