Ship, Shipmate, Self: Nael Karpinski ’27 is a leader in Cornell's Naval ROTC

[0:00]Hello, The guest today is Niall Karpinski, class of 2027. She is a leader in the ROTC program. That's Cornell. So hi Niall, what is ROTC? Hi, Tony. So ROTC, it's Sansbury Reserve Officer Training Corps. And then at Cornell we have the brigade. So we have our ROTC kind of consortium between the different branches. So here on campus we have Army ROTC, Air Force ROTC, Navy ROTC, and then the other communities, the Marines, they fall into the Navy and then the Space Force is under the Air Force. And then my role leading into my senior year, I'm going to be the brigade executive officer. So we kind of move the brigade of the flag around between the three branches. So this year Navy has it. So then myself and Midshipman Lee, we're kind of in charge of working with all the active duty staff and cadre between the three branches, like coordinating semesterly events that unifies the brigade. And then working with the administration on ROTC is kind of like outward identity with the rest of like the Cornell community and the student body. They give some like perspectives like how big is the ROTC program? Is it, are they like hotelies? Are they like Dyson? Are they well are engineers? Like what are the wait? Yeah, that's a great question. So every branch kind of has different numbers and like they stay fluctuate throughout the years. Currently the Navy branch, we're sitting around 50 people. When I initially joined, my class was the largest. I think coming out of COVID, there was like a stunt in interest and people who were like taking upon the scholarship. So there was like only around 30 minutes shipment. But now we're growing in our numbers and in terms of like when we meet, like we're running out of like space. So like the classrooms in the, in the facilities that we use can't like see everyone. So we've kind of had to adapt and improvise and look for alternatives. Army and Air Force, they're all like 60 to 80 plus their numbers like range and fluctuate just because of like their scholarship options are different. And we have this thing called college programmers. So you can join the program after you're already like a

[2:00]student at Cornell. You don't necessarily need to come into this straight from high school, which I think majority of from the group does because like there's a huge emphasis in the military on engineering. Majority of the people in Navy ROTC are engineers and same with Air Force as well. And we have like honor scholarship. There's different tiers. So you have a Tier 1, Tier 2, and tier 3 major As an econ major, I don't it's not considered STEM. So I have a 2/3 and those are initially kind of hard to get since there's like less demand for say like a political science or econ major. But the tier ones are strictly engineering and Tier 2 are all like STEM. So if you wanted like biochemistry, anything that doesn't necessarily say like engineering in the formal title. And I think this is just a handful in my class, but majority of us are engineers. So at least for my freshman year experience, they were also, it was very like tight knit and kind of clicky just because they had all their classes, like all their core curriculum together and then all their ROTC's time together and some of our naval science courses. So in addition to completing our undergraduate credits, you also have to take courses with your respective ROTC in it. So we have naval science credits for Air Force and Army. They have heirs in like the military science respectively. And then majority of the Navy funds are engineering classes. So it happens to be that there's a shortage of of knowledge between like the non engineers trying to keep up with the content while the engineers like it's pretty elementary for them, but there. Are classes as well. So it's not just PT, it's classes as well. Yeah. So on a weekly schedule, we have our academic classes with Navy. We have our PT, which doesn't stand for physical therapy. It's physical training for us. So we'll work out as a group in the morning and then sometimes the Marine options more select Navy, they'll work out multiple times a week. And then we also have our drill lab. So that's our two hour block on Wednesdays where the entire battalion is together. And that's like where we'll do like our leadership or character development and more structured evolutions led by either the

[4:02]upperclassmen or like the activity staff that we have. And Wednesdays are also the days that we wear our uniforms. So like some Cornell students, they might see people in any of their classes, like wearing a uniform. And then so Navy, we have Wednesdays. I think Air Force and Army, they'll bounce between like Tuesdays, Thursdays or Fridays depending on when they decide their drill schedule is. It's still early in the semester, so we're still nailing down on what days we're all going to do. But Navy's Wednesday. So that's when I wear like my KMO basically. And I'll have that on all day. So I'll wear it to my class and then in the afternoon I have drill lab with the Navy Battalion. That's when I'll be there too. And like everyone else is also in uniform. And then in terms of our interaction with like the Cornell community. So like we have, we always host a 911 stair run and the Kuva and other veterans on campus will come and attend that. And then this year we're trying to do a big push to open it to all Cornell students. So if anyone has an interest in coming to 911 PT, we do it at Shulkoff. And we kind of just like run the stairs some laps. Then we'll do like workouts like buddy carries, buddy drags, another circa like hit type things on the field and we do color guard events. I was at Madison Square Gardens for big red, red hot hockey last year. I think that's what it's called. And I was able to go on the ice and I was doing the color guard for it. And then also just like regular Cornell men's hockey games and football as well too, we'll do color guard while have a presence there. So it'll be a mix of different cadets and menship in between the brigade that'll support those goings. So. So you have your like the the the the normal Cornell classes and then you also have like the ROTC activities like. Exactly, Yeah. Like how do you balance the two of those two? You know what, I'm still learning how to balance it all, but I think I've got a pretty good grasp. I mean, I would hope so going into my senior year, but I, our naval credits will have our one credit, which is our drill lab. And then our academic classes are either 3 to 4 credits.

