Seaman Recruit Nicholas Lilley, Division 816, graduated as the top Sailor from Recruit Training Command, earning the Military Excellence Award on June 7.

Lilley, from Monroe, North Carolina, said joining the Navy has been a lifelong passion.

“In the military, there are opportunities to serve and grow in loads of ways,” Lilley said. “I know it will be something to help establish my future and take me around the world while doing so.”

Lilley, 24, is a 2013 graduate of Sun Valley High School in Monroe, North Carolina, where he was a member of the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, National Honor Society and physics club. Lilley served on missions to Kenya and Mexico with his church group. He attended Central Piedmont Community College in Matthews, North Carolina, while pursuing an associate’s degree in science.

Lilley is assigned the rate of Navy Diver.

The Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award is the top award presented to the No. 1 recruit of their graduating training group. The MEA is awarded to the recruit that best exemplifies the qualities of enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military bearing and teamwork. The award placed him at the pinnacle of today’s newest Sailors. Lilley is awarded a flag letter of commendation.

Lilley said it was a “huge honor” to be selected for the MEA.

“When I first came to RTC, I was planning on doing my best and just trying to get to the next step,” he said. “Before I knew it, I was told I was selected for this award, which was unexpected but also exciting to be able to write home about.”

Lilley credited his Recruit Division Commanders, Senior Chief Machinist’s Mate Moises Velez, Engineman 1st Class Adalberto Bustamante, and Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st Class Alfred Sosa for their leadership and guidance.

He also drew inspiration from his faith.

“Getting through RTC was no walk in the park,” Lilley said. “I remember my first week here, I was asking myself, ‘Where am I and what am I doing?’ But then, I began a conversation with God that has pushed me through. This conversation was in recognition that it was him that’s gotten me here and that this was something he was going to see me through.”

Boot camp was not without its challenges for Lilley.

“The toughest part of boot camp, for me, was being away from my family and girlfriend, Sara Ferguson,” he said. “It may seem like the typical answer that one would say but while I was home they were who I wanted to spend all of my time with as time with them was time that was well spent. I know that coming here and beginning this part of my life is in God’s design and therefore something I want to follow.”

After graduation, Lilley will attend Navy Diver preparatory school at Great Lakes, followed by “A” School at Panama City, Florida.

Navy Divers perform underwater salvage, recovery, repair, and maintenance on ships and submarines. They search for and recover downed aircraft, conduct harbor clearance operations, and provide assistance to military, federal, state, and local civilian law enforcement agencies in diving operations and procedures. Navy Divers maintain and repair diving equipment and systems, and research and develop new diving techniques and procedures, and conduct submarine rescue operations.

Navy Divers perform and supervise recompression chamber operations, hyperbaric treatment for diving and non-diving illnesses, open and closed circuit Underwater Breathing Apparatus (UBA) diving, surface-supplied air and mixed-gas diving operations, demolition operations, and small arms proficiency.

 Boot camp is approximately eight weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control along with lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork and discipline. More than 35,000 recruits are trained annually at RTC and begin their Navy careers.

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

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