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November 23, 2015VOL. 4| ISSUE 21

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FROM AIR TO PATIENT CARE

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in this issue

Nimitz’ dental officer, Cmdr. Richard Guerra, hasn’t always served as a dental officer. Read about how this once P-3C Orion navigator made the transition to dental officer.

Some Sailors on board Nimitz may struggle at some point in their romantic

relationships. What you may not know, however, is that the Navy offers

a fun and exciting way to learn how to improve your marriage. MC2 Ian

Zagrocki takes a look at CREDO’s Marriage Enrichment retreats.

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Page 04

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For Guerra, staying in the Navy outweighed the challenges that would come with switching designators, and with his

experience recruiting dentists, he knew first-hand how badly the Navy needed dentists.

FROM AIR TO PATIENT CARE PHOTOS AND STORY BY

MC3 WILLIAM J. BLEES

CMDR.RICHARD GUERRA

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“My main concern with the transition was that I was 33 when I started dental school, so it had

been over 11 years since I finished college.”

AT SOME POINT IN A SAILOR’S CAREER HE OR SHE MAY HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION BETWEEN SEPARATING FROM THE NAVY OR CHANGING JOBS IN ORDER TO STAY IN AS THE NAVY IS CONSTANTLY SEEKING THE CORRECT MANNING LEVELS IN ALL CAREER FIELDS.

continued on page 6

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Being forced to choose between these options may seem unfair and be hard to process for those

who have been in their career fields for a long period of time.

On the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) however, there are Sailors who have undertaken the challenge of learning and progressing through a new job field in order to stay in the Navy.

Cmdr. Richard Guerra, the dental officer on board Nimitz made the de-cision to stay in the Navy and change career paths when faced with the harsh reality that continuing his career as a navigator for P-3C Orions was no lon-ger viable.

“After my squadron operational tour, I could go back to either a nav-igational school, an ROTC (reserve officer training center) program or re-cruiting,” said Guerra. “So, I decided to go to recruiting. I thought I would be recruiting pilots, navigators, ship driv-ers or line officers. When I was there however, they told me I was going to recruit dentists. I had no thoughts of ever being a dentist”

When he reported to Navy Recruit-ing District (NRD) Denver, in Decem-ber 1992, Guerra quickly started build-ing a rapport with many of the faculty members at the University of Colorado where he was recruiting students. He also started building a friendship with the assistant dean, a former Air Force pilot.

When developing these friend-ships, Guerra had no idea how influen-tial they would end up being in his life.

During his time recruiting at NRD Denver, the P-3C community was making major reductions to their man-power.

“The P-3 community was going to be virtually slashed in half,” said Guer-ra. “In 1987, when I came in, there were around 24 squadrons and now, I believe, there are only 10 or 11. I was told if I stayed in that community it was highly doubtful that I would be able to stay in for 20 years.”

Realizing the position he was in, Guerra started thinking about what his options would be if he wanted to con-tinue his career in the Navy.

He found inspiration to switch career paths from an unlikely source: building model airplanes.

In his free time Guerra would build models, and he decided to build one of the planes the assistant dean used to pi-lot when he was in the Air Force and give it to him.

“When he saw it, he said I could easily be a dentist because of my dex-terity and hand skills,” said Guerra.

Guerra said the most important ability with dentistry is steady hands. Anyone can study and learn the materi-als, but not everyone has steady hands.

PULLING TEETHcontinued from page 5

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For Guerra, staying in the Navy outweighed the challenges that would come with switching designators, and with his experience recruiting dentists, he knew first-hand how badly the Navy needed dentists.

“My main concern with the transi-tion was that I was 33 when I started dental school, so it had been over 11 years since I finished college,” said Guerra. “I was concerned with whether or not I would be able to compete with these [young] guys just to even be ac-cepted.”

Guerra applied for dental scholar-ship programs with both the Army and Navy. He ended up not being selected for either one, but that didn’t stop him. He continued to press on and went into a Navy dental student program. The way the program was written, Guerra had to drop rank from a Lieutenant to an Ensign in order to go into the pro-gram, and while he was in dental school he would not be considered active duty.

Although school was challenging, Guerra had something the other stu-dents didn’t: the discipline ingrained in him by the Navy.

“The challenge was all of the ma-terial,” said Guerra. “I probably had to study more than most students.”

After completing his dental edu-cation, Guerra still faced challenges in the dental field. He said, when he was assigned to his first command as a den-tal officer, on USS George Washington (CVN 73) he learned he had to be effi-cient, or he wasn’t going to eat lunch, due to the large volume of Sailors.

He quickly learned the ins and outs of the dental field as he continued from command to command. Now, at his sixth command since becoming a dental officer, Guerra leads the Dental Department on board Nimitz.

For Nimitz’ Dental Department, being in the shipyards hasn’t changed the type of work they need to accom-plish, but the time allotted to take care of patients has decreased.

“When we were underway we could work on Saturdays and eve-nings,” said Guerra. “Now we don’t. We have the same amount of work but fewer hours, so you have to get quick-er.”

