MANCHESTER, N.H. – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and sailors serving on the U.S.S. Manchester met with Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) students at Manchester West High School on Tuesday morning to provide details and discussion about a career in the U.S. Navy.
Tuesday’s event began with a presentation led by Commander Ralph Lufkin on the U.S.S. Manchester (LCS-14), an Independence-variant littoral combat shop that was commissioned on May 26, 2018 during a ceremony in Portsmouth. Ships such as the U.S.S. Manchester are designed to face asymmetrical threats in shallow areas of coastlines and primarily perform surface warfare, antisubmarine warfare and mine countermeasures. The ship arrived in its home port of San Diego in September following an 18-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region.
New Hampshire Council of the Navy League of the United States President Kevin Galeaz believed that the assembled students were excited to learn more about the ship, its operations and various ports it visited in places like Thailand and the Phillipines. He was also impressed by the questions asked by the students to Shaheen, indicative of the strong NJROTC program at West.
“We have three JROTC programs in New Hampshire and Manchester West is one of the best of them,” said Galeaz. “They have won numerous awards and they are giving these children opportunities to learn honor, respect, self-discipline and how to lead.”
Shaheen, senior member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, was also pleased with the array of questions she received from the students and said events like this are critical to help keep the U.S. Military strong in the future.
“Hopefully this (event) is an indication of the interest in service that young people have,” said Shaheen. “There are a lot of leadership skills and expertise that students get (from ROTC), but it’s also important as we think about the recruitment challenges that we have in our military to get young people started at an earlier age to think about (the military) as a career.”
One of the students at the event was Kenia Fernandez, a junior at West who said she hopes to join the U.S. Marine Corps and is currently a member of West’s NJROTC program. Fernandez echoed the belief that the program helps with leadership skills, and she was also pleased she could get more information on juggling how to raise a family with being a member of the military.
“I think (the event) was very helpful due to the fact that we could all ask questions for people that are already in the service, and asking the Senator questions and feeling that we were being heard was also very good,” she said.