Also during the ceremony, Donny
Salcedo received the 2008 George
S.B. Walters Pearl Harbor Naval
Shipyard Award for civilian shipyard
employees. Salcedo was chosen for
his overall outstanding performance, leadership, enthusiasm, initiative and team spirit during the 12-
month inactivation of the Los
Angeles-class attack submarine USS
Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
McGrath Installs
Tampa Officers
Navy League National President J.
Michael McGrath was on hand for
the Tampa, Fla., Council’s annual
meeting Jan. 15 at the Valencia
Garden Restaurant in Tampa, dur-
ing which he administered the oath
of office to the new slate of council
officers and Council President
Christopher D. Paddock.
During the event, McGrath also
accepted a check for the Wall of
Honor that is situated in the lobby
of the Navy League Headquarters
Building in Arlington, Va., and presented Council member John
Osterweil with a Navy League
Scroll of Honor for his dedication
to promoting the Navy League and
scholarship activities.
Among those joining the large
crowd of Tampa and area Navy
Leaguers at the event were Rear
Adm. Sean A. Pybus, director of
operations, Center for Operations,
at U.S. Special Operations Command; Rear Adm. Michael T.
Franken, deputy director for
Plans & Policy at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM); and Capt.
Katsuro Fukaya, a member of
Japan’s International Coalition team
at CENTCOM.
MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS KEVIN S. O’BRIEN
Navy League National President J. Michael McGrath, left, accepts a
Department of the Navy Award of Merit for Group Achievement on behalf
of the Navy League from Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter at Winter’s
Pentagon office in January. The award recognizes “a group effort of superior merit which has resulted in high value and benefit to the Navy.”
Bonhomme Richard
Hosts Sea Cadets for
Leadership Course
The amphibious assault ship USS
Bonhomme Richard hosted 50 U.S.
Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC)
cadets during a weeklong advanced
leadership course Dec. 28-Jan. 3.
Bonhomme Richard, which has hosted
a number of Sea Cadet and Junior
Navy Officers Training Corps groups
during the past several years, provided a training ground for the Sea
Cadets as they learned, practiced and
applied new leadership techniques.
The ship was at its homeport in
San Diego while the course was conducted. The cadets were from units
from around the Pacific region.
The NSCC Advanced Leadership
Course consists of daily quizzes, an
oral examination, a final written
examination and a group presentation. Cadets concluded the week of
training with a display of formation
marching and a presentation of the
cadets to Capt. Neil R. Parrot, who
recently took command of
Bonhomme Richard.
”This is the primary academy for
leadership skills that the cadets go to
and we follow the guidelines of the
U.S. Navy Petty Officer Leadership
course,” Randy Owen, NSCC operations officer, said in a Navy News
Service report on the event. “This
eight-day course is offered twice a
year, where we challenge the cadets
in all aspects of leadership. It’s amazing how much they grow in that
short amount of time.”
For many of the sea cadets, this
was the first time being on a Navy
ship, an experience that put much
of their training into perspective
and made a lasting impression.
“The first time I saw the ship, I
didn’t know what to think. All I
could say was ‘wow,’” Sea Cadet
Petty Officer 3rd Class Josh
Gladden, of Spokane, Wash., told
the Navy News Service. “My dad
was in the Navy and he always
talked about life on a ship. Now
