Photo By Julius Evans | Two years ago, Javiera Sullivan was an honor graduate of Landstown High School,...... read more read more
Two years ago, Javiera Sullivan was an honor graduate of Landstown High School, Virginia Beach, VA. She recalled not being clear about what the future held for her as she rapidly approached graduation. She wasn’t sure if she would attend college and if she did, she did not have a strategy on how to pay for it. That all changed when one of her parents introduced her to a Navy recruiter.
Today, the Naval Ophthalmic Support and Training Activity (NOSTRA) Sailor has a much clearer view of the future. Sullivan is the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Hampton Roads Peninsula Area Blue Jacket of the Quarter for the fourth Quarter, Fiscal Year 2019. This award recognizes a Sailor who embodies the Navy core values - honor, courage and commitment.
As a Hospitalman, Sullivan’s duties include assisting with fabricating prescription eyewear for warfighters around the world. Her attention to detail enabled the command to produce quality eyewear with a minimal rate of rejections. This is a phenomenal feat considering the number of glasses that are produced on an annual basis.
“HN Sullivan is on the team that fabricated more than 71,000 pairs of prescription eyewear valued at $1.8 million with a 2 percent rejection rate,” explained HMCS Kristina L. Goff, NOSTRA’s Command Senior Enlisted Leader. “This represented a rate that is 1.7 percent below the monthly goal and was accomplished with a 1.8 day turnover rate for all readiness pairs.”
Impressive statistics like those are consistent with how Sullivan has enjoyed her approach to new challenges.
“In high school I didn’t have much direction in regards to what I wanted to study in college or any idea of how I would pay for it, so my dad scheduled me an appointment with a recruiter and off I went,” Sullivan said. “I chose the Navy because it has always felt like home. My dad worked at a Naval Institution my whole life and I grew up seeing the ships in Norfolk and being around the Navy culture. I felt like joining the Navy was a natural thing to do.”
Sullivan said that NOSTRA is her first duty station and January 2020 will mark her two year anniversary in the Navy.
“While my responsibilities at NOSTRA include working on the floor and making sure that our patients receive their eyewear in a timely manner, my greatest achievement here has been serving the community of Sikeston, MO, during an Innovative Readiness Training mission during this past summer,” she said.
Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) is a Department of Defense military training opportunity, exclusive to the United States and its territories, that delivers joint training opportunities to increase deployment readiness. Simultaneously, IRTs provide key services (health care, construction, transportation, and cybersecurity) with lasting benefits for the communities they serve. The IRT program improves military readiness by providing trained military medical personnel with in-field emergency response training while simultaneously providing quality healthcare services.
“My team and I had the privilege of fabricating glasses for the Missouri community and it was so rewarding. We worked 12 hour days for two consecutive weeks,” she explained. “The community was so kind in reaching out to us wherever we went and they let us know how thankful they were for their glasses. That mission made me even more proud to be a US Navy Sailor. It was awesome to give back to some of the people who needed it most.”
The Navy took the opportunity to give back to Sullivan by nominating and selecting her as Blue Jacket of the Quarter. Sullivan explained what this recognition meant to her.
“This award was a reminder that our work at NOSTRA is important and it does not go unnoticed. From here, I hope to further improve my performance and continue to give our patients the best eyewear in the armed forces,” Sullivan said. “NOSTRA is the largest laboratory currently fabricating eyewear for the United States military. It is our job to push out this eyewear as soon as possible and as close to perfect as they can be. Whether it may be a standard pair of 5A military issue frames or a pair of flight glasses for a pilot, vision readiness is mission readiness.”
| Date Taken: | 12.23.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2019 13:50 |
| Story ID: | 357069 |
| Location: | YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 299 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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