[6:04]So just add basically 5 credits to your kind of normal undergraduate schedule. We're also to be on scholarship, we have to have the minimum 12 credits to be considered a full time student here. I would say excluding billets. That's kind of like our, our like responsibilities, our roles, our jobs within the unit. Last year I was the PTI and MWR. Oh, I was like our physical training instructor and then our morale, Wellness and recreation officer. So I planned everyone's workouts, I oversaw everyone's fitness. And then I also put like did all the party planning, morale, team building kind of activities. So these are billets. Yeah. And then once you go out into the fleet, you'll have like more official billets. I'm in terms of like what your responsibilities on the ship or submarine or like unit is going to look like. So where was I going with this? I think. Let's see. Balancing the two. Yeah, Balancing the two, I would say I would put in like 10 to 15 hours a week. I know that's kind of a bigger spectrum. It really depends on whether we had events going on like whether there was like Navy Ball at the end of the week or like Military Ball or if we like we're hosting like a memorial run and, and some extra hours had to be put into like doing route recons after action reports, additional planning. Since I went to Rick. Yeah, so I was, I was a freshman when we did that and I was on the planning team. So obviously we had to get there super early and like set up the course. And then multiple days back we also it's like run the course, test the course. And then some people also had the option to like rocket. So we had to set up all the bags, like weigh them out, make sure everything was even and then order, you know, the shirts like medals, trophies, food, work with like Cornell EMS to get support out here. And then Cornell Navy ROTC. We host CYDC, which is why I forget. See. You.

[8:04]Cornell University, Oh wow. I'm forgetting what the I stands for, but DC stands for drill competition. So we host, we host a huge drill competition in Barton Hall and schools from all over the country come so like West Point, the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard. We have like Rochester, like like Villanova, schools that are pretty like that have ROTC units that are in the area are able to come out on like some of the Sunni ROTC units. And then we'll have like physical challenges, events like running races, swimming, weight lifting, and then also like marching. So drill and like like rifle rework and that one's really, really fun. And then we'll other schools will also host them as well. So we will travel. So it is pretty interactive. We do get to meet a lot of other like ROTC students across the country since these are the same people that you'll run into once we Commission and we go active duty upon graduation and then a lot of our summer trainings. So this is like the Wednesday drill lab that you practice for. Like you practice on Wednesdays and then you compete in the drill competition? Our drill competition, we practice like on our own time. So we make the freshman as part of like, you know, kind of their initiation for state of the unit is that they all have to do drill their freshman fall. So OK, that's extra time on their mornings. So they'll figure out what works best for their schedule. My freshman year we did like 5 to 7:00 AM on Wednesdays. Wow. In separate from everyone else's schedule. And we just had to practice and practice and practice until we were able to perform at CYDC. And then if we do decide to go to another school's drill competition, we'll make additional time on our schedule to practice for it so that it isn't built in. That's just an extra cookie, like an added time. But my freshman year we went to Boulder, Co for their MEC and then we did Villanova my sophomore year and those were both like really, really fun and then. What makes like a drill drill

[10:05]like better than another school's drill like what do you practice on? What are the judges scoring on? The judges are scoring on like how crisp and clean and In Sync everyone is rejection like your military bearing your professionalism. So I don't know if you've been to like any military ceremony, whether it's like 4th of July or like Memorial Day and then or it or even any like service, like when they're when they're marching and everyone's just so In Sync. And then whoever you're like Jewel commander is like the commands are giving that everyone's like able to execute all at the same time and like obviously like no one's cracking a smile or like out of step or moving when you're not supposed to be. So it is really about like connecting as a team and like working as like 1 unit because everyone has to be exactly on the same page for the entirety of the drill routine. You should come out to CYDC. Yeah. And be able to see it. I think. I don't think this year we've settled. We're looking at like early November, I believe of or late October, but that's always the window when we do it. Yeah. And then in terms of trainings, the summer before freshman year, that's when I had to go to boot camp. So I was in Great Lakes, IL and that was a like A3 four week kind of intensive, kind of like what you expect in the movies and similar to like the other like 10 week boot camp that like enlisted sailors. We go through and I met plenty of people there. And then the summer after we do like we called it Court Trimid and I was in San Diego for a month and I got exposure to all the different communities that I could service select into. So submarines, surface aviation in the Marine Corps. So I was bouncing back in between like being underway and like a surface ship or submarine or doing like infantry trainings at Camp Pendleton. And then what's next? Last summer I was underway in a submarine for four weeks out of like Nova Scotia. So I was able to kind of, I was on a an LA class and I was able to experience would it be like on a fast attack and also just like fully immerse myself in

