 In the Pacific Ocean, near the Hawaiian Islands, USS Nimitz is haze gray and underway. The ship's been in dry dock for a year and a half and this is the first time at sea for much of the crew. While the sailors train in skills crucial to mission success, a small group has begun another journey. Over 300 Nimitz first class petty officers are up for promotion. They're under evaluation for the next several months and if they make the cut, we'll put on anchors and join the ranks of the Navy Chiefs. Next title, Overseas and Arduous Duty. Are you on Arduous Duty? I am. I am. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it. This is a busy ship. I am hospital corpsman first class Johnna Obermuller. I grew up in Spokane, Washington and I joined the Navy in September 1998. Make sure your people are not late because just let them know. People who are showing up late for quarters will be sorting trash. Ship service in the first class Antonio Jordan. I'm from Flint, Michigan. While I joined the Navy in March 12, 2001, I remember he said it was correct, it's been a while. There's an actual probe that goes up on the mast that detects your intensity of radiation. My name is Damage Controlman first class Scott Lowendor. I'm from Battleground, Washington. I joined the Navy in 2001. I'm a culinary specialist first class Anthony Hooper. I'm from Stockton, California. I joined the Navy back in April of 1995, went to boot camp in December of 1995. I'm A1 Jasmine Shackleford. I am from San Antonio, Texas. I joined the Navy in January of 1999. My name is Aviation Bolsa's mate Handler, first class, air warfare, surface warfare, rowing, rowing. I'm originally from Jamaica, but I've grown up in Miami, Florida. I joined the Navy September 9, 2000 out of Miami, Florida. I'm from the United States of America. LPO's or leading petty officers are the managers of their respective departments. The gold fouled anchors of a CPO or chief petty officer are a symbol of leadership that transcends work centers and are a beacon to all sailors. The chief candidates attend CPO 365, a course designed to prepare them for that next level of responsibility. Taking the course is senior chief intelligence specialist James Williams. There are many qualities that make a good chief petty officer, and I think that holds true for any Navy leader. I think the single most important quality, though, is experience. With experience comes the ability to train your junior people in any situation that they may come up in, being able to relate your experiences to them and how to make themselves grow because you've been through it yourself. Just by attending class they show that they're interested in advancing themselves, learning new skills, and taking care of sailors throughout the limits. Words like potential to be a good chief petty officer is not demonstrating that you're already there. I joined the Navy about a year after high school just to get some experience. Go ahead and open. I'm just going to do a quick exam. I knew I wanted to go back to college and to travel. My job is a dental hygienist and an LPO for dental department, so I not only treat patients down there doing their cleanings and helping out around the clinic as far as like sterilization and patient care, I'm also the leading petty officer, so I'm constantly making sure that the clinic is running smoothly and constant flow of patients. You're going to have that rough feeling on your teeth throughout the rest of the day. And like I said, it will slowly wear off. Everybody know we got the level of knowledge. Medical and, um, medical and damage control. Make sure y'all people are doing that. Well, I was in college. I went to Saginaw Valley State University. I went there on a football scholarship. Then after a while, then after school, I started to become a parole officer. You know, I was doing my internship over the summer and then one morning I woke up and realized it wasn't for me. That was something I didn't want to do. So that's when I went to the, uh, I went to the recruiter in Flint, Michigan and that's where it all started. My job description pretty much is to lead, supervise over 42 sailors in the daily upkeep, managing, uh, state rooms and, uh, various other locations, the ship's laundry, ship's barbershop. You okay with that? It's a little heavy. It's not as heavy as the other one is. I had plans to join the Navy from, from way back when I actually have a letter from my, that I wrote to the Navy that was about eight years old. Let's put this one on your booklet. This one's a little bit big. And the Navy wrote me back and they said, uh, thank you for your, your interest in the Navy. Uh, write us back in about 10 years and we'll, we'll get you a great career in the Navy. Your face over here, there you go. And then what you'd do is you'd put this on here. My job, um, basically I'm on the damage control division, LPO. So I oversee, um, several work center supervisors that are in charge of repair lockers, self-contained breathing apparatuses, charging stations for those SCBAs, um, fixed firefighting systems throughout the ship, A-TRIPLE-F, HALON, CO2, APC, and then they'll, the whole training side of the house. I've got a training PO that's in charge of command level training for the entire ship when people come aboard and, and