Courtesy Photo | 210226-N-N0484-0003 MONTEREY, Calif. (Feb. 26, 2021) Cryptologic Technician...... read more read more
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By Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Amos Hoover, Information Warfare Training Command Monterey
MONTEREY, Calif. – Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) (CTI) 1st Class Sara Schmitt is serving as the leading petty officer (LPO) of N34, the division of 86 trainees at Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Monterey studying Persian-Farsi and Modern Standard Arabic at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC).
Schmitt did not join the Navy immediately after high school. Instead, she arrived by a circuitous route. As a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Spanish in 2008, Schmitt went to Venezuela shortly thereafter where she taught English.
When she returned home, “it was really hard to find a job,” remarked Schmitt. “I’ve always mentally toyed had always toyed with the idea of joining the military….my uncle was an Army officer who studied Portuguese at the Defense Language Institute who, surprisingly (since he was retired Army), encouraged me to look at the Navy.”
After a conversation with a Navy chief at the DLIFLC, she was motivated to enlist as a CTI where she graduated from the Persian-Farsi course in 2012.
After multiple successful operational tours, she made the decision to return to IWTC Monterey, only this time as a staff member.
“Returning to DLIFLC as staff has been simultaneously an exhausting and invigorating experience” added Schmidt. “My time as a student, and the interactions I had with my LPOs and chiefs at the time influenced what kind of leader I wanted to be, and aspired me to take on the challenge of helping shape the culture of DLIFLC and the Navy’s future linguists”.
When asked about her Sailors and their impact on her, she replied, “I have immense respect for both the young Sailors who are away from home for the first time as well as the Sailors who are juggling all of their new requirements with managing a family, invariably isolated with COVID, and learning the language at the pace required at DLIFLC 100% online and excelling at it. It’s so impressive. I’m very introverted, so this environment and situation has forced me to understand how hugely impactful the virtual and isolated environment has been on my Sailors’ happiness and mental health. Their varying situations help to keep me mindful that we are all Sailors first, and CTIs second to that.”
IWTC Monterey, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), provides a continuum of foreign language and cryptologic technical training to Navy personnel, which prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.
With four schoolhouse commands, a detachment, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT trains over 22,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.
For more on Information Warfare Training Command Monterey, visit https://www.public.navy.mil/netc/centers/ciwt/IWTCmonterey/ and http://www.monterey.army.mil/Service_Units/IWTC_Monterey.html, or find them on Facebook.
For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training domain, visit https://www.public.navy.mil/netc/centers/ciwt/, www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2021 06:49 |
| Story ID: | 390147 |
| Location: | MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 238 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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