By JOSH PHILLIPS
NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, MD—In 1974, young Aviation Boatswain's Mate Eric Brown stood on the deck of USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), nervously awaiting his first official duty as a sailor.

As he stood on the flight deck awaiting his orders, the dull roar of an incoming jet engine officially signaled his arrival into the Navy, along with seven very distinct words.

"'Be careful and don't get sucked in', was what I was told," Brown said. "Then I saw this jet fly onto the aircraft carrier and catch itself on the [trap wire]."

His first job? To apply chock blocks to the jet that had just landed.

Thirty years after heeding that piece of good advice and many other carrier landings later, Brown stood ready to receive another "first" of his Naval career. On March 1, Brown became the first Navy Chief Warrant Officer 5 in Pax River history, and only the fifth since the Navy implemented the rank in 2002. The creation of the CWO5 rank will ensure that the Navy attracts and retains the very best technical leadership for a full 30-year career.

After graduating from high school in Beaufort, S.C., Brown found himself faced with the decision in which branch of the armed forces to enlist: Army or Navy?

"The biggest reason I joined the Navy was because that's what my brother was doing at the time," he said. "We had just graduated high school and I had initially decided I wanted to join the Army. Then one day I just snapped out of it and enlisted in the Navy. He felt that the Navy was a better option for him at the time, so I trusted his judgment."

Since that time, Brown has been stationed aboard four aircraft carriers, USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), USS Coral Sea (CV 43), and the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). Brown also spent several years of shore duty at Navy Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake, Va., where he was in charge of the crash crew that handled emergency situations.

"After a while, time just seems to go by quickly," Brown said. "What keeps me going are things like good duty assignments and the increase in responsibilities. I've been a lot of places and experienced a lot of things, so it just became a way of life after a while."

In September 1988, with nearly 14 years of his Naval career completed, Brown became a chief warrant officer aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt.

"I'll never forget it. I got a phone call from my master chief on a Friday to tell me I had been selected," Brown said. "I thought he was calling me to come back to work, but he wasn't. It's kind of like being on that aircraft carrier for the first time again because you just don't know what to expect. It was overwhelming, but I realized that in time, I'd get used to it and adjust."

Brown reported to Pax River in May 2002 as the head of the station's Airfield Facilities Division.

"I wanted to stay on the East Coast, and I knew that my choices were going to be limited for shore duty," Brown said. "One thing I like about [Pax] is that the people around here are very friendly. This area also has some of the best pier fishing I've ever done."

Brown will be leaving the station March 31 because he has accepted a position at the Naval Aviation Technical Training Center in Pensacola, Fla.

Brown, the first Navy CWO5 at Pax, was joined at his promotion by a former shipmate. "The first guy to get the CWO5 rank is a good friend of mine and was at the ceremony on Monday," Brown said.

CWO5 Leon Cole, a food service officer aboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), was the first sailor ever to receive the rank on Oct. 1, 2003.

According to Brown, the upgrade in rank won't affect how he continues to perform his duties. If anything, it's reaffirmed his belief to keep doing things the way he's been doing them.

"I'm still going to do things like I've always done them. I'll have more responsibilities but I'm still going to keep training people and trusting them to do their jobs," he said. "It's not like it was when I stepped on that first aircraft carrier. I'm an old salt now."

-USN-

Photo by Josh Phillips
Eric Brown is promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 5 during a ceremony March 1. Brown became the first Navy Chief Warrant Officer 5 in Pax River history, and only the fifth since the Navy implemented the grade in 2002.