Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Lindahl | OMAHA, Neb. (Nov. 25, 2019) Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Brittanie Hollinger poses with...... read more read more
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OMAHA, Neb. (NNS) When Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Brittannie Hollinger received the news that she would be heading home to Nebraska on recruiting duty, she couldn’t have been happier. Her joy was amplified further though, when she found out she would be returning to the very same recruiting station that she joined from some nine years ago.
Hollinger, a native of Minden, Nebraska, chose to return when she was up for new orders following a tour in Norfolk and more than four years aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), with most of her time being forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. She is now working out of the Navy Recruiting Station Omaha recruiting office.
“It’s interesting, the office is no different, really, other than the people working there - but it’s been nice,” Hollinger said. “It’s a fun story that my future Sailors like to hear, ‘oh, you came out of the same office and now you’re helping me come out of the same office?’ It’s been a fun little story to tell.”
In the Omaha office, Hollinger works as an onboarder as part of Navy Talent Acquisition Group Northern Plains’ Delayed Entry Program. Onboarders have a unique position that is designed to ensure that every future Sailor is prepared for their life ahead.
“We physically and mentally prepare our future Sailors that are waiting to go to boot camp,” she said. “We teach them the Sailor’s Creed and General Orders [of a Sentry], and all the other stuff that comes in the START (Standards, Transition, Acknowledgement, Requirements, Training) guide. We’ll also physically train them to get them ready for the mile and half run, planks and pushups.”
The onboarder position came about due to a transformation of the Navy’s recruiting structure where the organization changed to have a single dedicated trainer, mentor and instructor for the future Sailors while they are preparing for shipping to boot camp.
“It’s harder than it sounds,” Hollinger said. “I enjoy it though, I think this is my niche.”
If Hollinger hadn’t joined the Navy, she likely would have pursued her college degree and gone on to be a teacher, like her mother before her. With her new role, she enjoys many of the great moments that her mother and other teachers experience regularly.
“It’s almost like when a teacher shows a kid how to solve a problem, and you get that ‘lightbulb’ - you get the same thing with these future Sailors, when they finally understand and it clicks in their head, and they’re like, ‘now I get it, now I understand why we do that,’” she said. “That’s a good takeaway that I feel every day. These kids actually enjoy learning from the onboarding side of things, getting them more excited to go to boot camp.”
Hollinger did begin a college career before the Navy, even attending school on a scholarship, but after more than two years, she realized that she wanted a different life.
“I was going to college on a volleyball scholarship, that was really the only reason why I went to school,” she said. “I wasn’t too enthused about the actual college part. I kind of fell out of love with volleyball while trying to force myself to go to school.”
With Hollinger, the emotional draw to do something different and to experience more of the world was greater than the draw to her collegiate life. Hollinger said she felt the possibility of adventure was more of a draw than even the Navy benefits, which are extensive.
“Benefits had nothing to do with it, they didn’t,” she said. “I really just wanted to get out of Nebraska for a little bit, because I knew going to school to be a teacher wasn’t going to fulfill my inner needs. I really wanted to travel the world, which was my biggest thing that I wanted to do.”
And travel the world, she did. Immediately following her “A” school, where she learned the basic skills of being a machinist’s mate, she flew to Japan to take up her first set of orders aboard George Washington.
“I’d never have flown or been that far away from family, ever,” Hollinger said. “It was quite an adventure.”
Hollinger’s journey in the Navy fleet was as a machinist’s mate, where she was responsible for operating, maintaining, and repairing ship propulsion machinery, auxiliary equipment, and outside machinery. Her job experience familiarized her with the various ship’s system such as: steering engine, hoisting machinery, food preparation equipment, refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, windlasses, elevators, and laundry equipment; and operating and maintaining marine boilers, pumps, forced draft blowers, and heat exchangers, to name a few.
“I worked on steam powered equipment, from industrial laundry and galley equipment, to the last job before I transferred where I worked on the catapult system that shoots the aircraft off the flight deck,” she said.
During her time aboard Washington, she visited many different ports, including: Manilla, Philippines; Guam; Hong Kong; Brisbane, Australia; Sasebo, Japan; and numerous other ports. These experiences immediately met her expectations for why she wanted to join the Navy in the first place.
“I wanted to travel, and the Navy seemed to be a better fit for me. The Navy sees a lot cooler places than most other services do,” she said. “It just kind of spoke to me.”
Of all the various ports she has visited, her favorite port calls would have been either in Australia or Hong Kong, but the winner was still Japan.
“Out of all of them, though, my homeport was my favorite. Japan, was just, the bomb. It was awesome,” she said.
Now, back in Nebraska where she started, Hollinger is enjoying being able to represent the Navy, see her family, and work with people she knows.
“I get to talk to one of my recruiters almost daily, Brian,” she said, referencing Brian Hixson, her former recruiter who now works as a civilian out of the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) in Omaha.
Hollinger is also working under another former recruiter of hers, Chief Ryan Schlotfeld, who is serving as the Director of Personnel and Operations at NTAG Northern Plains.
"It’s crazy just how the small the Navy really is and how fast time goes,” Schlotfeld said. “Brian Hixson and I recruited MM1 Hollinger into the Navy back in 2012 and to see her come back as a Recruiter in the same station she was recruited out of is a pretty cool story.”
Hollinger has been in Omaha for nearly two years now, and it is another of her great list of experiences that she is likely to keep with her for a long time.
“It makes me feel great, coming back home and getting to spend time with family and also represent and serve my country while doing a job that I enjoy doing.”
NTAG Northern Plains is responsible for the Navy’s enlisted and officer recruiting, covering 393,000 square miles in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of Illinois, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
Navy Recruiting Command consists of a command headquarters, three Navy Recruiting Regions, and 26 Navy Talent Acquisition Groups that serve more than 1,000 recruiting stations across the world. Their combined goal is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
For more news from Commander, Navy Recruiting Command, go to http://www.cnrc.navy.mil. Follow Navy Recruiting on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MyNAVYHR), Twitter (@USNRecruiter) and Instagram (@USNRecruiter).
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2021 10:09 |
| Story ID: | 393321 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 976 |
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This work, Hometown Sailor Teaches New Recruits, by PO1 Christopher Lindahl, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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