GREAT LAKES (NNS) – Seaman Jackson Wilcox graduated as the top Sailor from Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes, earning the Military Excellence Award (MEA) July 23, 2026.
Wilcox, 23, of Leesburg, Virginia, said he arrived at boot camp having never won an award, and left with a different understanding of what the honor actually measures.
"When I first learned about the MEA, I thought there was no way I'd ever receive it. I'm not one of those types of people," Wilcox said. "Since winning, I've realized that being the best doesn't mean being the best at everything. You don't have to be the biggest or the smartest in the room. It means being someone others can talk to, someone who helps but can also take help and listen to advice. It means leading when you're needed and letting others lead when they're needed."
The Military Excellence Award is presented to the recruit who best demonstrates enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military bearing and teamwork throughout training. As part of the recognition, recipients receive a flag letter of commendation.
The distance Wilcox traveled to that podium was longer than nine weeks.
He graduated from Riverside High School in 2021 and spent four years at Virginia Tech, earning a bachelor's degree in criminology in December 2025 while managing a restaurant in Blacksburg. What he did not have, by his own account, was any idea what came next.
"Through my early college years I had no idea what I wanted in my future," Wilcox said. "I never applied for internships, never joined the programs that would have helped me find a career. I just did the work that was required and let time pass. When graduation came around, I panicked. I knew I didn't want a civilian job or anything to do with my degree. I wanted a purpose bigger than myself, but I didn't have the courage to go looking for it."
The turn came from an unlikely place. Scrolling on his phone one afternoon, Wilcox stopped on a Navy recruiting advertisement.
"It showed a man with a bigger build than mine and more confidence than I'd ever had in my life," he said. "Part of me thought, 'I want to be like that.' The other part thought, 'No way I could ever be in the Navy.' I realized I was at a personal rock bottom, and I decided to try everything I could to turn my life around."
He started training three and four times a week, cleaned up his diet and studied what enlistment would require. A month later he walked into a recruiter's office, a room he described as feeling like a different planet.
His grandfather gave him a picture of where that road could lead. Henry Gunn served in the Marine Corps and built a successful career afterward, and his stories stayed with Wilcox through training.
"Whenever things got rough, I thought of him and it gave me the strength to move forward," Wilcox said. "He raised me to be the person I am today. He showed me the life that military service makes possible, and the kind of man it can build."
At RTC, the challenge Wilcox had to solve was one he had been avoiding for years: speaking up.
"My biggest challenge was raising my hand," he said. "I was always someone who might have the answer, right or wrong, or wanted to volunteer, but I never had the courage to do it or to be told I was wrong in front of a group."
He worked at it in increments. He volunteered for small jobs first, then became a flag bearer, then recruit leading petty officer, and finally recruit chief petty officer of his division.
"I went from somebody with zero confidence in himself to somebody leading from the front and bringing others up with him," Wilcox said. "I learned from failures and from taking risks, and it paid off."
The person who made that possible, he said, was his second RDC, Petty Officer 2nd Class Myajeanette Wilmoth.
"When I first met her, I thought she was the strictest, sternest person I'd ever encountered," Wilcox said. "The further we got into training, the more I understood how important her methods were. She didn't just demand perfection, she demonstrated it. She showed us how to be confident, how to be loud, and most of all how to never quit. No matter how tough it got, she was there telling us to stand up and fight on."
For anyone back home reading his story, Wilcox has a message aimed squarely at the person he used to be.
"Navy boot camp is a life-changing experience," he said. "If you're unsure of your purpose, or you struggle to be the best version of yourself, the Navy can mold you into that person and show you a route that gives you hope. Deciding to join was the best choice I've made in my life."
Following graduation, Wilcox will remain at Great Lakes for Gunner's Mate "A" school, where he will train on the Navy's weapons and ordnance systems.
Training at RTC is approximately nine weeks long, and all enlistees in the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy's only boot camp.