Photo By Chief Petty Officer Stephane Belcher | Oliver Brown, a training technician and scheduler, poses for a picture at U.S. Navy...... read more read more
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Meet Mr. Oliver Brown! He’s a training technician and scheduler at Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy’s only boot camp.
Brown is the Junior Civilian of the Quarter and a Navy veteran who retired from RTC after serving 30 years. He was born and raised in Chicago, so he decided to stayed in the area after retiring.
“I did two tours as an actual [Recruit Division Commander], and came back for a third tour,” he said. “Unfortunately, health reasons disqualified me from the third so I remained onboard and took over as the 6th Fleet leading chief petty officer.”
Having the knowledge from his three tours at RTC helps with his job as a scheduler. He gathers information, such as the projected number of recruits from nightly reports and populates the master training schedule for each division. That schedule is what the Recruit Division Commanders use as the timeline of events for their recruits.
Even though Brown no longer wears the uniform, he still feels like he’s making a contribution and that’s gratifying to him. He said it’s noticeable because he can see the recruits marching in the mornings headed to an event, and knows he helped get them there.
“Coming in here every day and knowing that I’m doing something that is needed; I enjoy doing it,” he said. “The mission, of course, is a driving force for me to be here. I support what they do here and I’m just happy to be a part of it. I like what I do here.”
After work, Brown likes to decompress by walking the trails near his house or watching ESPN.
He also loves music and sports. He said the highlight of his life is his kids and occasionally goes to games with them.
“Last year I caught a couple of the Bulls’ games,” he said. “I haven’t gone down for the baseball because it’s still too chilly for that.”
He’s a big Chicago Bulls and Bears fan, so he enjoys going to the games in the city and traveling to see music groups and concerts.
“It’s not so much of a bucket list, but a to-do list, I’m just going to do it,” he added. “I’ll pack up and drive to Indianapolis to catch a group. About two weeks ago I drove down to St. Louis to catch a group. It was an overnight trip, but it was worth it.”
Boot camp is approximately 10 weeks and all enlistees in the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes five warfighting competencies of firefighting, damage control, seamanship, watchstanding, and small arms handling and marksmanship along with physical fitness and lessons in Navy heritage and core values, Warrior Toughness, Life Skills, teamwork, and discipline. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp.
| Date Taken: | 04.26.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2023 12:50 |
| Story ID: | 443413 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 178 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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