Pax River, MD – Learning how the Navy works and gaining insight into NAVAIR were among the reasons two of the 23 Navy JROTC students from Great Mills High School, Maryland, gave for participating in a field trip to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, Feb. 17.
The “Hornet Navy” program at the nearby high school has more than 150 cadets, and is part of NJROTC geographic area 5, which comprises Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Its mission is “To instill in students citizenship, personal responsibility, service to the United States, and a sense of accomplishment,” according to their website.
The visit was hosted by the Navy Supply Corps Foundation Patuxent River Chapter, whose 2017 theme is “Past, Present, and Future.”
“Lately, I have been trying to figure out a career path,” said NJROTC Ensign Marlesia Hudson. Hudson, a junior, is a platoon commander who said her father and uncle were in the sea services. She shared that she didn’t know NAVAIR was so “techie,” and characterized the visit as “eye opening.”
The visit offered a particular highlight for senior and NJROTC Lt. j.g. Ryan Tyson, who serves as the alpha company executive officer and orienteering commander. Tyson’s father works at Pax River, and he spends time aboard the station.
“It was really cool seeing one of the helmets they showed us (earlier in the day); my dad helped develop it,” Tyson said. He also enjoyed seeing “how everything goes together and fits” from development to testing to putting it out to the fleet, he said.
Tyson looks forward to getting out to the fleet himself soon. He recently completed the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, he said. He’s waiting for the results, which he’ll take to the Military Entrance Processing Station, or MEPS soon thereafter, he said.
At the head of the large conference table in the Program Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Programs, PEO(T), conference room, the students listened to Navy leaders who have been—in acquisition parlance–“fielded” for some years.
“I love what I do,” said Capt. Chad Reed, Airborne Electronic Attack Systems and EA-6B Program Office (PMA-234) deputy program manager for Next Generation Jammer Increment 2, explaining why he continues to serve. The naval aviator told the cadets that among other reasons, he values the sense of purpose of doing “something that protects … our nation on a daily basis.”
Fellow naval flight officer Cmdr. Will McCombs spoke to his career path through the “The Cradle of Naval Aviation,” at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Pax River before briefing some of the airborne electronic attack mission.
“We use radio frequency energy to confuse the enemy,” McCombs explained. We “knock out their eyes and ears.” Evidence he successfully communicated the concept with these digital natives was the collective gasp when he asked what they would do if they woke to find their Wi-Fi network access out.
PMA-234 is responsible for acquiring, delivering and sustaining AEA systems and the EA-6B Prowler aircraft, providing combatant commanders with capabilities that enable mission success. The program office is assigned to PEO(T), whose mission is to “Provide the fleet with what they need, when they need it, and at a cost they can afford.”