Sailor in the Spotlight

GMSN Rashond Grant

Not everyone’s first couple of years in the Navy work out they way they want it to. It’s common for people to join the military thinking they will be doing one job and then end up doing something completely different. For Gunner’s Mate Seaman Rashond Grant, that is exactly what happened. He started out his career wanting to become a Hospital Corpsman but ended up becoming a Gunner’s Mate.

For his first duty station, he received orders to Naval Air Station Sigonella armory, but was instead slotted to the base public affairs office due to understaffing. Upon arriving, he had a short period of time to learn the basics of the Mass Communication Specialist rate, what other MCs go to school for six months to learn.

The purpose of the public affairs office is to oversee the dissemination of command information through a variety of mediums, coordinate community relations projects, facilitate base tours, and manages media interests. The office also produces this bi-weekly digital magazine, The Signature.

After learning photography and editing software programs as quickly as possible to help the office during a period of significant transition, his positive attitude and willingness to learn resulted in him being nominated by his chain of command for Sailor in the Spotlight.

“The work days can get pretty busy,” said Grant. “Mondays and Thursdays I basically spend the first half of the day working on the all hands e-mails. Every Friday I run the photo studio for everyone stationed at NAS Sigonella. I also have to help out with the normal scheduled projects and event coverage we have going on.”

Along with helping out with the regular work flow of the shop, Grant is also the acting training petty officer, hands out the forms for photo passes and other collateral duties, all while stay on top of his general military training for his actual job as a gunner’s mate.

Most people stationed here in Sicily have their favorite thing that they enjoy about the island.

“I have traveled to a couple of different places here on island,” said Grant. “My favorite thing to do here is just checking out the different beaches, even though they are a little bit more salty than back home.”

Grant, like many others, was looking for a change when he enlisted in the Navy.

“I joined the Navy basically because I was searching for some direction in my life,” said Grant. “I was basically just couch surfing and didn’t really know what I wanted out of life. So I decided to give the Navy a shot, to look for some sort of structure.”