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I wanted to be on ships at sea - destroyers,
frigates. It's a - it's a - it's very intense.
And you're 21, 22, 23, 24 years old.
My name is Rear Admiral Will Rodriguez, I'm the
Chief Engineer at the Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Command in San Diego, California.
Becoming an Admiral is a - is a unique
opportunity to serve the Navy. It's - it's -
it's a privilege. Now I wanted to specialize
in this new area of command and control
communications, computers, intelligence, and
the technical side includes everything from
fleet maintenance to nuclear engineering to
computer science to communications, the whole
gambit of engineering that touches the Navy, we
do it. I did my first ship here, then I did
2 years on a destroyer squadron staff, the
squadron would take a group of ships and we'd
go out to sea, we - you know you sail out in
groups of ships, right, part of a battle
group, and you have these squadrons, and we, ah
were underway all the time. We - we - we
circumnavigated uh - South America. The Navy
has a Graduate School. After you've kind of
established yourself at sea, or in the
submarines or in the aviation world, we
encourage you to go back and get your Graduate
Degree. Yes I would say the Navy is a diverse
place. America wouldn't be America without it's
diversity. And so we're all a mixing pot. But
mentoring I think is very key to diversity.
In the Engineering Duty Officer Community we
took this to heart. It pays off. It pays off,
I enjoy that, I found a passion in doing that.
It's working with the people, serving America.
It was - it's been wonderful.