MILLINGTON, Tenn. (March 14, 2016)—Navy Midshipman Tiffany Moreira from Lexington Park, Maryland, participated in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) ship selection draft as a future member of the U.S. Navy's Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) community.
More than 280 midshipmen at 70 Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) units around the country have selected to serve in the Navy as surface warfare officers. Each selecting midshipman is ranked according to his or her grade point average, aptitude scores, and physical fitness.
"Virginia Tech is a senior military college with a prestigious engineering program and has an NROTC unit of about 200 midshipmen," said Moreira.
According to their rankings, each midshipman provided their preference of ship or homeport to the junior officer detailer at the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee. If these preferences were available, they were assigned as requested.
"This process means the start of my career as a Naval officer, the first step in molding the type of leader I will be and continuing to develop the most that I can," said Moreira.
Moreira, a 2011 Great Mills High School graduate, has selected to serve aboard the USS Princeton (CG 59). Moreira is majoring in aerospace engineering while attending Virginia Tech. Upon graduation, she will receive a commission as a Navy Ensign and report aboard Princeton as a surface warfare officer.
Homeported in San Diego, California, Princeton is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser that performs primarily in a battle force role. Cruisers are multi-mission surface combatants capable of supporting carrier battle groups, amphibious forces or operating independently as a flagship of surface action groups.
The midshipmen's selection of their ship is not only a milestone for them but also an important day for the ships in the fleet. Not only do the midshipmen choose where they are going to start their Naval career, but the ship they choose will also gain a motivated, eager, young officer to help lead and improve an already great team.
"This is an exciting day," said Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), which oversees the NROTC program. "We have some of the finest talent in our nation and we have the opportunity to marry them up with some of our finest teams in our fleet."
Evans also told the midshipmen that should be excited, because they have a great future ahead of them on some of the Navy's best platforms around the world.
While NROTC units are spread out across the country and vary in size, they all teach midshipmen the values, standards, abilities and responsibility that it takes to become a Navy officers and lead this nation's sons and daughters in protecting freedom on the seven seas.
"I've grown to be comfortable and confident in taking on tasks, roles, and responsibilities that I would have previously shied away from and have come to understand & accept that speed bumps are bound to happen, but you have to take them in stride," said Moreira.