[12:07]like the submariner community and see what being a nuclear certified officer would look like. And then spring break of this year, I was out of Groton. I was underway in the USS California for a couple days also just to get more exposure training. To me, other officers ask questions and this one was unique because there were female officers on board, which I think is pretty important to me. And then being able to meet them and ask some questions was really neat. And I had a unique circumstance. I did an internship this summer, so I was in Boston. I didn't have any Navy training, but my other peers, they were either like a pH squadron or on an aircraft carrier or submarine out on their underways. This is so good. Like the Navy, they provide like the full comprehensive job, so they don't know what to do over the summer and here you have all these activities you could do. Yeah, and it's nice too. I mean, you have a job. It comes with a lot of job security. So I'm around all my friends who are like practicing for their higher views and like trying to get their super days and get like internships set up and taking the time to like learn technicals and network and an interview. But we don't have, we're fortunate enough that we don't have to worry about that in our summers. They have already like formative structured evolutions for us to undergo. And there's also like the freedom to kind of dabble in the in the private sector like I was able to do since I know we owe five years of active duty service post commissioning. And then you sometimes it's called like your five and dive or like you just go career. I'm as of now I'm on, I want to do a 5 and dive, but it could always change if I do have a positive experience and I decide to stay in. But I knew I wanted to kind of transition into the private sector afterwards. So I wanted to, you know, get some exposure and see what's out there for me and kind of get a better grasp of what I could potentially do. And as well as like build something on my, put something on my resume to help me transition when I want to get out. So it's like four years of ROTC and then five years and dive and then five years. Yeah, so just five years of

[14:08]active duty and you call it like 5 and dive cuz people want to just do their five years and get out immediately. That's the way that's. Where the dive term comes from, yeah. What is like the five years like? Like is this similar to the four years where you do rotations? Good question. It's it depends on what community you enter. So exhibit A, if you want to go submarines, you have to go to power school and that's in Charleston. And then afterwards you have to go to prototype and then afterwards you have to go to like B doc, which is basic officer training. So depending on like what cycle you fall into, it's like a six month, 6 month, like 3 to 4 month period. So say post commissioning, you have a year and a half to two years before you get assigned to like a ship. And then when your home port is whatever home port belongs to that ship. But if you go like surface and you want to be on like a destroyer or like a figure or something like that, you would just immediately go to officer school post commissioning and you'll already know your ship. You do like your ship selection prior to commissioning, so you can already have a good idea of where you're going. And then and then that's where you're headed in aviation. You'll go to flight school for roughly like 2 years in Pensacola. And then the Marine Corps you go to TBS for six months, which is like the basic school. So regardless of what your MOS is going to be like your your specialty you all have to go through like a a standardized school. It's like even more school afterwards is, yeah, even more. School and then but your five year timer it will it starts when you Commission. So like you can be in school for, you know, two years per SE. So you have like technically three years of like a forward facing like deployment, junior officer tour. And then and then you have the option of like if you want to re sign or if you want to do like maybe an additional one year, like short tour per SE, but people really can't make decisions on like that now. And ROTC is it sets us up well for the fleet, but we'll like

[16:09]never truly understand until we're in it. Yeah, like like the classes you currently take at Cornell, like on the ROTC classes, Like is it like rather than 3 to 4 credits of it, is it just like 15 credits of it every every semester in the postgrad program? Well, what are the class flavors? Is it like more technical in the afterwards? Afterwards, I mean, it depends what your specialty is, but OK. Like if you're going submarines and you're, or if you want to go submarines and you want to be on aircraft carriers and you have to go to, to power school. OK. Like I've heard from everyone, nuclear power schools like really, really intensive. So you're getting like a master's in nuclear engineering and you're just, you're in, you're in class all day or you're studying. It's, it's just like very, very intensive, like 6 to 8 month period of where you're just trying to learn everything. I don't think you can like I've haven't been, I haven't seen anywhere where they kind of equated to credits, but it is like another degree like qualifications, certification type of element. And then once you get to your ship, like the, the learning never stops. I mean, in anything in any industry, you never stop learning. But once you get on board your ship, you have to get qualified. So like you either earn like your submarine pin or your SPO pin. And that's like the checklist that they have for new officers. And you have to like learn like, yeah, this is how like like control works. Like, yeah, this is how like the engineering system works. Like, yeah, this is how like diesel works, like the auxiliary systems, like everything on board. So you are expected to know like the ship inside and out and take full ownership of like whatever your watch bill, whatever your watch stand is like in that specific area, you have to be able to know to X, like you have to be able to execute all of your duties and support other officers on board. These are like really practical skills to learn. Done. Very, very practical. And there's so much of the Navy is like you are just like physically doing things like whether it's like with your hands, I mean, it's like mind,

