Interview with the Admiral

Today, April 13, 2020, marks the ten-year anniversary of me interviewing with Admiral Kirkland Donald and signing on the dotted line to go on active duty with the Navy in order to be an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command (NNPTC) in Goose Creek, South Carolina. Back in 2010, I was teaching high school math and physics out in Arizona. The job was a lot of fun, but I couldn’t see myself doing it forever and, after student teaching at a Department of Defense school on an Army base in Bamberg, Germany, I was itching to do something in the military. After jumping through a million hoops and going through the process of physicals, eye exams, and technical phone interviews, I got the opportunity to fly to Washington, D.C., to interview with Admiral Donald, the four-star officer in charge of the entire storied Navy Nuclear Power Program. This interview with the Admiral was the most nervous I have ever been in my entire life. I felt like my entire future was on the line.

Interviewing for the Navy Nuclear Power Program follows a specific format. First, candidates do at least two technical interviews with Naval Reactors engineers. Some interviewees are randomly chosen for a third interview, while others get a third interview because one or both of the first two did not go well, but the candidate does not know the reason he/she is having a third interview, so it’s extremely nerve-wracking. The engineer doing the interview has your college transcript, and they warn you that anything from any class you have taken is fair game. Everything is on the table. They give you a whiteboard and a dry erase marker, and start firing questions. The goal is to work through the problems on the board, explaining each step in your thought process and talking your way through the problem. Showing how you think, reason, and communicate is even more important than getting the final right answer, or so they say. Fortunately for me, I had been teaching for a few years and was very much in the mode of explaining things to students. I remember having to derive the quadratic formula, work through a classic calculus problem, explain how to solve an exponential growth rate problem, and talk my way through the Rankine cycle. This all went pretty well, I managed to evade a third interview, and I was given the go ahead to see the Admiral. If your technical interviews don’t go well, they don’t even waste the Admiral’s time by letting you talk to him. You’re just done right then and there.

They had flown us out to D.C. a day early so we could practice our interviews with Admiral Donald. It turns out the Admiral interview is hardly an interview at all, at least in the traditional sense. Everything was done under strict control and guidance from the officers who helped prepare us for the interview and escorted us to the office on that day. When it became my turn to see the Admiral, someone escorted me into Admiral Donald’s office. As I entered, I introduced myself using a scripted template that included my name, city of residence, college major, occupation, and personal interests. There was no handshake or chit-chat with the Admiral of any kind. I sat at the chair in front of his desk as he looked through the write-ups from my technical interviews, college transcripts, and other documents and letters from my recruiters. My escort awkwardly stood behind me during the entire interview. Admiral Donald may have glanced at me once in the roughly two minutes I was in his office, but it was fleeting and nearly imperceptible. He asked me how long I’ve been teaching, what the graduation rate was at the high school I was teaching at, and maybe one or two other things that I can’t remember. I did my best to speak clearly, not sound nervous, and keep my answers brief. The Admiral then gave a slight nod to my escort who tapped me on the shoulder and indicated it was time to leave. We walked into a small anteroom, and my escort stuck out his hand and said, “Congratulations. You are now a dildo.” That’s not a typo. The guy called me a dildo ten seconds after one of the biggest moments of my life as I’m standing there nearly crapping my pants from nerves. Let me explain. The Admiral must have given my escort a thumbs up or some kind of confirmation that I had passed as I walked out of his office, so my escort was free to tell me right then and there that it was time to sign some paperwork to officially go on active duty with the Navy. As for the dildo thing…well, I was interviewing for an instructor position at the Nuclear Power School. Legend has it, although it’s likely not factual, that people in my position used to formally be known as Direct Input Limited Duty Officers, hence the nickname. This is the first and only time in my life that I nearly cried tears of happiness because someone called me a dildo.

My escort took me back to the bullpen where everyone else was waiting. I sat there for a few hours while the rest of the candidates went through their interviews. It was a somber atmosphere, because some people there did not make it, and those who did were considerate and kept to themselves. Eventually, those of us who passed signed our paperwork and life was never the same again. Going through this process and serving in the Navy is easily one of the most important, challenging, and rewarding things I have ever done in my life. The Navy gave me skills that set me up for the rest of my life. The chances I would have my current job without my time in the Navy are slim to none. This was a monumental moment in my life, and the fact that ten years have already flown by blows my mind. It’s a good reminder to savor the days and moments in life, because they are all too fleeting.