This week we sat down with Fire Controlman 1st Class (SW) Stephen Cole, leading petty officer, Midway Ceremonial Drill Hall, Recruit Training Command (RTC).

1. BULLETIN: What is your hometown and what were you doing prior to joining the Navy?

COLE: "I'm from Brooklyn, N.Y. and was in high school before joining. I had a lot of family in the Navy and it was watching their success, especially the difference between whom they were before they were in the Navy and who they became after joining, that inspired me to join. I graduated boot camp in 2007."

2. BULLETIN: Why did you want to come to RTC?

COLE: "I requested to come here in October 2013, because I remember the impact my Recruit Division Commanders (RDC) had on me when I was in boot camp and I wanted to do the same thing for the people who are coming in now. I remember where I was at in my stage of life when I joined, and I remember the positive effect it had on me. I was hoping I could have the same positive effect on others and on the Navy."

3. BULLETIN: What are some of your job responsibilities at the drill hall?

COLE: "Prior to the drill hall, I completed five pushes (cycles) of training recruits as an RDC. The drill hall position was available when I went on hold, and I decided that if that's where RTC needed me to be, then I'd come here and do my best. I help to lead and manage drill hall staff as well as being the state flags instructor. The state flags portion at graduation also includes the drum line and color guard."

4. BULLETIN: How are the recruits screened to be in the performing divisions?

COLE: "We screen them on their night of arrival and then train them on Saturdays so by the sixth week of training, they're ready to be put on the deck at graduation in front of the families and thousands watching at home. We need to make sure those drum line recruits have the musical talent to be able to perform the piece they play at the opening of the ceremony. For the drill team, I like to pull recruits who maybe have a sports background and for a lot of females, I like to get those with a dance or cheerleading background. If they were a dancer or cheerleader, when I teach them this little routine with the flag, it will be easier for them to learn it. I also take recruits with junior military experience such as Sea Cadets or NJROTC as they already have that military bearing aspect so I don't have as much to teach them later on."

5. BULLETIN: Who creates the choreography for the drill team?

COLE: "The drill team is instructed by RDCs who also train the band and choir. The choreography is a mix between the recruits and RDCs, but for the most part, the recruits will come up with a routine and the RDCs will tweak it a little bit. The RDCs provide that adult supervision in letting them know what they'll be able to perform within the perimeters of the drill deck. It's very impressive when these recruits come out and do these performances. I take pride in the fact that for the Navy - our only boot camp - we have our graduations performed entirely by recruits. It's really something to be amazed by and I didn't appreciate that until I started working in the drill hall. Those rifles are pretty heavy to be twisting and twirling them and then every so often we get some recruits that are super talented who can get those rifles high up in the air and catch them with ease."

6. BULLETIN: What's a positive aspect of your job in the drill hall?

COLE: "Working in the drill hall is almost like an instant gratification. You put in all the work during the week and then on Friday, when the narrator puts two thumbs up to signal the start of the drumline's performance for the ceremony to begin, those thumbs go up, and that's it - hands off and it's happening. That's really awesome."

7. BULLETIN: What's a positive aspect of being an RDC?

COLE: "As an RDC, it's eight weeks of training to get to graduation and watching my recruits marching in the drill is a great deal of pride and emotion for me. Every time a division of mine graduates, I'm thinking back to their first week of training, such as this recruit could barely think straight, or if I walked into a room and told everyone to raise their right hand and three of them raised their left. Now here they are walking in step, in unison, Sailors in the Navy. That satisfaction is something that I really don't think I can experience anywhere else in the Navy had I not come to RTC."

8. BULLETIN: What advice do you give to anyone contemplating coming to RTC as an RDC?

COLE: "The first thing I would tell them is, don't come here if you're trying to make rank. If you work hard - evals, awards, ranks - those things will come as a result of your hard work. If you're coming here and your sole mission is to make chief or whatever the next paygrade it is that you want to make, then no, that is not the reason to come here. The reason to come is to have an impact, to do something for the Navy, to do what the Navy needs done. The Navy needs boot camp and they need it to operate well. That's every aspect of the Navy - surface, air, sub, Seabees - everyone in the Navy needs boot camp to operate properly and to know that you're going to be a part of that and to have that type of impact is what makes it all worthwhile."

9. BULLETIN: Do you believe you have made an impact on recruits??

COLE: "Having a positive impact on people and having a positive impact on the Navy really stands out to me. To know that I'm waking up in the morning and I'm coming here and doing something that's having an effect in the Navy is what motivates me. When I was up for orders for different shore duties, none of them seemed as important or have the same impact as what we do here at RTC. I don't know anybody in the Navy who doesn't remember their RDCs. With that being said, if you get done doing 10 pushes in a tour, that's about 1,000 recruits who will always remember your name and will always remember the things that you said to them. To be able to have that type of positive impact not just on the Navy but the world because face it, the Navy's not forever and people get out, they will still remember some of the values and lessons that you taught them here. That is something that should be cherished and that is the reason to come to RTC: Because you want to have that positive impact on the Navy."

10. BULLETIN: When your time is up at RTC what will you take away from here?

COLE: "The biggest thing I'll take away from here is I saw a different side of the Navy. When I was underway on the USS Hue City (CG 66), we were very mission oriented. At RTC, it's a different type of mission. I'm a better Sailor for having been here than had I not come so I'm going to take a lot of the things I saw here such as working with different people. Whereas I had only worked with surface people before, now my operations chief is submarine force, and I don't think I'd ever have the chance to work for somebody in the sub force ever again. At RTC, you interact with different parts of the Navy and you take the positive things that these different areas of the Navy offers and then you can take that with you back to your own community. I think that's a positive that you can take out of RTC."

For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.