Allison spent most of the COVID-19 pandemic deployed on a ship. She discussed the challenges of serving overseas during COVID on her two deployments while serving as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy. Allison decided to join the military after doing an 8th grade research project about women during World War II. The report inspired by her great grandmother an Army nurse during World War II led her to join the Navy and attend Annapolis. Today, she is working to get her MBA and has dreams on making an impact in the business world.
Serving overseas during COVID
It was in 8th grade that Allison started to think about joining the Navy. She did a research paper on the women of World War II and was inspired by their stories. Those stories led her to decide to attend the Naval Academy. She shared stories of being part of the “unlucky” 13th Company and being the only female squash member. And also about all the amazing people she met while attending the Academy. When she graduated she became a Surface Warfare Officer and left the East Coast for the West Coast.
Headed to San Diego
She shared about the challenge of having everything provided for you at the Naval Academy and having to adjust to taking care of everything on her own. One challenge not common she experienced was having to leave for 1-2 weeks for spin up drills and having all of her food in the fridge go bad. And that one time she parked in the wrong place and her car was towed. It was an adjustment, but she had mentors along the way who helped her.
In San Diego she was assigned to a Guided Missile Destroyer – USS Russel. The ship was in the shipyard being worked on so that it could once again head out to seas. That day finally came in early 2020. Allison was so excited to see the world but unfortunately the COVID 19 pandemic prevented her from getting to see the world at various ports.
Meeting the mission during the pandemic
One of the challenges she faced while deployed was serving overseas during COVID. This meant they had to figure out how to stay safe while living on close quarters. Some of the things they did besides washing things on a regular basis was cleaning all boxes of supplies that were delivered. They also had to go only one direction on the ship. So if they needed to go somewhere a few doors away but it was the wrong direction they would need to loop around the whole ship. It was quite the experience.
They ended up being extended because they were able to stay safe from the pandemic while other ships found themselves compromised. This then led to them leaving for another deployment shortly after coming home. And while it was less restrictive because it was now November 2020, they still were unable to go to port. When they arrived home after the two deployments the ship went back to the shipyard. She stayed with the ship for another year until and then chose to leave the military.
From military to school
She decided to use her post 9/11 GI Bill when she left the military so she could get her MBA. And is currently half way through the process of getting that degree. One regret she had was leaving the military in August led her to also start school right away and she didn’t have a break. It was a challenge to out process out of the military, move across the country and start school.
SHARP START
Lastly, Allison has a passion for passing along the information she learned while serving in the military and wrote SHARP START: . A guide to help junior officers when joining the military. I loved how compact and easy it was to read. It packs a lot of information in a bulleted format.