[18:09]body connection. Like you're, your brain is always engaged. You're always thinking through like mathematical, like technical solutions. You're thinking strategy. And then you're also like, you have to have emotional competence to be able to like lead your sailors and be able to like keep them. Like, I mean, they can keep themselves in line, but I can keep good order on the ship and and motivate them to work as a team to get like said task done. Since like so much of the Navy, like the ship is its people. Like the ship isn't going to operate without every single person on board, like doing their respective role. Like on a submarine, like you get so close to everyone and you build such trusting relationships because you rely on them to stay alive. Like everyone has to do their job and everyone has to do the job well. So everyone on board can like stay alive, and so the mission can get done. And it's like 24/7 on the ship together too. So yeah, it's quite 47. It's. All together, everything is 24/7. Yeah, there's like, you don't sleep in the Navy and like everyone's just like do stuff on like black coffee and zins. It's very, it's very demanding. You're always in a stressful situation or you're always in a very like intense situation. But you don't need to make it like being able to manage your stress. And there's an important skill for an officer and like, being able to just make decisions under pressure and like maintain composure and calmness. So you were on the submarine and on the ship before for a couple weeks like, like what's your day-to-day like when you were on the submarine? When you're on the, that's a. Fun question. So since I was just a midshipman, I wasn't qualified in anything. So I couldn't necessarily operate anything on board or like contribute to like the evolutions that the ship was like undergoing or any of the drills that they were practicing. So we were just kind of there to talk to people, to receive mentorship, to ask questions and like just kind of immerse ourselves in the, the day in the life of like a submariner. So when we entered the fleet, we weren't like shocked and like, my God, I had no idea it was going to be like this. Like, I mean, like you would

[20:09]have like a kind of, you could pick find a running mate and you would kind of just sit by them and like see what an 8 hour watch like would be like in the engine room. And so like, we would come back to school. We would obviously continue our Cornell undergraduate education and, and work more with our unit and continue to grow our leadership and, and character skills. So we, when we went back to the fleet, we were kind of like better equipped and we knew how all the tiny things that we were learning here applied to something down the line for us. So we're always preparing for like the future. We're always looking out for our future selves. You'd never know what to expect, and sometimes we learned things here that you don't necessarily see like the virtue in until after the fact. Like yeah, the 8 hour shift on the on the boat where you followed the person around. Like what are examples of something that you learned? I mean, I remember like when on the submarine, I would hang out with the sonar guys all day. So I got to see how the sonar system works. And like I would have the headphones on and you could hear all the different like marine life in the area. You could hear like if there were other fishing boats, you could hear what those sounded like. And you kind of you kind of to be able to like did their jobs with them. Interesting. And it gave you as an officer a better holistic understanding of what your sailors are doing on board. And like, I'd be like with the TMS and figuring out like, oh, like what's the coordinate of if we like launch X torpedo, Like what are the steps to like from getting the torpedo in the storage rack into the tube and to like the target of where we want to launch it? Seeing just like the, the process of everything. And it, it's very procedural and it's been, it's very granular and like down to a tee of effectiveness just from so much trial and error over the years. And so when the time does come, like when the time does comes that we need to launch like a live torpedo, we've all done it so many times with the practices and some and drilled so many times that we're going to be

[22:10]able to do it well and we're going to be able to do it with efficiency and with confidence and perform our best. So practice like you play. That's that's what we're actually. Doing in the process of like it was being on the ship, you're also practicing as well what the ship. Yeah, yeah. And like you're running drills like for damage control, like, oh, if there's a flood, if there's a fire like that's, that's like the worst, that's everyone's nightmare. So if something does happen, everyone, it's got to be like muscle memory. Like if there's a fire, it's just got to be like boom, like you got to know what to do. And like that's why you you'll run drills every single day. So it's just second in nature. And like when the time comes, like no one is like panicking. No one's freaking out. It's just like there's so which instilled confidence that's you just like, yeah, I know how to do this and we're going to get it done and then you save the ship, basically. Very cool. They're like the Super. Exciting. Like between different people on like the summary. I was initially really, really drawn to the submarine community because of how small it is. Like you're going to be in a fast attack with like a hundred 120 men and then say a boomer like a hundred 150 depending on like, I guess like the crew cycle that you have on board, but it's you've got tiny pee ways people are squeezing past each other in the crews mess like you're cramming into benches. So it, you are like really, really just like physically close to everyone and also like emotionally and like mentally close. And I, I really like the lack of formalities on a surface ship there. It felt like there was more of a hierarchy because between like officers and enlisted and in terms of like the consistent, like saluting. And then it's like, good morning, ma'am, good morning, Sir. Like not necessarily kind of just like talking casually and just like being relaxed. It was very like structured, but on the submarine it was you're, you're just like when you're on watch, like you guys are connecting. You're, you're talking together, you're interacting like normal human beings.

[24:10]And you're really able to build the interpersonal personal connections that I think lead to making a difference in someone's life. Like if you're in charge of them, if you're expected to like lead them and you want to be a role model for them and you want them to look up to you and you want to be able to teach them and mentor them and guide them in any direction that you see fit or in any direction they want to be able to reach their goals. You have to be able to like connect to them. You have to have like a trusting relationship and I don't think that can really be built unless there is just like you're able to take rank off the table and just like connect to them and understand that you guys are both, you're both you to do your job and you're both here to learn and you're both here to work hard and to like, if you, I think for sailors, like so much of the military and the Navy, like it's not addressed enough like mental health. And to have for your sailors to be like mentally healthy, they've got to be able to like trust who's and charges then and be able to have safe spaces to talk about things that they're dealing with. And like as an officer to like you got to be able to talk about things because no one's perfect. We're all human, we're all experiencing things. We all struggle with things, but it's what gives us our strength. So if you don't have like good relationships with your like department or other junior officers, times get really tough. But everyone on board, like, you know, you're all in the, you're all in the cool, like dumps together, you're all in the suck. So everyone, everyone embraces the suck together. No one's more busy than another person. No one's got a harder job. It's just equally as difficult. And it's very understanding, very supportive, and most people just want to do a good job so they can get back home in one piece. Like, how much does that vary from like a one submarine to another submarine? Like based on the person in charge of this sub versus Yeah, so. That's a great point. We call it command culture, a command climate. And it really does come down to like you're see your commanding officer and your executive officer on board and they set the tone for what like the standard is for what the dynamics are all going to be like. And I'm still, I guess, building my perspective on like what a good command climate looks like

