Photo By Scott Thornbloom | GREAT LAKES, Ill. (February 8, 2016) – Lt. Kimberly Rios talks with Navy Junior...... read more read more
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GREAT LAKES, Ill. – U. S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Kimberly Rios made a reconnection when she was recently promoted to lieutenant in historic Building 1 here Feb. 8.
That reconnection was with her East Aurora (Illinois) High School Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) unit and her former Navy Science Instructor (NSI), retired Chief Dental Technician Greg Fayfar, who was on hand to pin Rios’ lieutenant bars on her khaki shirt collar. It also allowed her to reflect how being part of NJROTC molded and guided her to being a member of the Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.
“Being promoted felt great but what really brought it full circle was having Chief Fayfar there,” said Rios, who spent her freshman and sophomore high school years in the East Aurora NJROTC unit before her family moved to Oswego, which didn’t have a NJROTC unit. “I look back and can remember Chief Fayfar’s pride in the Navy and his pride in his service. It was great. I literally felt his pride in the Navy and it was something I wanted to be part of. I wanted to have that same pride and wanted to have that same experience. His love for the Navy was so contagious it just stuck with me.”
Rios said because her time with the East Aurora NJROTC unit was cut short by her families’ move to Oswego, those two years at East Aurora really stayed with her.
“After that I felt I had unfinished business. My experience with the Navy wasn’t completed yet,” Rios said.
Although NJROTC is known as a citizenship development program that instills in high school students, in U.S. secondary educational institutions, the value of citizenship and service to the United States, Rios said there are aspects of the program that can lead someone to want to pursue a career in the military.
“It’s not like the instructors ever told me to join the Navy or here is what the Navy can do for you. It’s not like they were aggressive about trying to influence our decision about what we were going to do after high school,” Rios said.
Rios said it was the lessons she learned during her two years with the unit at East Aurora, through her instructors’ Navy experiences, how proud they were of their service, the motivation they provided during physical training and drill practices, or teaching her discipline, teamwork and dedication were some of the reasons Rios kept joining the Navy as a choice after high school and college.
“It was through those lessons that I realized what the Navy was about. And it was something I wanted to be part of,” she said.
So with all that still in the back of her mind, Rios finished her high school years at Oswego East High School and graduated in 2007.
Because of those lessons learned Rios took her good grades and wide range of extra activities from Oswego East and entered Aurora University where she graduated Cum Laude in 2011. Following Aurora University Rios moved to Chicago and attended the DePaul School of Law. Again she graduated Cum Laude with a law degree.
Enter Chief Fayfar again.
“The only time they (NSI instructors) talked about joining the Navy was when I asked. I told Chief Fayfar that I wanted to join the Navy and that I wanted to be a lawyer. But I didn’t know what to do. He mentioned that there was this thing out there called the JAG Corps,” Rios said.
After a little research and following graduation from DePaul, Rios took her law degree to a Navy recruiter and signed up. She headed to Officer Development School (ODS) at Officer Training Command (OTC) in Newport, Rhode Island, and received her Navy commission to Ensign in 2014. Today she is a Navy JAG lawyer working for the Navy Region Legal Service Office (RLSO) on Naval Station Great Lakes. From RLSO she is farmed out to help various commands on the base with all manner of legal issues. She is presently assigned to Naval Station Great Lakes.
Many of her fellow JAG lawyers can see how the two years of NJROTC at East Aurora helped to mold her into the newly promoted Navy lieutenant she is today.
“NJROTC motivates its cadets to choose a career in public service. NJROTC cultivated LT Rios’ desire to serve her community as an attorney and her country as a Sailor in the U. S. Navy,” said Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Wooten, staff judge advocate for Naval Service Training Command (NSTC). “Moreover, NJROTC provides leadership skills that enable cadets to impact the organizations they serve. LT Rios’ keen ability to positively influence Sailors of all pay grades, from Seaman to Admiral, stems from her time in NJROTC.”
Fayfar said being invited to take part in Rios’ promotion was an unbelievable honor.
“When she came into the unit, I knew she was something special. She volunteered to be a leader in a number of activities and events. She really excelled in whatever she took on,” Fayfar said.
Fayfar said he followed her through family members and kept up with how she was doing at Oswego East and through her college years.
“When she was in her last semester at DePaul she called me and said she was going to join to the Navy and asked me to write her a recommendation which I said ‘absolutely’ and was very proud to do. To see where she has gone and the accomplishments she has achieved is truly amazing. It gives me satisfaction and for my career to come full circle from when she was a freshman in one of my classes and to be part of her promotion to lieutenant is truly an honor,” Fayfar said.
Although promotions to a Navy lieutenant happen all the time, the promotion of Lt. Rios was special to the Aurora, Illinois, and Oswego, Illinois, native because it allowed her to reflect on the path she chose to get to this point in her Navy career. It also allowed her to reconnect with some of those who helped her journey along that path.
The NJROTC program is overseen by Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) at Naval Station Great Lakes.
NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp; Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) at more than 160 colleges and universities across the country; Officer Training Command (OTC) on Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island; NJROTC and the Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.
For more information on NJROTC visit: www.njrotc.navy.mil/
For more information about NSTC, visit: www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at www.facebook.com/navalservicetraining/.
For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit: www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2016 16:33 |
| Story ID: | 193452 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 914 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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