The Commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic has announced a Norfolk Sailor as the 2021 Shore Sailor of the Year.
Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (HM1) Elizabeth Y. Bowman, assigned to Transient Personnel Unit (TPU) Norfolk, was selected as the standout among ten candidates who competed for the title from Navy Mid-Atlantic Region commands, which encompasses 20 states and 14 installations.
Of her selection, Bowman described her reaction as a mixture of joy and shock. “When my commanding officer told me that ‘HM1, you have been selected,’ I didn’t know whether I wanted to cry, to laugh, to kind of just scream in happiness. I was thankful, but I was shocked, and I was like, is it April Fool’s Day?”
Bowman is a 16-year veteran of the Navy who currently serves as an Independent Duty Corpsman (IDC) and Sailor Deployment Coordinator at TPU Norfolk. TPU Norfolk, whose primary mission is to liaise with deployed commands and assist sailors transitioning to and from them, is the largest in the Navy, processing as many as 7,000 transient personnel every year.
When she first started in 2017, her workdays were fairly routine but already packed for an IDC. Throughout the years, she performed various medical screenings, coordinated health programs, and conducted sick call daily, all while leading other Sailors in multiple capacities to include her role as the Leading Petty Officer of medical, Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Vice-President, a SAILOR 360 team leader and as a member of the First Class Petty Officer Association.
Then, COVID-19 hit.
As COVID cases began to rise around the world, the need to isolate and test transient personnel for the virus became apparent to protect the fleet. This meant placing thousands of personnel on restriction of movement (ROM) for weeks at a time for monitoring before they could be cleared to travel to their assigned duty stations. This required protocols and manpower that did not yet exist anywhere else in the fleet, and Bowman is credited for establishing and leading a team to implement new procedures, for which she was also instrumental in developing.
“We had almost 1,300 sailors at one point stuck here at TPU by itself and more than 400 Sailors on ROM in a one day period timeframe. I could not do those checks by myself anymore,” she said, describing a rapidly escalating situation and a still-evolving response to meet it, filled with gaps she set out to close by establishing a medical team. There were not enough general duty Corpsmen available to her for the scale of the task at hand moreover, in a climate where medical personnel where in high demand. She needed a solution, and it was to assemble and train a group of Sailors from a wide array of Navy rates to include Master at Arms (MA), Logistics Specialists (LS) and Damage Controlmen (DC).
“I have pretty much all the rates in the entire Navy working under me, and I’m very very grateful that every single one of these Sailors that have worked with me are accepting and want to learn,” said Bowman.
Bowman and her team’s fleet-wide impact is undeniable, and as TPU’s primary advisor on COVID-related issues, her efforts did not go unnoticed.
Cmdr. Karen Sankes-Ritland, the Commanding Officer of TPU, in her nomination letter of HM1 Bowman, remarked that “she readily adapted to changes in command policy, procedure and assigned workload which increased 1,000% during COVID-19. She has that special blend of leadership coupled with superior management and administrative abilities that assures success in virtually any assignment or task.”
Although her first assignment was as an undesignated deck seaman on the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), Bowman describes having had a passion for medicine before joining the military in 2004 and later becoming a Corpsman, which did not happen until 2007.
“So close to 9/11 the spots were not available for females. So instead of spending time at home and staying stagnant for a year, I decided to go ahead and join the Navy so that I can start my career and start my independence,” said Bowman
Born in Hubei Province of China, Bowman moved to the United States at age 10 and considers The Plains, Ohio to be her hometown. She credits her immigration status as one of the reasons she was compelled to join the Navy.
“When I was able to leave China and come to the United States and have a new sense of freedom, I decided to give myself as a payment back for the welcome and the love that I received once I came over to the U.S., and I decided to serve my country,” stated Bowman.
Bowman aspires to become a Chief one day, and upon retiring from the Navy, complete her studies to practice oncology, or law, or both simultaneously through medical law.
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 05.13.2021 10:14 |
| Story ID: | 396290 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 120 |
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