The full-size bus was so packed that over a dozen of us were standing in the aisle between the seats. It was dark, just before midnight. Our hearts raced as we anticipated the impending stresses and life-changing weeks ahead.
For me, this journey had only started a few weeks earlier. Though the Lord had been planting seeds about going into the armed forces in high school, the modern nudging from Him had started November 2025, and the vision grew legs at the end of March. The Lord led me to enlist in the Navy. I went to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) on April 7th and signed the contract that day to ship out for boot camp on April 23rd.
The Lord opened many doors and had an obvious hand in getting me into the Navy, but I most felt His strong presence on that long, dark bus ride while standing in the aisle as we were transferring from O’Hare to Recruit Training Command at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois.
In the silence on board, I prayed and wept. The Lord opened my eyes to the presence of the Holy Spirit that was with us and showed me that great leaders would be born from our graduating group. Angels surrounded us, and the Lord was making many anew.
Fast-forward to graduation day on June 25th. The training group (nine divisions of 80+ recruits) was well above average. Four of the divisions (including mine) received the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) award for receiving high scores on all assignments. Most training groups would maybe have one CNO division. There were many other awards given to our training group, but the number of CNO awards was the most significant.
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