A USS Makin Island (LHD 8) Sailor was selected as the 2019 Pacific Fleet Navy Career Counselor of the Year award and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal this month.

Navy Career Counselor Petty Officer 1st Class Nathalie Moffith was selected as the top career counselor in the Pacific Fleet for her role in giving career development and guidance to Sailors aboard Makin Island.

The annual award given to only two Sailors – one Sailor in the Atlantic fleet and one Sailor in the Pacific fleet.

“Being able to get this award, and be successful in the Navy period, is just about taking care of the Sailors,” said Moffith. “If you take care of the Sailors, the Sailors take care of you and that’s what the award was about.”

Moffith, a native of Junction City, Kansas, enlisted in the Navy as a boatswain’s mate in 2010 and became a career counselor in 2018. The 27-year-old says her drive to be successful in the Navy stems from growing up in a small town.

“Without the trials and tribulations throughout my hometown, without the people that I did have in my life in Junction City, from coaches being the biggest one to the teachers that pushed me through everything that I went though, I couldn’t be where I’m at,” said Moffith.

The Navy Career Counselor of the Year award is given to two exceptional Sailors that outshine their peers, one sailor in the Atlantic fleet and one Sailor in the Pacific.

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