For Edward and Lucy Duenas, seeing their son serving his nation by joining the U.S. Navy is a “joy we wish other parents on Guam and the CNMI would themselves experience.”
Their son, Lt. Cmdr. John Sablan Duenas, was recently promoted to the rank of commander in a ceremony aboard the battleship USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va.
Lucy Sablan is from Saipan while Edward Duenas is from Guam.
“My wife and I are happy that John, like his other siblings, remember and respect his Guamanian and Saipanese heritage. And that he has always been proud to be referred to as a son from Guam and the CNMI. We, his parents, find this quite fitting and a constant reminder of the oneness of the Chamorro people,” Edward said.
He said having a son who is an officer in the world’s most powerful armed forces is not only humbling, “but is also reminder of how grateful we all should be for the many brave men and women who work daily to defend our freedoms.”
He and his wife believe that “parental discipline” played a very important role in their son’s success.
“Looking back, and John himself has also said so, parental discipline firmly and consistently applied since his formative years contributed to his accomplishments — parental discipline thus becoming a foundation for his self-discipline.”
Edward said John has always been proud of his family, immediate as well as extended, on Saipan and on Guam, and his family has always been correspondingly proud of him.
“John, to this day, still talks about how his now deceased grandma from Talofofo, and how Nang and Tang, his also now deceased grandparents, Josefa Reyes and Vicente Pangelinan Sablan from Chalanka’, would tell him how much they love him, and how they are praying for success in his endeavors,” Edward said.
John, his father said, reached the rank of commander “because he worked hard to reach this goal.”
But John himself would also admit that he was helped greatly by the encouragement, prayers and support of his family and friends, Edward added.
During the ceremony, Edward himself administered the oath of office to his son.
His wife Lucy, John’s wife Pam Duenas and children Ysa and Lucas Duenas helped pin the new rank insignia to the commander’s uniform
John is a graduate of St. Francis School, Father Duenas Memorial School, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, the Naval War College and the Naval Postgraduate School
Also attending the ceremony were his younger brother Lt. Paul S. Duenas, also a Naval Academy and FDMS graduate, and officers and crew from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt stationed in Norfolk, Va.
Lt. Cmdr. John Duenas transferred recently from the USS Roosevelt to Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island in Washington state.
