Sea Cadets San Joaquin Division and Training Ship Seawolf Take to the Air and Water
By Brett Davis
The San Joaquin Division and Training Ship Seawolf recently hosted Sacramento Council STEM Coordinator Patrick Egan for a briefing and demonstration on how drones are used by the military for intelligence missions as well as force protection.
The Sea Cadets also learned how drones are used in the civilian sector and about expanding career paths in the evolving technology. Egan traveled to Tracy, California, where the division hails from, along with an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a tethered device that travels underwater.
The Sea Cadets received a safety briefing, then took to the water and sky at the controls of the UAS and ROV. Lt. John McGinnis, commanding officer, and executive officer Lt. (j.g.) Stephanie Ward, of the Division and Training Ship, coordinated the event after meeting Egan the previous year onboard the National Liberty Ship Memorial USS Jeremiah O’Brien during Fleet Week 2019 in San Francisco.
Egan teaches a “business of drones” class for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and also uses UAS for marketing initiatives and ROVs for hull inspections of the USS Jeremiah O’Brien and WWII submarine USS Pampanito, both homeported in San Francisco.
San Joaquin Division’s activities onboard the USS Jeremiah O’Brien have been curtailed, but they look forward to again getting underway and supporting the ship’s mission as a living memorial to the merchant marine warriors of World War II.