USS Momsen sailors interact with SDA School students

Six U.S. Navy sailors from the USS Momsen talked to curious students about what it is that they really do for the country during a visit yesterday at the Seventh Day Adventist School.

USS Momsen chaplain Lt. Kevin Wilkinson said that an opportunity to visit schools is a good way to give back to the land that they are protecting.

“This is a community relationship service opportunity that we get to be a part of. The government State Department set this up, they contacted us and said if you’d like to, there is an opportunity visit with the school, to meet and visit the students and teachers,” said Wilkinson.

“We’re just here for a few hours to get to know the community, and it’s a great chance for our sailors to get back to learn more. Whenever we get to a port, it’s nice to get off the ship for a little while, but what’s really great is that we can come meet the people. Something like this does that, it’s a community experience. We read stories with kids today, we did a little bit of exercises with them, and talked to them about what we do in the Navy.”

Wilkinson and five other sailors got to share personal stories and described how the ship looked like.

“We talked about what our roles are on the ship, we described what our home towns are like, how long we’ve been in the Navy and such. The kids had a question-and-answer type, where the kids wondered about how many of us were on the ship, how many women were on the ship, they were curious as to how many push ups they can do. It’s a neat learning opportunity,” said Wilkinson.

Wilkinson shared that having the Navy come into contact with kids at such an early age emphasizes the luxury of safety.

“I think it reinforces the thought of safety. It’s a big world out there, and there are a lot of people who are all together for safety, and I think that’s a healthy thing. It’s helping them understand what goes on in the ships that we see way out there. I think to connect that with them early on, helps to understand that there are people in the world who are here to help make all of us safe. I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

SDA School principal Randy Yates thinks that the event was interesting. “[The students] were able to hear some of the things that were going on. Especially the kindergarteners, because they were able to hear how big the ship was, how many people lived together, and how long they would be in the ocean at a time,” he said.

Yates also noted the reactions of the older children. “With the older students, it’s good to see a mix, because they had a women sailor here, and its good to show them that there were women doing jobs that only men used to do.”

Yates pointed out that the intention of the visit was not to get the children into the military, but more to spark the children’s interests and possible opportunities for the future, especially students of nationalities that are required to undergo military training.

“Do I want them in the military? No, not necessarily, but I think that it is good that they get to see the different opportunities that people have. We have a lot of international students, and when they reach a certain age, some of them would be required to go into the military because of their country (Korea, Israel, etc.).”