Courtesy Photo | Sailors and their dates pose for a picture after the 35th religious program specialist...... read more read more
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QUANTICO, Va. - Live jazz music filled the room at Harbor View in Woodbridge, Va., as scores of sailors and their guests shared drinks, laughs and handshakes while gathering to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Naval Religious Program Specialist rating on Jan. 16, 2014.
A few of Marine Corps Base Quantico’s own religious program specialists attended the three-hour event which included drinks, dinner and a message from the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens, the highest ranking senior enlisted sailor in the Navy.
“The ball gives a sense of identity, that we do matters,” said Mitchell Krauss, Marine Corps Base Quantico financial technician, and a retired religious program specialist chief petty officer. “We are such a young rating as well as a small rating.”
The religious program specialist rating, currently comprising fewer than 1,000 sailors Navy-wide, was established in 1979, identifying the former yeomen as more than simply clerks.
“[The ball] allows us to remember where we came from,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Jedding, Marine Corps Base Quantico religious program specialist.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Cooper, religious specialist also from Quantico, agreed.
“Our motto is forging the future while remembering our past,” said Cooper. “I think that really encompasses that [this event is] celebrating our heritage and what we do.”
The MCPON spoke about the humility and selflessness that characterize the sailors who make up the rating, and the Quantico sailors agree.
“A lot of what separates us from other ratings is humility,” said Jedding. “Being selfish is not in our DNA.”
Our work is about other people and comforting others through tough times, said Cooper.
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.21.2014 10:08 |
| Story ID: | 119395 |
| Location: | WOODBRIDGE, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Quantico sailors have a ball, by Cpl Samuel Ellis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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