Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob Vermeulen | 210227-N-EG940-1009 NORFOLK(Feb. 27, 2021) Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st...... read more read more
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NORFOLK—Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st Class Kenesha Bryan, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, joined the Navy at 18 to see the world.
“I didn’t want to end up like everyone else I knew,” said Bryan. “I wanted to get out of my dead-end job and pay for an education. The Navy provided me with the opportunity I was looking for.”
Now with nearly 14 years of active-duty service, Bryan is a top performing Sailor assigned to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). She is an air department divisional leading petty officer and she is the command’s Senior Sailor of the Year for the fiscal year 2020.
Her path to the top has been paved with hard work and dedication. After Kearsarge returned from deployment in 2019, Bryan volunteered to lead 11 air department Sailors for another deployment aboard USS Bataan (LHD 5).
“We needed to get our new Sailors qualified,” said Bryan. “Some of us essentially went on back-to-back deployments and everyone came back overly qualified.”
After the Bataan deployment, Bryan returned to Kearsarge and spearheaded air department’s aviation certification (AVCERT) during the ship’s maintenance availability period.
“Battling through the shipyard period and AVCERT with most of the crew working on a social-distancing schedule was difficult and we still had deadlines to meet,” said Bryan. “But Kearsarge has some of the toughest Sailors in the fleet. Twenty-twenty was hard for everyone and we still got the job done.”
Byran is an assistant enlisted aviation warfare program coordinator and a drug and alcohol program advisor for her command. Both are demanding additional duties that impact the entire command of over 1,000 Sailors and Marines. However, Bryan said she thinks she was selected as the Senior Sailor of the Year because she always focuses on the success and development of the Sailors under her charge.
“As a first class petty officer, it’s my job to enable my junior Sailors because they’re going to be taking our place one day,” said Bryan. “I’ve always told my Sailors they could stop by any time of day and I will help them get qualified. Our place as first classes is to act as force multipliers for the command.”
Bryan is now competing against Senior Sailors of the Year from commands who report to Commander, Amphibious Squadron Six.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2021 20:56 |
| Story ID: | 390268 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Kearsarge Announces Senior Sailor of the Year for FY20, by PO3 Jacob Vermeulen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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