‘ship ahoy’
An unexpected assignment creates a unique opportunity
By Doug Kelly Michael Kennedy suddenly found himself in a quandary that was not of his own making. A 15-year veteran of the United States Navy, Kennedy had been deployed for overseas duty five times prior. For the most part, his previous deployments’ timing coincided nicely with a second passion of his, football officiating. He has worked with and trained new officials in the greater Hampton Roads-Tidewater area of Virginia. Yet his sixth deployment, one that would come on short notice, which at the time bothered him considerably due to its timing, came in December 2018. Assigned to the USS Kearsarge Amphibious Readiness Group, Kennedy soon found he would serve in the Middle East from the end of last year until this past July. He presently is the Current Operations Officer [COPS] at Commander, Amphibious Squadron SIX since September ‘18 This unexpected assignment meant Kennedy would have to forego his spring officials’ training classes. “We always started in early May of each year, and went until August, when the [high school and college] scrimmages began,” he said. Thus, he figured, there would be no spring football for him in 2019 and he would not be able to train new officials until he returned. Or did it? 32
WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / APRIL 2020
Kennedy, who enlisted in the Navy in 2004, set sail in December, as scheduled, but quickly developed a rapport with several sailors who’d be serving with him. “I like training other people. Like it’s been said, in learning you will teach and in teaching you will learn.” Kennedy said. Just to be safe and to pass the time, Kennedy took his rule book, old game and instructional films, and whatever else he thought he would need aboard ship to keep his mind engaged in regards to football. “Early on, I talked to a lot of the guys, and I found most of them liked football. More than a few said, ‘I’d like to learn how to be an official. It might be something I can do when my service commitment is up.’” So Kennedy ran two introductory presentations on football officiating, using the ‘Battlefields 2 Ballfields’ training program. This past April “Twenty-one sailors and marines came out for the classes.” Meetings were held on Saturday mornings in the ship’s classroom from 10 am to noon. There was a reason for the timing. Naval ships generally observe Sunday mornings as ‘Holiday Routine’ that allows for church services, personal time, etc.
