Marine Month

This cruise gave me a superbly detailed insight into the life of a DIVO, to prepare me for the rigors and life that I will experience post-commissioning. Notably, I learned how to take the practices of being a leader and applied them in the DIVO sense – how the naval officer emulates these leadership characteristics amongst the enlisted and the rest of the officers in the wardroom. I learned from numerous interactions from my DIVO and other officers during their workday and in their off time.

To detail the awesome experience that I had on my first-class cruise, I got to witness all sorts of action and evolutions that most phases did not get the opportunity. Firstly, I loved how the cruise truly immersed me into the life of a DIVO officer. I felt like I was a part of the ship and would stay there (until reality hit and we had to go home). I saw amazing evolutions take place: VERTREPS, UNREPS, CCSQT (MSLX, CIWS Live fire), MV-22 landing exercises/refueling, CH-53s exercises, Sea & Anchor, F-35B flyovers for attempted landings, & Small Boat Ops. Pulling into port at the end of the underway, I got to be the rangefinder on the bow of the ship (a position usually held by a DIVO). Taking the knowledge learned in ROTC and then actually applying it on the ship was amazing and I loved the SWO community even more. When they said, “you get what you put into this training,” they were completely right. Consequently, I was 'SWOtivated' enough to put a lot of effort into this cruise and I learned an extraordinary amount. ENS Anderson said from the start, “you have the option to do all these things with me, whether you come and do them with me is 100% up to you.” I got to CONN the ship on the 02-07 watch early in the morning every other day and then back-to-back the last couple of days while underway. This was available to the 1/C MIDN whose DIVO was on that watch – and my DIVO was on it a lot. I was immersed into how the OOD controls the navigation evolutions and gets their orders from the navigator, how the CONN and the JOOD interact, and how the CONN is the pinnacle point to giving the enlisted in the pilot house the right orders.

I learned how to take the practices of being a leader and applied them in the DIVO sense – how the naval officer emulates these leadership characteristics amongst the enlisted and the rest of the officers in the wardroom. Overall, the ship’s wardroom and crew were professional and were inviting. I learned an immense amount of leadership lessons as well as practical/technical shipboard knowledge. This experience really taught me to think on my feet more and to prioritize certain tasks over others when given a lot to do. The SWO social environment was interesting to see and practice – sometimes felt necessary and at other times toxic. Through it all, I am excited that this experience helped prepare me to commission as an ENS next Spring and to carry these lessons learned with me into the fleet. - MIDN R. Stefani

Marine Month kicked off with the formation of what would be my platoon for the next 3 weeks. I, and 30 other Sophomore and Junior Midshipman traded in our civilian attire for PT attire and camo then we got assigned our Q-hut where most of our platoon would reside during training. The first couple weeks consisted of introductory military training and outdoor classes which would cover topics that ranged from suicide awareness to land navigation. Once we left Camp Talega, we spent several days rotating through different activities which consisted of a MOUT town (a staged urban town where we fought another platoon with fake rounds in our M-16s), an artillery demonstration, an M-240 live fire exercise, a combat engineer demonstration, and a flight in an Osprey. Of all the activities, my favorite was the M-240 live fire exercise, which will surely shape my preference for what job I want in the Marine Corps. - MIDN Findlay