Student strives to serve country

Every year, the senior class of WA houses a few brave graduates who are willing to dedicate their lives to serving their countries. One of those young patriots from the class of 2016 is Owen Orford, who dreams of serving as a Naval Officer.

Right now, in the middle of the college process, Orford is waiting to decide how he will approach entrance into the Navy.

“I can either go through Navy ROTC, which is the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or through the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The [ROTC] is decided earlier in the year because they go through rolling admission. The outcome is the same thing as the Naval Academy except you’re going to a lot less strict school and you can actually pick which school you want to go to that has that program, whereas the Naval Academy is a lot more centered around the Navy. Right now I’m not too sure which program I’m going to, but I really don’t mind either one,” said Orford.

Joining either the Naval Academy or ROTC right out of high school would be very beneficial for Orford’s career in the Navy, as he would graduate an officer. Unlike people who enlist regularly in the Navy, he would be trained to be a leader right off the bat. Unfortunately, because of the specific skill set required to be a young leader, the application process is much more competitive.

Enlisting regularly will still give people the opportunity to become Officers or specialize into a group like the SEALS (Sea Air and Land teams), but the process will be even more selective, because of the larger amount of potential applicants.

In addition to applying regularly to schools like the rest of his classmates, Orford also needs to be evaluated for physical fitness.

“There are multiple tests, both to get into the Naval Academy and ROTC, there is a physical fitness exam where they score you on a basis of 100, where there are maximums and minimums, so you get evaluated by that. But they also look at the whole person, looking for leadership, academics, sports (which is a big thing in the Navy). They’re looking for a more well rounded person,” said Orford.

Orford has been planning on joining the Navy for a long time, with his fascination starting when he was 13 years old.

“At that age, my parents, they showed me for the first time the movie Saving Private Ryan. The opening scenes were some of the most gruesome, bloodiest scenes from the raiding of Normandy, and from that I got really interested in military history. I started to learn about it, and when I started to learn about engineering, those two things blended together in the Navy so it seemed perfect for me,” said Orford.

However, many have asked Orford why he would join the Navy instead of just going to a “normal” college and becoming an engineer that way.

“I think that the Navy itself offers a very specialized experience. The area I want to go into is very hands on and encompasses many engineering areas, like chemical, electrical, and especially mechanical, dealing with bombs and mines. I think the Navy gives me a better experience for that, and coming out if I wanted to go into something further I would always have that experience, and employers love that sort of thing,” said Orford.

Bombs and mines? While that does sound a little dangerous, Orford is more than prepared for it, and has already known which specialization of the Navy he wants to work in.

“Going along with my favorite subject in school, which is Mechanical Engineering, I want to go into Navy E.O.D, which stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. That’s a lot of bomb defusal, and even though I would be the officer telling people what to do, it’s still interesting,” said Orford.

E.O.D training is very specialized, focusing primarily on the Engineering aspect of the job. But, despite most of Orford’s time in the Navy spent in the ocean as the name suggests, there is still plenty of opportunity for bomb defusal.

“There are a couple things you can do. Say for example you are in a warzone, there might be underwater mines that you need to dismantle. There are other types of E.O.D other than Navy E.O.D, but the Navy specializes in underwater demolition and underwater defusal. A lot of the mines from past wars can be dismantled,” said Orford.

However, Orford will probably not be going in to these dangerous waters himself. E.O.D technicians primarily use robots to try and dismantle or defuse mines, so as not to potentially lose a trained specialist. However, if the defusal of the explosive proves to be too difficult for the robot to handle, they would then send in a technician to perform the task by hand. Technicians who are sent out are given large, protective suits, covered in metal plating and kevlar, to protect them from as much of the damage as possible if the bomb does indeed explode.

Even though Orford has wanted to become a Naval Officer for a long time, he is still unsure whether or not he will spend his entire life serving the Navy.

“I’m not really sure right now. There are a lot of possibilities still, because there is a five year commitment for both ROTC and the Naval Academy, so I could after that go another 5, 10, 15, 20 years even, work myself up the chain, or I could get out in five years, go to graduate school, and do whatever I want to,” said Orford.

Data provided by National WWII Museum and History in Pieces

Regardless of what he decides to do, Orford is still making a large contribution to his country by signing up for the Navy right out of high school. Currently, the United States has the largest volunteer military in the country’s history, with 1,000,000 active and 800,000 reserve personnel. But with numbers that large, why are there so few students volunteering for the military straight out of high school?

“During WWII there was this huge rush to be in the armed forces, but right now there is a smaller interest than there should be. The services are very different because they are picky on who they let in. Something like having asthma or a skin issue can prevent you from getting in,” said Orford.

These intense qualifications are very clear cut, and prevent a lot of people from actually being deployed, because of the potential risks involved. While that may be a deterrent for a lot of people, Orford believes that there is a negative attitude from students towards the military in general, and encourages people to think about the big picture when discussing potential careers in the military.

“The military is something to be proud of, and a lot of people are saying things like ‘oh we hate guns’ now and that ‘guns are the only reason’ to even join the military but there are a lot of jobs in the military that don’t even require the use of guns. It doesn’t matter in the end either, you’re still serving your country, it doesn’t matter what you do, its a good thing,” said Orford.