they, uh, they're brand new. He's the one that trains them on, uh, how to fight the fires and, or how to fight fires and how to, um, contain casualties and, and, uh, augment a repair locker. Steamship. Hey you guys, you're doing a good job, keep it up. Uh, currently I'm the, uh, cargo leading peddiosher. Uh, what that basically entails is I'm in charge of all the food provisions on board, uh, below decks. So I'm the ones that requisition out, uh, for food, uh, to maintain the ship's, uh, operational capabilities from anywhere from 30 to 45 days, depending on what we need to do. Um, and I grab that food in bulk and I store it below and I issue it daily to the galleys to, uh, make sure they maintain and take care of the crew. Um, so, and just to give you an idea, my daily store room average when I load out is anywhere between one and two million dollars. I'm very proud of what I've done and, and the decision I've made to, to join the Navy and I wanted something better for myself, uh, and later on when I started a family, better for them as well. It's midday and A01 Shackleford is on her way to conduct a surprise lost tool drill. For the personnel and weapons maintenance, a lost tool is a serious safety hazard and can bring work to an immediate stop. Currently, I'm, I'm an AIMD, I'm a QAR, so I supervise the maintenance and, uh, the upkeep of bomb racks and missile launchers and, uh, maintenance on, on the M61 Alpha 1 Vulcan gun. We've got, it's definitely a solid piece missing. Who's got the authority to say, all right, you guys can go back to work. I was an undesignated airman. I, I was working at an airport when I was a civilian and, um, I, I knew that I wanted to work around aircraft. I just didn't know what I wanted to do. I came in undesignated intentionally because I wanted to look around. I thought I was going to be an ABH, but, um, I got put in the weapons department as an undesignated airman, got sent to the flight deck and just fell in love with the AL rate. That's a really good job, dude. Are you listening, Mr. Fordy? I joined the Navy mostly for school, uh, partly because it was, it was getting expensive and, uh, just to work and go to school. I ended up staying in, again, because I really enjoyed my rate and I wanted to see how far I could go. Um, our responsibilities on board Nimitz is, um, being the hangar deck LPO, I'm responsible for all the training of all our personnel as, as well as the watch standing and, uh, qualifications of all our guys. Um, the movement of all aircrafts on the hangar bay to plan it and execute it safely, of course. Um, that's my primary job. Um, in the hangar bay, making sure that I have enough qualified, trained personnel, proficient personnel to carry out the deployment and the needs that come along. Well, prior to the Navy, I was a state corrections officer and, uh, I enjoyed that, but, um, not that it was overly dangerous. Um, I just didn't see myself sticking with that for the rest of my life. And I wanted to try something different, wanted to, uh, do something I'm a little more proud of, you know, and, uh, the Navy gave me that opportunity and, um, there was, uh, application in the Miami Herald looking for firefighters and, uh, people looking for an adventure. Of course, there's a Navy hook and, uh, I went ahead and I, uh, took advantage of that, spoke with a detailer and decided to make a career change and it's, uh, worked out for the better. But here's the deal. I'm going to give you a little hint and it'll probably be the last hint you get about induction and I'll ask a question. What do you think the first thing you have to do is when you find out you made chief, why? Cause you have to have a closeout. Eval, right? That is going to be your first task. Do you want to find out the second week of August that you can't write an Eval when you're going to have a lot more things on your mind or do you want to do it now? That's why we're here in the room today. That's why I want you to start buckled down and do this homework. Last year on board Nimitz alone, hundreds of first classes were up for chief. Only a handful made it. I'm hopeful. My fingers are crossed. Um, it's my first time up. So if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I mean, I'll obviously be disappointed, but it's just going to make me try that much harder. I think this year is my year because I feel I've done so much and within the last five years is what they're looking at and I'll prove it myself in my opinion as a leader and hopefully I'll be thought of as worthy to put the anchors on. I say I got another year before I actually put on chief because I always, I mean, I still have room to grow. You know, I truly believe I still have room to grow. And, um, and I think it may be in a, if I, about a year, I think I have another year before I pick up chief. I started off, uh, at a, uh, the lowest level and to know that I'm achieving a new part, a new place in, in my Navy career by leaving the ship as a chief peddelser would be extremely exciting and, uh, extremely motivating at that to know that, uh, I've, I've excelled that much in my years to, to go from an E1 to an E7 and to do it on my first ship and then leave it at that level. I'm already acting as a chief peddelser. I'm the hang of day chief pretty much. I'm just an LPO.