Eight Navy Reserves Officer Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen joined the crew of amphibious platform dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) to learn and to experience firsthand shipboard life July 16 – Aug. 14.
The annual summer training program is held between academic school years and is applicable to both NROTC and U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) midshipmen. The program is designed to get the midshipmen experienced with day-to-day experiences and operations aboard Navy ships.
From the ending of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) to the second underway recovery test (URT-2) for the NASA Orion Program, the midshipmen were actively engaged as they sailed with Anchorage on the Pacific Ocean.
Each midshipman is paired up with a crew member, called a running mate, to work with them and teach them how to assimilate smoothly into ship life.
Anchorage was built at the Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding site in Avondale, Louisiana, and is the seventh San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. Delivered to the Navy on Sept. 17, 2012, the ship was commissioned on May 4, 2013, in the namesake city of Anchorage, Alaska.