Ensign Christine Dela Cruz Torres told the Variety that she arrived on July 9 and will be leaving for Hawaii next week.
Torres, 25, graduated in May 2008 from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, with a bachelor of science in government.
She received her officer’s commission on the same day.
Since then, Torres said she has been in several challenging assignments.
Torres said as a little child, she had always wanted to do something out of the ordinary.
“When I applied for the academy, I know I was headed toward the realization of a dream,” she said.
One of her biggest challenges was a winter assignment in Alaska.
“It was so hard trying to focus while battling off with the cold, tiredness, hunger and seasickness but you know you had to go on,” she said.
Torres was the combat information officer of the Jarvic which departed Honolulu for a Central America Counter-Drug Patrol last January. She has also gone on Alaska patrol twice since reporting aboard the Jarvis in June 2008.
When the Jarvis went to San Francisco, California for a 10-month drydock maintenance period, Torres got an opportunity to go onboard the USCGC Sherman, a 378-foot High Endurance Cutter for a Central America Counter-Drug patrol.
She qualified as an underway officer of the deck, which is the most significant qualification in the career of a junior officer.
Officers of the Deck are directly responsible to the ship’s captain for the safe navigation of the ship, as well as the safety of the crew.
In a press statement, Torres said that “the hours are long, the job gets tedious at times, but when you’re pulling dozens of bails of cocaine out of the water, you feel like you have the best job in the world!”
She stated that during the first three weeks of being on the Sherman, they just floated around without catching any drug boats.
But at the end of the third week, she said they had a drug bust which was followed by several incidents for the next nights.
She recalled that while being onboard the Sherman, they rescued two men whose sailboat sank 200 miles off the coast of Costa Rica, boarded several drug boats and seized millions of dollars worth of cocaine bound for the U.S. seized a boat carrying Bangladeshi aliens off the coast of Panama, and assisted in navigating the Sherman to some amazing places for the ship’s rest and recreation.
“I’m very thankful to the Coast Guard for giving me the opportunity to see different countries like Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama City and other places,” Torres said.
Torres graduated from Mount Carmel School with honors in 2002. She is the daughter of Antonio T. and Consolacion Dela Cruz Torres of Capital Hill.
She has a 10-year old sister, Ana Maria
Wedding plans
Torres and her boyfriend, director of the Fish and Wildlife Sylvan Igisomar, are planning to tie the knot soon.
“We are planning a summer wedding next year,” Torres said.
Igisomar told the Variety that he is very proud of Torres’ accomplishments.
“I support her plans and her decisions — her work is not a hindrance to our future plans,” Igisomar said.
