Photo By Chief Petty Officer Joshua Karsten | 210316-N-GR655-026 GROTON, Conn. (March 16, 2021) – Chief Petty Officer Justin...... read more read more
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GROTON, Conn. – An accomplished submariner is not uncommon in the world’s finest Navy. Earning one’s dolphins. Achieving the rank of chief. Some even do it in record-setting time. But one North Dakota Sailor did it all… on the same boat.
Meet Justin Stewart, a husband, a submariner, a plankowner, a chief, a navigator, and an all-around swell guy. And it’s his positive attitude as a young Seaman that he credits for his success. Young “Seaman” Stewart, a native of Prattville, Ala., checked aboard the Virginia-class submarine USS North Dakota (SSN 784) in November of 2012 and will leave in October of 2021 – a year shy of a decade.
Today, “Chief” Stewart, an Electronics Technician (Navigation) and ship’s Assistant Navigator (ANAV), spends his days training the crew, managing charts, and planning future operations.
“My job is to overall assist the ship's navigator with the planning of day-to-day operations in port or at sea,” Stewart said. “Underway, I give the officer of the deck recommendations that he uses to drive the ship.”
Apart from an eight-month ride on the USS Virginia (SSN 774) in 2013, where he earned his submarine qualification while North Dakota was in its pre-commissioning unit (PCU) stage, Stewart has spent “probably five-to-six years on the boat either underway or in a duty status.”
“I basically started my qualification without a submarine,” Stewart explained. “I talked to my chain of command and requested to ride on a submarine that was seagoing at the time.”
Once submarine qualified, Stewart returned to a newly commissioned USS North Dakota and had a successful first tour, achieving the rank of petty officer second class. But it was the coveted “ANAV” qualification that initially kept him on board past his first four-year enlistment, stating he extended for two years to work toward the qualification and the rank of petty officer first class.
“At the end of our 2019 deployment, I relieved as ANAV,” Stewart said. Then, he signed up for another three-year billet… on the North Dakota. “And that September of 2019, I picked up Chief.”
North Dakota’s Chief of the Boat (COB) Senior Chief Petty Officer Aaron Packnick called Stewart’s career path “unique, but he’s a unique sailor.”
“We've been incredibly fortunate to have a living history book of the USS North Dakota that has been onboard for as long as the ship has existed,” Packnick said. “Having him has been vital to the storied success and high level of performance that North Dakota is known for."
Command Master Chief Petty Officer Kellan Voland, Stewart’s former North Dakota COB and current command master chief of Naval Submarine Base New London, recalls Stewart to be “everything right in today’s Navy… just motivated.”
“He was really good at making North Dakota home for everybody as it had been for him because he’d been there so long,” Voland said. “He was supremely professional, not only as a master of navigation, but he really built the navigation team from the ground up.”
Voland assisted Stewart’s career path with the required waivers to stay on board and work toward his ANAV qualification.
Stewart partially credits his motivation to entering the Navy later than most; he was 26. His accomplishments aboard North Dakota are “not a happy accident,” though, but what he called accomplished goals.
"It's just the start," he said. "My next sea tour goal is to become a command master chief or a COB of a submarine. I've got a little way to get there but that's the goal"
He smiled and added that his career goal is “obviously to be MCPON,” referring to the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy – the most senior position an enlisted member can achieve in the Navy.
“I feel like if I’m not trying to reach the highest level that an enlisted sailor can, then I’m not doing myself or the Navy a service.”
But first, Stewart will begin a well-deserved shore duty later this year, which he says he and his wife are happy about. When asked where he would like to eventually do his COB tour, if given a choice, he said “I’m coming back to the North Dakota - no questions asked!”
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.26.2021 13:01 |
| Story ID: | 392374 |
| Location: | GROTON, CT, US |
| Hometown: | PRATTVILLE, AL, US |
| Web Views: | 2,096 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Seaman to Chief, a plankowner's success story aboard USS North Dakota, by CPO Joshua Karsten, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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