Chief petty officer selectees
pull together on Mount Fuji trek
By Rick Chernitzer,
Stars and Stripes
Rick Chernitzer / Stars and Stripes
Petty Officer 1st Class Alphonso Chapman, a chief petty officer selectee of the Military
Sealift Command Far East, takes a last look back at the summit of Mount Fuji before
descending. |
MOUNT FUJI, Japan — Only the top sailors in the U.S. Navy make
the rank of chief petty officer.
Only the finest climbers can scale to the peak of Mount Fuji.
Combine the two, and you get the new tradition for Japan-based chief
petty officer selectees.
More than 100 future and current chief petty officers from across
Japan gathered at the country’s tallest peak Friday to observe this fairly new
tradition. As a group, these chief selectees had to climb to Fuji’s summit.
“It’s a way of stressing teamwork, which is an important
part of being a chief,” explained Chief Petty Officer Daniel Elmer, assigned to
Submarine Group SEVEN at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. “These selectees have to get up
there together, helping each other out. You set a goal and go the extra mile. I think Fuji
represents that challenge.”
Chief selectees from Misawa, Atsugi and Yokosuka found themselves
toughing out the upward route. Some, like Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Feldhues, a
chief selectee from HSL-51 at Atsugi Naval Air Facility, said it had to be done.
Rick Chernitzer / Stars and Stripes
Petty Officer 1st Class Maurice Wellmaker, a chief petty officer selectee assigned to
Misawa Naval Air Facility, Japan, makes his way up Mount Fuji on Friday. |
“This was something that wasn’t an option to us,” he
said. “You have to do it. You have to come up as a group.”
“It takes a lot of determination. Either that, or a lot of
stupidity,” quipped Chief Petty Officer Broderick Petett, from VS-21, also at Atsugi.
This is the third year for the climb, which is held during chief
petty officer initiation. It begins when the promotion list comes out — usually early
August — until the day selectees are frocked throughout the Navy, around Sept. 15.
Most of the sailors participating in the climb were granted special
liberty from their commands to attend, said Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Messner, from
VP-46 at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
The climbing began around 5:30 a.m., and by half past noon, everyone
who could make it to the top had succeeded.
“We had to pull together as a team to get as high as we
could,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Mark Westlake, a chief selectee from Submarine
Group SEVEN. “It felt good to get to the top.”
The chief selectees will be frocked to chief petty officers on Sept.
14.
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