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GREAT LAKES (NNS) -- Seaman Recruit Juan Roberto Garcia, Jr., Division 921, graduated as the top Sailor from Recruit Training Command, earning the Military Excellence Award on April 10.
Garcia, from San Antonio, Texas, said he joined the Navy to serve his country.
“I want to earn a better life and to face a challenge greater than anything I’ve faced before,” Garcia said.
Garcia, 22, is a 2015 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, where he won academic decathlon and the President’s Volunteer Service award. He attended San Antonio College while pursuing a degree in biology.
Garcia is assigned the rate of Builder.
The Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award (MEA) is the top award presented to the No. 1 recruit of their graduating training group. The MEA is awarded to the recruit that best exemplifies the qualities of enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military bearing and teamwork. The award placed him at the pinnacle of today's newest Sailors. Garcia is awarded a flag letter of commendation.
Garcia said he was honored to receive the MEA.
“Winning the MEA means that I’m one step closer to my goals,” Garcia said. “It means that I did my job to the best of my abilities and that I was surrounded by the best people to do it – Division 921.”
Garcia credited his Recruit Division Commanders, Chief Aviation Electronics Technician William Roberts, Electronics Technician 1st Class Edward Guerrero, and Aviation Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Luciano Zinsani for their leadership and guidance.
“My RDCs were the best motivators throughout boot camp,” Garcia said. “But, also, Senior Recruit David Eglehoffer brought the whole division together through his leadership and actions.”
Changes in the training environment caused by the threat of COVID-19 was the biggest challenge of boot camp for Garcia.
“That, combined with the news from back home, created some unorthodox experiences,” he said. “But we were all able to stay motivated and keep training because of our leaders and remembering the mission keeps going, and so must we.”
Boot camp is approximately eight weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control along with lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork and discipline. More than 35,000 recruits are trained annually at RTC and begin their Navy careers.
For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/rtc
| Date Taken: | 04.10.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2020 12:05 |
| Story ID: | 385710 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Military Excellence During The Pandemic: Garcia Top Graduate at Recruit Training Command, by Alan Nunn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
