RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A San Fer­nan­do man who went to the Unit­ed States to serve in the US Navy has been named Sailor of the Year 2017.

Stephen Coop­er, 33, re­ceived his award from of­fi­cials of the US Navy last year.

Coop­er, who has two chil­dren, serves as a Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer with Car­ri­er Strike Group 4. He is al­so a com­mand ca­reer coun­sel­lor, a spon­sor co­or­di­na­tor, an as­sis­tant ed­u­ca­tion­al ser­vices of­fi­cer and an event co­or­di­na­tor/trea­sur­er for the First Class Pet­ty Of­fi­cer’s As­so­ci­a­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to Navy of­fi­cials, Coop­er was se­lect­ed be­cause he has ex­cep­tion­al deck­plate lead­er­ship and in­sti­tu­tion­al ex­per­tise.

The of­fi­cials com­mend­ed Coop­er for his lead­er­ship skills not just with­in their de­part­ments but through­out the com­mand.

“This is a check in the box that shows I am pro­gress­ing and do­ing what I need to do in or­der to suc­ceed,” Coop­er said.

He added, “I would say that it al­so pro­vides an ex­am­ple for ju­nior Sailors to fol­low and show that if they want to get to a goal they have to do some­thing.”

Now that he has se­cured his Sailor of the Year award, Coop­er will move on to com­pete for the ti­tle of US Fleet Forces Shore Sailor Of the Year.