[26:11]and what are the kind of the elements that go in security and good command climate. But that's like it makes or breaks experience that can make your break, whether an officer and there's an enlisted sailor like resigns for another tour. And like from the officers that I've met with like they've had their they've had experiences with a with great captains and they have also had porks with poor experiences with not as great captains. And I think as someone in as a midshipman right now and as a future junior officer, I'm always trying to be aware and keen of like in some in a leader, like what traits do I like about them? And like what really stands out to me and what do I think is impactful and what works well? And like, how can I incorporate that into my own leadership style? And to be honest, I've met people too that I'm like, well, I don't necessarily like that trait about you. And like, I don't think what you're doing right now works well. I don't think there's positive effects. So I'm gonna make a mental note not to do something similar like that if I'm in a similar position. Then, and it's those one small submarine, so it's important to have a good culture with it. Yeah, it's, it's really, really important to have a good culture. Like it's really important that people on board like each other. I mean, most of the guys, they're so open to like, making friends and like, if you're in same with just like the proximity theory. Like if you're just around someone so much and you spend enough time with them, like you are gonna have someone of like that unspoken connection and like that trauma bond if you guys are embracing the suck together and it's gonna build overtime. But yeah. Go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say like one thing, I've never been on an aircraft carrier, but some of my peers, they have been and that's like they give a couple thousand people on board and you're not it's impossible to meet everyone. And it's so like segmentated like you have the aviators and they'll just keep to themselves. You'll have the nuclear officers look each themselves and then all the different departments and subdivisions. So there's not much intermingling. So you could be like walking on the flight deck and you'll see

[28:11]someone that you've never seen before, even though you've been on like a seven month deployment. And I feel like if this is going to be my home, I wouldn't want to be in a vessel that it's tight knit. Like everyone, everyone's connected. Like you have that unification and you have that pride all from like, I guess at least knowing your names, at least know other people's names and having that same purpose and mission. When you were on the submarine, what's the example of when the commander like set the tone? So I think I've seen, I think great commanders take the time to get to know their sailors on board and that they make themselves not as just like high up entity that's like tough to reach, but I was like a human being and as a resource and like they make themselves open to connecting with everyone on board. And it's not like, no, you can't connect with me because like I'm the cats with my ship and like my rank is so high that I'm like untouchable. I've, I know some that take the time to like sit down and speak with every single sailor and officer as well. And then they'll have questions like, what's something that you don't like about the ship? What's something you do like? What works well? What doesn't work well? What would you change? What's something about the ship that I don't know about since I mean, commanders, they, they have a lot of responsibility, but they can't be everywhere at once. And so it's like listening to their sailors. So they make it known that they have a voice and that they're seen and that everyone on this, everyone on board like can contribute something. And then if they have new ideas that they think are like good ideas, like really encouraging and then supporting, like whether an officer or sailor to take ownership and to take initiative and to move forward with that to contribute to the greater good down the line. Also like how I think a commander interacts in the wardroom sets the tone for officers because that's it's going to have a ripple effect to the rest of the ship. So like being present at meal times, like talking and connecting with like the junior officers and then making conversation instead of just kind of being like a very like stagnant rigid time that that would cause like a lot of

[30:11]formality and and less like relaxation and just being in offer like consistent mentorship and being open for questions like having like an open door policy. So like the JO's know that if they need to, they could go to the cats and like, they don't necessarily have to go to like say they're like department head or like the executive officer, their chief. And like, it's so simple. But having a positive spirit, like when you just give off good energy, when you're smiling, when you're cracking jokes, it can just, it can do so much to just uplift the mood. And if one person that's kind of like leading per SE, like they're in control, they're leading the room, they have the con or like they're the navigator or really my last, like they're officer of the deck. Their energy kind of effects everyone else's energy in the room. And it's going to everyone's slowly going to pick it up. While if they, they come in and they're just like, they have an attitude that they don't want to be there, they're tired. It's not motivating or encouraging to anyone else like in that room. And it it, it makes the watch like drag on and like it just it's not enjoyable. So those are my big takeaways. We're like the like, the like, the like problems. I like the things that cause stress, like on a submarine, like is it like we're going the wrong direction or we have to do this by this time and then we're late on it? Like what are the things? Yeah. So I mean, you'll get direction from whether like a higher up say like on shore in terms of like what the submarines kind of mission should be or what you guys should be executing. But like, if one person kind of makes an honest mistake, like having to kind of rebound from that does cause a lot of stress because, I mean, submarines are multi billion dollar vessels. Like there's lives on board. And it was an immense investment in terms of like taxpayer money that supported it. And there are like dangerous weapons on board that you guys have to like keep control of just for the better, for the safety of everyone on earth basically. But yeah, like meeting, meeting deadlines, getting like just

