LT Jennifer McNab: I'm a mother of three and I have
two girls and a little boy and their ten, six and two.
And... my two year old's like "my mommy works on a ship".
What got me here, my dad was in the Navy.
There was just something about it.
I remember visiting him when he was working and I just
thought it was really neat just to say,
"Hey, my dad's in the Navy". And so I sorta followed
in his footsteps and here I am.
I have a lot of my junior corpsman, you know
I call them my kids too, that come up to me and tell me about
issues that they're have and things like that.
I think because I'm a female and because I am a mom,
they feel they can relate to me and they tell me some
of the personal things that are happening in their lives.
The biggest thing is just taking care of your people
and they'll take care of you.
LCDR Patricia Johnson: My kids they love these cute
little songs and they always want me to dance with them.
So we, we do that. Those are the moments I appreciate
because we're basically like a well oiled machine
during the week. It's chaotic but it's doable.
[background voice]
Being in the military, there's a camaraderie cause
you're at work so much and you're in these difficult
situations together you're kinda like this is your pseudo
family away from home. But we always have this one thing
in common - the mission. And we come together, we get it done,
and then we come back and do it again the next day.
CAPT Cedric Pringle: I wouldn't say it's unique to the Navy,
but you know, it's easy for us all to get along when we
have a pretty common goal. There are people who are tasked
to do different things and everyone has a role onboard,
but we all come together for a common--common vision.
LT Jevon Jackson: When you're young, I was seventeen
years old, you know, cars and women were the new things.
I wasn't focusing too much on school. So my mother
insisted, demanded that I would go to the recruiter.
She said "Pick one". And for me it was a Navy recruiter.
With a ship, you need every department to get along,
to move, to make it functional. To support, ah for missions
assigned. Ah the ship just becomes a building at the pier
without it. We are a collective force and it just
became amazing to me that I'm a part of this big
environment and I'm allowed to apply myself.
CAPT Cedric Pringle: I was four years behind my brother
who went into the Navy as an enlisted man. I was always
following in his footstep. Even to the point were he just
retired here in 2009 and asked me to be the guest
speaker for his retirement. So I just thought that was
really, really neat. Ahhh and it added closure to his
portion of his Naval career, but I'm carrying the torch for him.