For Guerra, he embraces the job as the ships dental officer, as staying in the Navy and continuing his career was more important than staying in his spe-cialized field as a P-3C Orion navigator or becoming a civilian again.

“I wasn’t too keen about going back to being a civilian,” said Guerra.

He didn’t, and now, after 25 years in the Navy, Guerra plans on retiring next year. His resilience through his transformation from navigator to den-tal officer shows that hard work and perseverance can pay dividends. Many Sailors have similar stories of over-coming the trials and tribulations asso-ciated with re-rating in the Navy. Much like Guerra, who was able to complete his goal of more than 20 years of ser-vice, the Sailors of today’s Navy con-tinue to show their unique adaptability and make the Navy their own.

BRIDGING THE GAP

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TRAININGFOR

TOGETHERNESSSTORY BY MC2 IAN ZAGROCKI

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“IT LOOKS THE SAME DAY-TO-DAY, BUT IT’S NOT,” HAKANSON SAID. “IT’S EITHER GROWING OR IT’S DYING. AND WHEN A SAILOR’S GONE ALL THE TIME HOW CAN THE RELATIONSHIP GROW UNLESS YOU HAVE REALLY EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION?”CMDR. J. MICHAEL HAKANSON, NIMITZ’ COMMAND CHAPLAIN, WHEN COMPARING RELATIONSHIPS AND HOUSE PLANTS

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Sitting on a pew in the back of the empty chap-el onboard USS Nim-

itz (CVN 68), Chief Religious Programs Specialist Stanley D. Ponder remembers a Sailor who approached him. Ponder’s eyes focus distantly, as if he’s recall-ing something from years ago. Speaking with confidentiality, he only refers to the Sailor who came to him as a member of the ship’s crew.

Ponder said he knew the Sail-or and they had talked while passing in the passageways many times before he needed help. On that day, however, Ponder could tell that something was off.

The Sailor was experiencing

an issue familiar to many Nimitz Sailors: he was having marriage difficulties.

Ponder responded with rec-ommending that he and his spouse attend a marriage retreat run by the Chaplain Religious Enrichment Development Oper-ation (CREDO).

CREDO is an organization run by the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. This program uses re-treat-based training to help Sail-ors of all beliefs succeed in the Navy by focusing on various top-ics like relationships and anger management.

“The Sailor let me know be-fore signing up for the retreat, he and his spouse were on the road

toward divorce, and he didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Ponder. “When they went to this retreat, it was an eye-opener. It was the very thing to rekindle that flame within his marriage.”

Although this Sailor’s mar-riage crisis was averted, that’s not specifically what the CREDO marriage retreats are designed for. The intent of the retreats are to provide married Sailors with the tools to build stronger relation-ships even if they are not having marital problems.

“In fact, that’s who we rec-ommend it for,” said Command-er J. Michael Hakanson, Nimitz’ Command Chaplain. “It’s not marriage counseling, and that’s a

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misconception.” Another misunderstanding

is the thought that these retreats have a specific religious focus.

“CREDO cannot do that, CRE-DO doesn’t want to do that,” said Hakanson. “We want to make sure that we are hitting a broad spectrum of individuals.

Hakanson explained that these rules are detailed in Title 10 of the United States Code, which authorizes funds for the military as well as restricting how those funds may be used.

In accordance with Title 10, CREDO Marriage Retreats are designed to help established cou-ples create even better marriages. Unfortunately, some people can’t see the need for help until it’s too late.

“No one wants to be trained on how to be a better spouse,” said Ponder. “They want to wing it and [if they do, they could]

eventually find themselves in my office because they now have to sign divorce papers.”

Ponder went on to say that knowing how to be happily mar-ried is not a naturally occurring skill, but rather one that requires dedication, practice and adapt-ability.

The two-day seminar-style re-treat works largely to hone com-munication skills. The techniques taught are geared toward helping Sailors and their spouses connect better day-to-day and during the long months apart at sea.

“You know Sailors deploy,” said Commander Hakanson. “Marriages, without effective communication, deteriorate.”

Hakanson compared marriag-es and relationships to having a house plant.

“It looks the same day-to-day, but it’s not,” Hakanson said. “It’s either growing or it’s dying. And

when a Sailor’s gone all the time, how can the relationship grow un-less you have really effective com-munication?”

Hakanson said that the retreats focus on interaction rather than in-struction.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter ‘do this”,’ said Hakanson. “We under-stand every family is different, yet there are some things that are the same. With every family, with ev-ery couple, regardless.”

CREDO retreats are offered, free of charge, to all active-duty couples. All that is required to be eligible is an up-to-date Page 2. The weekend retreats are provided as needed; usu-ally on a monthly basis.

For a list of upcoming events to promote personal or couple’s well being, stop by the Religious Minis-tries office or visit Northwest CRE-DO on Facebook. Interested Sailors can sign up at the ship’s Religious Ministries office.

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