[32:13]doing paperwork and there's never going to be enough like resources to just kind of like support everyone in the best capacity. So understanding like where you can, what areas you can give more and what areas you can take away from just like consistently reaching that balance point. And then if there's like mechanical fares on board, that's pretty stressful. Like like I said, if there were like fire floods or if like there's a reactor shutdown, like something happens or like with our like filtration systems, like heating or any of the cooling, anything auxiliary or like with the diesel engines. And also like the threats of potentially like running into an adversary out at sea, like if you like can pick up another submarine or like, I mean, we're trying to stay undetected. So if we know if we feel like we're getting tracked, like that's not a good day for us and we don't want to get too close to our enemies either and not give ourselves away and. So having a good commit climate would help you deal with those. Those, yeah, good climate because, I mean, everyone's gonna be like their mood, they're happy to be there and to like, if a commander can give really clear direction and like outline what the goals are and like why these are our goals. And so like your sailors and officers understand like the root of why they're doing something and they're not just doing something to do something that's really helpful and getting things done and getting people on board and getting people motivated and like understanding the cause and working towards that. So, but like when I, I, when we spoke the other day, and I had mentioned to you that ever since the beginning of my sophomore year up until the end of the semester my junior year, I was like, I want to go submarines and I wanted to go submarines for the reasons like you'd be able to. It's a tight knit community. There's so much appreciation for knowledge and everyone is just so incredibly smart on board. Like you're, if anything, I would just, I'm supposed to be teaching these guys stuff and I'm supposed to be leading them, but like they're going to be teaching and guiding me. And like the submarine force I think is I guess like the future

[34:14]of like military combat in terms of like you can see how much money we're investing into building submarines right now. And with nuclear power, like there's so much potential to be used. But I met with my like my CEO here at Cornell and ROTC yesterday and we talked about like, what are my opera there? What are my other options? I think there's so much value in like truly loving what you do and like waking up every single morning and like feeling energized and passionate about it and not just doing it for like rank or money or because like you just have to and because you're just in that situation until you can get out. So we talked about my other options, but right now I'm also looking at potentially going surface. So I would put in and try to be a surface warfare officer and maybe be on a destroyer. I have very little experience of underways and destroyers. All I did was in San Diego, 48 hours underway on DDG 101. So I feel like I'm taking a chance there because I don't really know what it's about, but the United States Navy was rooted in ships like we were like the maritime military force. And a lot of like where we're at now has has grown from that. And the surface fleet is so diverse in terms of all the different rules you can do and like all the different places you're going to travel. So I joined the Navy like for the opportunity to travel and to be able to see the world and see so many places that you really couldn't call like a quote, UN quote like tourist destination. And also being able to lead females is really important to me. And as a like a female officer, since I am like quote, I got a minority where I am and being able to make space and and prove that we are capable and we can do just as good and if not a better job than like our male counterparts. It's pretty incredibly powerful, powerful and empowering to me. So most submarines there aren't female enlisted on board yet. There are some like boomers that have on female enlisted in their crew, but just because of how they were like construction

[36:14]constructed initially and the integration process is pretty in depth. I would have the opportunity to like right out of school, like hit the ground running start like working and being able to like lead female sailors because one thing I really enjoyed about my internship this summer was like actually being able to work like I've from high school and through college. It's so much you're just like learning and you're not necessarily like doing, even if like the products are pretty intangible and abstract. But being able just to like apply what I know and like in some form of real world output I found really fulfilling. So I do have like an itch to just like get going and like start working instead of having to finish school here and then go to more school and more and more school before I'm kind of like in it, in the action. So if you go on like the surface ship, it'll be less school and you get to go directly into working. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. So back to the woman thing, like are there like is there a lot of women on on board on the ship? Like what's the? What is the situation like you'll have? It's as far as I know when it comes to you're like when designators kind of decide who's going to what ship it's based off like the birthings. They try not to think you're gonna have your female enlisted in their own birthing and like your female officers in their own birthing unless they everyone can agree and compromise for a different situation. But basically like based off of like the number of available beds and how many like heads that can fit in that space. But the Navy, like they're women in all communities of the Navy are like outnumbered. So they're always going to be more men around. But at least a corner. ROTC here we have in my class, including myself, there's four of us. So we have 13. So like less than half. Wait, I think 1/3 or less. The unit is females. The class, the rising junior class, there's no females. The rising sophomores class, there's four I believe, but everyone else, they're guys. But on a positive note, with our

