Paul Hannam, then 17 years old, was working at McDonald's.

He had recently moved from Jamaica to Maryland and was trying to figure out his future. As he sat on his couch, a commercial for the U.S. Navy came on and happenstance stepped in.

"It could have easily been a commercial for the Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force, but at that time it was Navy, Hannam said. "That is all it took. That commercial came on and I knew I wanted to join the military."

He admits now, he had a limited knowledge of military life but he knew he wanted to work in medicine. The recruiter suggested the rate of hospital corpsman. Then he took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).

"I had just passed the ASVAB and the recruiter looked at me and said, 'Your score is really good. Do you want to try for something else?'" Hannam recalled. "I said, 'I want to be a corpsman.'"
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For Hannam, the Navy gave him opportunity that changed his life. One that set him on path to learn, excel and, in his case, become a doctor of medicine.

I wanted to move further in my life. The Navy afforded me a way to not only learn more about myself and my limits but learn about others as well to see how the world works."
-Paul Hannam

As an active-duty hospital corpsman, he served at stations in Japan, North Carolina and Iraq. He also became a citizen when he said the Oath of Allegiance in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As he served, his love of medicine grew and eventually he had to make a decision on his next step. So he applied to High Point University in North Carolina and was accepted. He continued his service in the Navy Reserve and went on to earn a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry.

He was later recalled to active duty, and during that tour in Norfolk, he received word that he was accepted to medical school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville.
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It was a dream he achieved through sacrifice. He left the Navy Reserve in 2013 in order to focus on his studies.

"I love the Navy; I didn't want to get out," he said. "I always dreamt of going back as an officer. Maybe to help an enlisted person in the same position as me to guide them back to school to help realize their dream."

He didn't stray from that dream either. When he completed his studies and become a doctor, he made a call to Navy Recruiting District Nashville and learned about the Training in Medical Specialty (TMS) program.

A short while later, as Hannam spoke to the officer recruiter, he had a surreal feeling as he heard him say, "Congratulations, you got in."

He calls it a pivotal moment in his life that made him truly appreciate his journey from enlisted to officer.

I know that from this moment on whenever I'm in my uniform, that will mean something specific to every enlisted person that I am around."
-Paul Hannam

"It is humbling because I realize that I have a lot of responsibility not only to myself and my Navy but everyone under my command. So it's definitely something that I will wear with pride but also humility."

Recently, Hannam took the Oath of Office and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve Forces during a ceremony at Navy Recruiting District (NRD) Nashville headquarters.
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Now with a wife and three young boys, he said he is excited for the future of his own continued naval service and perhaps that of his children.

"I hope if they do join the military that they will be Sailors," he said.

NRD Nashville is one of 13 districts that make up Navy Recruiting Region East. More than 100,000 square miles are assigned to NRD Nashville including counties in Tennessee, Arkansas, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, northern Mississippi, southern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia.

For more information on NRD Nashville, visit www.cnrc.navy.mil/nashville/ or www.facebook.com/NRD.Nashville
For more news from Navy Recruiting District Nashville, visit