During the first hour of their visit, the crewmembers met with the 6th grade student body to talk about the Navy.
Chief Petty Officer Mark Witherspoon was the spokesman for the presentation.
“This is our ship’s first deployment going overseas and we’re very excited about the stop here to Saipan,” said Witherspoon.
The students were somewhat shy to ask questions as first but they slowly warmed up to the crewmembers and asked questions such as, “Is being in the Navy more important than being with your family?”
One of the crewmembers who has a family back in the states was touched by the student’s question.
He said it is not easy being away from family. But the reason why they all joined the military is because they love their country and their fellow Americans, “and that’s what makes our country great.”
He added, “We enjoy the freedoms that we have, which include learning as much as we want to learn and thinking the way we want to think. We can live the way we want to live without anybody telling us what we should do and that’s what the military is fighting for — freedom.”
He said it’s a huge sacrifice that he and the other crewmembers cannot join their families back home, but what the military is doing is one of the most important reasons why the nation and its people are free.
The crewmembers also informed the students of what to expect if they wanted to join the Navy or another military branch.
Witherspoon talked about the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB test, and how keeping up with education is an important part of getting into the military.
He had the female crewmembers answer questions pertaining to female Navy personnel.
The ship’s chef, also known as “Cheffy,” explained to the students how eating right is important not only in military life but in civilian life as well.
After the presentation, students said they felt excited about the visit from the crewmembers and did not know what to expect at first but now they understand what the Navy is about and some of them are even considering the possibility of being part of the military in the future.
For the rest of the day, the crewmembers conducted a beautification project for the school by scrubbing off slippery moss forming on walkways, painting WSR’s basketball court, cleaning its water tanks, trimming and cutting tree branches on campus. They even joined the students for lunch in the cafeteria.
The USS Sterett consists of 275 sailors and 39 officers deployed from Naval Base San Diego.
An Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, it is the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of Andrew Sterett, a naval officer who served during the Quasi-War and the Barbary Wars.