[38:16]active duty staff, we have two female lieutenants right now and we'll be getting a first, a female captain. And I don't think we've ever had a female captain before as a CEO. So this is really exciting. And our ADS, it's about to be outnumbered. So our executive officers, a male and our MOA, our gunny Sergeant is a male, but it's going to be 3 to 2, which is super, super exciting. And our battalion commander, she's a female, so. This is a representative work. Yeah, that's really great. So this is all back to the Coral Naval ROTC then? Like how do you set a good command climate in the Cornell Naval Naval ROTC? So I really, when I was looking at art like Navy ROTC units at a variety of different schools, Cornell stood out to me the most because of how small it was having a really, really tight knit community. And this was like your second family. And it was there was a huge emphasis on like quality over quantity in terms of the people that were in it. So it's like, I wanted to be surrounded by people that were better than me and they were going to push me every single day to be the best I can be. And they were going to lift me up as like they themselves were moving up like in the world with a good. I really like how our ads, they, they, they know we, we got, we got into a good school. We're all capable of getting good grades. We've all like proven ourselves as like pretty competent adults. So the unit is pretty like student run, which is really, really cool. I think there are other units where the staff kind of run it and there's less like trial and error and giving ownership to the Menshipman. But like as a physical training officer, my last billet, I was like granted the agency to kind of lead and plan evolutions like how I saw fit. And there were people that came before me and I had taken note and see how they done it. But I was able to have my own like, personal twist on it and really. Find pride in the work that I was doing and have full ownership of that. And then the active duty stuff, they really only stepped in if they were like safety or like

[40:17]like political concerns or any optic stuff. And otherwise like I was able, they let me go out, they let me come with a plan. I briefed it, I did the entire cycle. And then sometimes things worked and sometimes they didn't. But I was, I had the safe space to fail and I had the safe space to learn from my mistakes and build up off of that. Because once I'm in the fleet, like there are lives on the line and there aren't necessary lives on the line right now. So we're fortunate enough to be able to have the support in the space to just figure everything out right now while we're like while we're learning. And I mean, this is the space that you are going to like learn and kind of figure out who you are and how you want to be as a leader. So when you enter the fleet like you have that baseline confidence that you can carry forward and just continue learning and to continue fine tuning those skill sets. What's example of a personal twist you added and then how did it impact the command climate? That's a good question. So we I think I changed, I changed up how we did like warmups. So sometimes we would like just all stay in the line and just do dynamic movements. But I kind of was like to increase camaraderie, split everyone in squads and we did kind of these like circle movement, which is like based off of what you do at OCS. I don't think people really liked it, but it definitely got people's heart rate up. Like it was a much better warm up. I think I also encouraged and invited a lot of outside guests to come to our PTS, for example, like the Deans of different like colleges on campus as well as like the president. I don't think he'd ever been to a PT before. So we had him and we did hill sprints. And then hill sprints for the past couple of years have just been from the bottom of the slope to the top of the slope. But I changed how we did them and we just did the short section by the stairs like similar to how unlike the lacrosse team does it. And we were just like running some grouped sections instead of like at your own pace. So like I take kind of foundational workouts that we would do, but I would just try to like make them better or make them different, make them harder per SE and then bring a buddy PT

[42:20]like that. I don't think that was a very, that wasn't like a formal thing. You could always like bring a friend, but no one was ever like really encouraged to. And it felt, you know, out of the norm to just like drag a friend to some weird like military ROTC workout at 6:00 in the morning. But people really, really enjoyed that. And I think like the freshman, they were able to bring their friends and, like, show them what they're all about and like what they're doing early in the morning, which is fun. And then that's also the one you came to, which was great. Yeah, it was. So much fun. Yeah, I think they were a lot of fun and yeah, just trying to come up with like new interesting workouts. I try to focus a lot on the on the, on the kind of the hit workouts that we would do to keep everyone in their squads and also like create kind of like a competitive environment. So you would be pushing yourself and also pushing other people and just to like offer more opportunities to build that overall teamwork dynamic that would extend throughout the rest of the year. So. What are the goals of like? What are your like the target goals that you have? Is the goal to get more people to join the Navy ROTC? Is the goal to create the best graduates that become Admirals in the future? Like what's? The goal, I think the goal of the unit is it's like recruit more people, since the Navy's always needing people. There's a big goal right now to produce nuclear officers. So we'll have like a quota on how many nukes were able to put out upon commissioning. So being able to like persuade midshipmen and get them on board to want to go on a submarine or go on an aircraft carrier. And I think Cornell does really pride itself in producing great officers. And whether none of us decide to stay in and become Admirals, the fact that whatever boat we were, whatever ship we were assigned to or whatever unit that we just, we contribute a lot and I guess we leave a good mark and we're able to like support the command there and, and make a difference. And it truly does just like make a positive difference in a sailor's life since we are here to lead and put others before

