Photo By Chief Petty Officer Stephane Belcher | 230209-N-PG340-1005 GREAT LAKES, Illinois (Feb. 9, 2023) Mary Blankenship, the Events...... read more read more
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Meet Mary Blankenship! She’s the Events Coordinator at Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy’s only boot camp.
Recently named as RTC’s Civilian of the Year, Blankenship has worked at RTC for eight years and is a retired Navy veteran.
“What I love about my job is that I get to continue to give back to Sailors and their families in a civilian capacity,” she said. “It’s really a nice extension of my military duty and it’s really been tremendously rewarding.”
As the events coordinator, she handles the distinguished visitors that come through RTC, including the recruit’s family members.
“I think one thing that’s kind of fun, and it doesn’t happen very often, is when you have someone who went through boot camp in 1950 or is a Vietnam veteran or even a World War II veteran,” she said. “They get to come back to boot camp and can be there and celebrate their Sailor’s graduation. They could be the grandfather of someone who’s graduating and sometimes they even come in uniform. It’s just really fun to be a part of that.”
Outside of work, she enjoys going out with her husband, who is also a Navy veteran. They go to live entertainment, concerts, and other live music venues in Chicago.
However, her favorite hobby is traveling with her family. She and her husband look forward to traveling in retirement¬¬¬—traveling even more than they do now.
She spoke about one of her favorite family vacations that she took with her husband and two sons.
“Our most favorite family vacation of all time was Galápagos,” she explained. “The four of us went, and went on a catamaran for a week and traveled from island to island.”
“The diversity of wildlife there is unbelievable,” said Blankenship. “I mean where else in the world do you have penguins and flamingos in the same place? We would go snorkeling and the seals would come and play with us because there’s no fear of man there¬ because they’re so protected there. And to swim with sea turtles and to get to see the giant tortoises, it was just the most amazing vacation.”
While Blankenship looks forward to traveling the world after retirement, she is still honored to serve the Navy.
She said she was very touched by the award, but remained humble and spoke about how great everyone else is at the command.
“It’s an incredible pool of talent; it’s just an incredible group,” speaking about the other nominees.
Boot camp is approximately 10 weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes five warfighting competencies of firefighting, damage control, seamanship, watchstanding, and small arms handling and marksmanship along with physical fitness and lessons in Navy heritage and core values, Warrior Toughness, Life Skills, teamwork and discipline. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp.
| Date Taken: | 02.23.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.23.2023 14:53 |
| Story ID: | 439054 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 392 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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