Seaman Recruit Franklin Foster, Division 823, graduated as the top Sailor from Recruit Training Command, earning the Military Excellence Award on September 21.

Foster, 24, said he joined the Navy to serve a higher purpose.

“I was raised to seek purpose rather than monetary or materialistic value,” he said. “The upbringing my parents provided for me is more than a man could ever ask for. To utilize the platform they provided me for purely personal gain would be an immense waste in my eyes. The Navy enables me the opportunity to be a part of a community of those who are highly dedicated to their beliefs and loved ones.”

Foster, from San Diego, California, earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2016. He served as a strength and conditioning coach for youth athletes.

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. Foster is awarded a flag letter of commendation.

“Winning this award means that I was given elite level instruction from my Recruit Division Commanders (RDCs) and that the men in my division were phenomenal in assisting me throughout boot camp,” Foster said. “There are a multitude of men within my division whom exemplify the characteristics described in this award; I was just fortunate enough to be picked out of that group and I am honored.”

Foster credited his RDCs, Chief Personnel Specialist Bunthoeun Ham, Aviation Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Pedro Gayton, and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Samuel Johnson for their leadership and guidance.

“Petty Officer Johnson is a leader beyond reproach,” Foster said. “His dedication was ceaseless and his standards were unwavering. Anyone who puts as much genuine effort into their work as he does has my absolute respect as an instructor and even more so as a man. I will be more than proud to serve beside him in the world’s greatest Navy.”

Foster said coming together as a team was the toughest boot camp challenge.

“You’re taking 80 or so strangers from all over the country with ages ranging from 17 to 30, and getting them on the same page within two months,” Foster said. “You’re getting all the individuals to take even the most menial task and work to accomplish it for the deeper principle behind it as well as the success of the division. In the end, our division grew close and efficient rather rapidly, but at the beginning it proved to be challenging.”

After graduation, Foster will attend the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School in Great Lakes. Special Warfare Operators perform a multitude of duties in support of special operations missions and operate on, under and from the sea, in the air and on land. These duties require skills in combat diving, paradrop and air operations, small boat operations, submarine and submersible operations, land warfare, small unit tactics, mounted and dismounted operations, small arms and crew served weapons, explosives, communications, tactical medicine, mission planning, intelligence gathering and interpretation, joint and combined operations, and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear defense measures in all environments including urban, desert, jungle, arctic, and mountain warfare. 

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 30,0000 recruits graduate annually from RTC and begin their Navy careers.

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

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