[44:22]ourselves. And we have like a motto here at the end. It's like ship, shipmate self. It's like the ship comes first and then after the ship, then you check in on your shipmates and then yourself. So it is really rooted in having like the ownership and just taking full responsibility of the things you're in charge of. And that there, there are other things that are going to come first. Like you, we've all made the personal sacrifice and we all know what we signed up for. To know that we're going to, I guess, put our life and our work and everything, our day to days right now for something beyond ourselves to be a part of something bigger in that whether we're giving back to our communities and like we're able to impact one sailors life in his life, affects his families life and then his families life, like extended family in that ripple effect. Or like you just are able to protect and serve just the larger community. And in terms of our geopolitical situation right now in the different combat zones all over the world, just being able to like uphold and represent like the Constitution, which we swore to defend and protect. I know that's a pretty pure based answer, but that's how I, yeah. And I in hindsight, I was fortunate enough to receive an appointment to the Naval Academy as well as the Coast Guard Academy. And it literally came down to like decision day. Like it was like April 30th and I was like, Oh my God, like what do I pick? Like do I want the Naval Academy or Cornell NRTC since I was like just going back and forth between the two. And I clearly, I'm at Cornell and I have 0 regret, like 0 regrets. And I'm so fortunate to have been here and I think I'm so thankful for my experience and I'm really looking forward to like one last year here. But I've learned so much from the active duty staff here. They've been incredible role models. I'm fortunate that the class that I have are also like incredibly respect, like incredibly impressive people. And we're all so diverse. We all have like a more spread

[46:23]out kind of collective ambition and we all study different things. We all have different interests, but I'm going to have these like connections when I go onto the fleet and I've from other schools. I've already met so many more incredible people that I'll cross paths with again and meet so many more and controversy to like the Naval Academy. My life isn't just 24/7 military. I've been able to like balance a normal college kid life. Like I've been able to just like go out and just have fun and like do all the traditional like college things. And since freshman year, I've been on like the slope day programming board, which has been like an incredible experience within itself. And like this last year, like I was the executive director for that, which was really a formative experience. And it taught me so many things that I wouldn't have learned in ROTC. But because I learned them there, I'm able to bring that to the table and like incorporate that in how in my leadership style and and and have a more broad perspective when I'm on the job in the fleet to. Have friends in ROTC and you have also friends outside of ROTC too. Yeah, I'm exposed and I've been able to connect with just Sony like diverse groups of people with so many different, like diverse interests and ambitions. And everyone's just passionate about so many different things like, and I'm, I'm really fortunate for that and, and grateful that I've been able to just have such a wide net, such a yes, there's so many different supportive communities on campus. Classes you would take in at the like the econ classes at the Naval Academy, how do they compare to like the econ classes at Cornell or like the Naval Academy classes like more focused on like the like the ships? That's a really good question. I'm, I don't think I can answer that. I haven't taken a course there, but I know the, the curriculum at the Naval Academy is very engineering based and they're like non STEM majors. It's just like political science and economics. But I, I can't speak on the fact

[48:24]that Arts and Sciences here with our distribution requirements and the fact that cast just has so many different like subject areas and so many different like academic silos that I've been able to just take like so many unique classes and like elect dibs. And they've been so fun. And I've also taken classes at like the hotel school, which I would have never been able to do with like the Naval Academy. Like I know they, they definitely don't have a glass on like real estate or wines. So, and the fun ones, I'm signed up to take a, a nutritional like science cooking course this semester. Like I could never take that at the Naval Academy. No dis if anyone from the Naval Academy who watches this, no diss at all and in terms like you guys probably have a much better understanding of naval engineering since I've only taken 1 semester of that and like was the road I'm still learning but. Back to their high school days, you were applying to the Naval Academy or applying to ROTC program like like at what point did you like where did you get interested in like what was it in middle school, elementary school? Like at what point did you? It was, it was like the end of my sophomore beginning of my junior year and I was like, wow, like this is so cool. I have no prior like legacy in my family. And there wasn't just kind of like I never had like that role model growing up that was in the military. And I was like, oh, like, I want to follow in their footsteps. I've kind of found it on my own. And it felt like I was able to pioneer in that sense since I do like wherever I go, I want to be able to like, pioneer in something and like break into a new space and be able to lead and, and represent the people that came before me and all the people that are going to come after me. Sophomore. Year yeah, it was, it was it was really just like, wow, you can, you can go to school and like the focus. There's an incredible focus on academics, but there's also an immense focus on building up who you are and like your character and how you're going to carry yourself and your and your, your like, beliefs and values and

[50:24]like, of space to practice like leadership. And that's always been something I've been interested in, whether it does stem from my summer camp days, when like being in those leadership positions felt really empowering for me. And I felt so much fulfillment from that and the activities that I did in high school, like I was on like our student government, we called it Senate and I was like student body president my senior year, which was just like so much fun and so awesome. And I could ramble on about that. And with sports, I did like cross country swimming and track and my like I was able to captain for cross country and track like my senior year. So like I've started tapping into it prior to like formal adulthood. And if I could just kind of like find another extension of that in college, like that's what I was really going for. And I think I found like the perfect outlet for it. Very, very cool. So so for the closing question, I always ask the guests though, what's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you? It's. The kindest thing anyone's ever done for me, I OK, before you even finish your question, I thought you were going to say like, what's the kindest thing anyone has, like ever said to me? And I feel like I've always kept a lot of mental notes of that in terms of the kind of wow, wait. I'm so fortunate to feel like that people have just done so many like kind things for me that I've never be able to pick. Like there have been like grand efforts like whether it be like my parents or my grandparents, like going way out of their way to come just support me. And like, whether it be like visit or just like give me a meal or just like my friends just checking in on me and like offering help and offering support even at times that I didn't know it. So I hope that answer your question. Yeah, but the Super thanks for sharing, not y'all. No, thank you, Tony.