JROTC cadets take a tour of USS Essex's hospital

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — Junior Navy ROTC cadets from Ernest J. King High School got an insider’s view of the USS Essex this week.

Ninth-grader Raymond Toney, son of Lt. Delbert Toney, who serves aboard the mammoth amphibious assault ship, said the visit was his first on the Essex. The medical department, complete with an intensive-care area and four operating rooms, is what impressed him most.

“That was an interesting part of the ship to see — a hospital on a ship. I really didn’t think it would be so big,” Raymond said.

“Ship visits like this, where we actually show them some of the areas we don’t routinely show tour groups, is extremely valuable to these kids,” said Lt. Donnell Evans, Amphibious Squadron 11 spokesman. About 50 of the students toured the ship Wednesday and Thursday.

Evans said the tour also was valuable because some kids never get a chance to see where their parents work.

“This alone gives them a better understanding of the responsibilities their parents face day-to- day,” he said.

Of about 350 students who started this school year at E.J. King, more than 70 registered in JROTC.

Still in its infancy, the high school’s program is expected to flourish even further given the on-base opportunities for cadets to experience Navy life.

“I was glad to see they took these cadets to places not normally on a tour,” said Henry Barr, a retired chief petty officer who instructs the cadet class. “That said, we don’t exist as Navy JROTC to recruit them into the Navy. We just don’t do that, but it’s still valuable when they can learn more about real life on a ship … what’s actually being done in the jobs of the real Navy’s sailors.”