Three Classmates-Turned-Naval Officers Share Their Stories

Sloan: I think what motivated me to join the Navy was the combination of wanting to give back to my country and have an adventure — and the Navy has certainly been an adventure. Ravenscroft encourages community service and does a phenomenal job of instilling that in its students. I felt that joining the military was the best capacity for me to serve my community.

Mills: I grew up dreaming of the opportunity to serve in the Navy, which made my decision to accept my HPSP scholarship and join an easy one. By far the best part of my job is having the opportunity to positively impact others on a daily basis. As a physician, I am fortunate to care for people from various backgrounds and different paths of life. Whether presenting for an elective surgery or being brought in by EMS as a trauma patient, people are typically not at their best when we meet them, and each encounter presents an opportunity to leave them better off. I have always taken a lot of pride in being able to serve the people in my community and look forward to doing the same for the men and women serving in our military.

Haslett: I always wanted to be a jet pilot. My dad was an Air Force F-4 Phantom and F-16 Viper pilot, and I still remember coming out to the airfield as a kid and watching him take off at night. The afterburner roaring out of the back of the engine, shaking everything within 100 yards, was amazing to me. I also recall seeing all of the guys in his squadron come over to the house, drag the couch into the backyard and set it on fire. That experience really opened my eyes to the esprit de corps that existed among military jet pilots.

The most fulfilling aspect thus far in my career has been coming out on deployment and actually executing tasking from our higher commands. It was six years from my first-ever training flight in the Navy to my first flight overseas on deployment. After spending that long in training, it has been great to be out on the ship flying the missions and solving the problems that I heard about from more senior aviators. Along with the flying, taking care of the sailors in my division has been very rewarding. “Top Gun” and other movies don’t show it, but every naval aviator is at some point in their career a Division Officer with anywhere from 20 to 70 sailors in their division. Helping these sailors and watching them work toward and achieve their personal and professional goals has been incredible.

Sloan: The impact Ravenscroft had on me is truly beyond measure, especially the teachers and coaches. All my coaches — Coach Gonet, Coach Gibbons, Coach Cummings, Coach Durham and Coach Billerman — were such positive influences on my life. Not only did they help me athletically but, more importantly, they instilled values in me that carried far beyond Ravenscroft and will continue with me after my time in the Navy. Additionally, teachers like Katherine Belk challenged me to be a better version of myself in ways that I think all young people need.

Mills: There were countless people and experiences at Ravenscroft that helped and inspired me along the way. Everyone, from my peers to the teachers and coaches I had, played an integral part in making me who I am today. One aspect of Ravenscroft that had a significant impact was the emphasis placed on community service. Ravenscroft was always supportive of my involvement in the fire service as a volunteer firefighter. It was through this experience I truly came to understand the importance of serving one’s community and being a part of something bigger than myself. It is this same mentality that drove me to medicine and the Navy.

Haslett: Junior year, Dr. Nelson Nunalee took a few of us to N.C. State’s engineering department to show us around and get us interested in engineering. I ended up selecting engineering as my major at Ole Miss, and that background in math and science helps me in aviation to this day. Overall, Ravenscroft gave me the foundational academic skills to manage a busy syllabus in the time-compressed environment that the Navy provides. Not to mention all the character-building I did with a few of my closest friends running wind sprints after lacrosse games for “unnecessarily hard” and “late” hits against Durham Academy.

Sloan: Looking back at us in high school, I think it is a phenomenal story that we all ended up where we are. I think it is a testament to how important it is to surround yourself with people who challenge you and want to see you be successful. John, Baker and I all went on separate paths after Ravenscroft, but we stayed close, and I think that was a huge part of all of us finding our own paths into the Navy.

Mills: In short, it’s awesome. It’s also not surprising to me at all to see everything John and Temple have accomplished. They are two of the most driven and talented people I know and am fortunate enough to call my close friends. It has been inspiring to watch their careers develop over the years. It is certainly not lost on me that they are the epitome of my future patients. I feel very fortunate to be able to take care of men and women, such as John and Temple, who are leading the charge and defending our wonderful country. I can only hope our differing paths and experiences serve as an example to younger generations of the many opportunities the Navy has to offer. I also hope we can collectively serve as an example to all Ravenscroft students, as none of us were straight-A students. Yet, we managed to turn out all right.

Haslett: To be honest, I’m not terribly surprised we all ended up in the same branch together. I knew Temple wanted to be a SEAL, and anyone who knows Temple knows if he says he’s going to do something, it’s going to happen. Baker always wanted to be a doctor and was very interested in his cousin’s career as a Navy surgeon. The same considerations for Temple apply to Baker, so the fact that he ended up as a Navy surgeon seemed standard to me since he said he was going to do it. Not only has ending up in the Navy allowed me to share another bond with two of my closest friends, it has also given me bragging rights over my dad. He may have 4,200+ fighter hours and have retired as a Squadron Commander, but he has never landed a jet on the boat at night.