 Chief Logistics Specialist, Submarine Samantha Menci. I'm from Los Angeles, California, and I'm on the USS Wyoming Blue Crew. It's amazing. Words cannot describe how I feel. I never saw myself coming this far in the Navy. I never saw myself being a part of history. I never saw myself reaching, being a chief in the submarine force, and being an enlisted advisor, being the enlisted female chief on a boat. It's something that I never would have imagined. That is actually the hardest part, is being a mom, and I can't talk to my daughter for weeks, months at a time, you know? But that's also what keeps me going, is I know that with me not being able to talk to my daughter and see my daughter for all this time, when I get home, I'm able to be there, and I'm able to tell her all the things that I've done, all the things that I've experienced, all the things that I've learned. I'm able to show her it's possible to do these things. You know, it's not always easy, but it's possible. You know, we make it through, and I know that it has helped my daughter grow. It has helped her become more culture and just grow in the person that she is, so that's really what keeps me going. That's what makes it hard and keeps me going, is her. I honestly think this shows her you can do anything. Don't let people put you in a box. You know, I just want her to know that everything is possible, like it's no barriers, and don't let what people see initially stop you from being able to reach every milestone you push for. You have to reach for it, you have to work. You know, nothing's gonna come easy. And I've worked in the aviation community, I've been overseas, so I have a lot of experiences to bring that people that have come up only in the submarine force, they've never seen, they've never heard, they don't know, even exist. You know, we get boxed into these communities sometimes and we don't know what's outside of them, so it's been an amazing opportunity to be able to share just my opportunities and some of the things that I've learned and then even to be able to learn some of the things that I would have never known being here, so I think it's just, difference is not bad, difference can be an amazing thing. And so when you have a triad that literally is just there and you could tell they really do wanna do the right thing, you know, and it means everything because here it is, you as a worker bee, you get tired, you get worn down, you get frustrated, but to know that you have a triad that sees that and they tired and wore down and frustrated with you too, you know, it helps you push because it's like, okay, we in this together, we really are a team. You tired, I'm tired, but at the end of the day, our goal is to be able to get out and get home and get home successfully, you know, not because we had to emergency pull in or anything like that, it's just this crew really is amazing. So when we found out we completed the term patrol, we had kinda been given a time estimate, but our exo actually came over the 1MC and he announced that the Wyoming successfully completed their first term patrol in over four years. And you heard it throughout the boat. Everyone, it was just like, you heard cheers and sighs of just relief. And I remember being around actually some of the junior females at the time and I remember just being like, we did it, you know, and to know that here it is, the Wyoming was in the yards, they came out of the yards, we started getting, we got myself, we started getting junior females and we went out and we completed something that the boat hadn't done in years. Talk about a relief and then to know, okay, you completed it, we have a few more things to do and then we're home to our families. The whole boat, it was an energy shift. You could tell it was an energy shift because we did it. Our guys that were there, they went through it while the boat was in the yards and the reality is they got the boat out of the yards and then they accepted us and they took us in like, we've been there through all the hard work that got them out of the yards and it's priceless, it's kind of priceless because you don't expect that, you don't expect people to accept you after they put in all this work and they know, oh, okay, we're getting this bunch of people that weren't with us in the yards, but they did that. They opened up their arms to us and helped push us and we have some of the junior females that are getting the help, getting qualified and really learning this boat so that when they put on those dolphins, they could say, oh, yeah, we did this and they trust us, so do it. It's not easy, it's not easy at all, but do it and when you do it, bring you, bring who you are. Don't feel like you need to water yourself down at the door, literally bring all of you because every single one of us have something that we can offer. Everyone has something that they could teach and be willing to learn as you are teaching because nobody is you, so bring you. I appreciate the Navy for even thinking to give us this opportunity because strides for us is strides for everyone. Torpedoman's mate third class, Caniah John from Hamilton, New Jersey stationed in Kings Bay, Georgia. USS Wyoming Blue Crew. Yes, this was perfect for me. I tell my division all the time, I love my job. Honestly, so the nature of the boat in itself, my division, it's close, we're small, it's about five or six of us. The most I've seen was probably six at a time, but how close we are and we work together as a team to get things done, it brings us close. I call them my family, I call them literally my family. I think it's really the people that make my job so great. But it's also actually dealing with the torpedoes and learning about it and what it does and what it can do. It just really makes me like, wow, like a kid in a candy store. It almost felt like butterflies. It was exhilarating just to be there and doing what I was doing. It felt really good to be a part of that whole entire crew and doing what we were doing, being mission ready and doing all the drills. And I learned so much, yes. So on my first boat, there was a lot of women on my first boat, but most of the senior women were coming from surface ships. So they always express the difference between the submarine community and the surface community and how very much so different it was. But, yes, going to the Wyoming as soon as, so I remember it like it was yesterday, my chief at the time, he presented the opportunity of going on to the Wyoming. He said they just converted over to supporting enlisted women on board. And without hesitation, I was like, I'ma do it because like I said earlier, joining submarines, I knew that women were scarce in the submarine force. So when he presented me that opportunity and he explained to me that he thought that I would be a perfect fit for this whole process, I had no hesitation. I was like, I'm going, I'm gonna do it because this is what I came here for. I came here to leave a mark, to make a change and to bring what I have here and to help shape everything that's coming forward. So every boat is like a big puzzle and everyone on that boat is a puzzle piece that make the big picture. So I don't feel like I bring anything different than anybody else, but we all have different perspectives. We all come from different places. Like I met someone all the way from Washington state. I've never been to Washington state before. They have a completely different outlook than how I do being from Jersey my whole life. So I think we're all just big puzzles. I would encourage them to do so because if they already had that thought to join, that means, I think that means you would be an amazing asset to the boat anywhere. Oh yes. I feel like when I have kids, they're gonna look at mommy and be like, wow, look at, that's my mom, that's how I feel. So, and that's important to me. That is very important to me that I am something and somebody to someone. Yes, actually. I wanna add to anyone watching this that you can do anything you put your mind to.