By Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher O’Grady
GREAT LAKES, Il. — Engineman 2nd Class Morgan Rogers, a former Springville High School student from Birmingham, Alabama, is a recruit division commander (RDC) and the Junior Instructor of the Year (JIOY) at U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy’s only boot camp.
Engineman 2nd Class Morgan Rogers, from Birmingham, Alabama, is a recruit division commander and the Junior Instructor of the Year at U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command, the Navy’s only boot camp. Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Stephane Belcher
RTC’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Kertrek Brooks named Rogers as the JIOY. She also received the Junior Instructor of the Quarter for the second quarter.
She competed against another RDC for the award. As an RDC, Rogers teaches recruits various military instructions.
“It’s a plethora of things,” said Rogers. “You go from instructing how to wear a uniform, military bearing, how to say things, when to say things, to basic firefighting. One thing they’ve incorporated in the last year here is [teaching] life skills.”
The selection process consists of going in front of a board and teaching, as well as submitting a package that highlights what the nominee has achieved. Rogers thinks the board itself made her stand out. She started with a high tempo to engage the board members.
“You’ve got to go in there, and you’ve got to grab the attention of the audience,” said Rogers. “There was a lot of back-and-forth—questions were being asked and hands were being raised. I think that’s one thing I did well. I have to let them know, ‘I’m here to teach you, but I’m a human being just like you. This is going to be a lot of give and take here, if you’ve got any questions, feel free.’ Because at the end of the day I had to learn this too.”
Rogers is a driven Sailor, and it showed not only in her board but also in her well-rounded package. Rogers is only a few classes away from getting a bachelor’s degree in sports psychology. She is qualified in the master training specialist program and the ships training team. She also volunteered with local high school basketball teams and became a notary public for the state of Illinois.
Senior Chief Gas Turbine Systems Technicians Serena Ruiz nominated her for the award. Rogers recognized her leaders and credits her achievement to Ruiz and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Madison Barkman.
“One thing about senior chief is she’s going to stay on you,” Rogers added. “I’d say senior chief along with [HM1] Barkman, they’re a pretty big reason why I was able to come out. They stayed on me.”
Rogers is getting ready to transfer to her next command. She went on to explain how her time at RTC was challenging due to all the instructional changes from the COVID pandemic.
“My time here at RTC has been bittersweet,” said Rogers. “Starting out, it was normal operations, and then COVID came and it kind of shifted everything. Overall, I can say I enjoyed my time here.”
Rogers served aboard the USS Rushmore (LSD 47), in Sasebo, Japan, before reporting to RTC.
Boot camp is approximately 10 weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control along with lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork and discipline. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp.
