Recruit Division Commanders (RDC) from Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes visited various bases in the Hampton Roads area as part of the RDC Roadshow from Feb. 16-18.

"The RDC Roadshow serves to advertise the opportunities RDC duty offers and dispel misconceptions," said Command Master Chief (CMC) Shawn Isbell, CMC of RTC Great Lakes.

The Roadshow was comprised of Isbell, Chief Naval Aircrewmen Operator Raul Gomez and Fire Controlman 1st Class Lisa Penn, both of whom are RDCs at RTC. The group visited Sailors stationed on board Naval Station Norfolk, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story and Naval Air Station Oceana.

According to Isbell, RTC searches for motivated Sailors who will go through a rigorous 13-week RDC "C" school where they will be tested both mentally and physically.

"RTC 'C' school does an outstanding job of unlocking leadership abilities in each student," said Isbell. "The Sailors who earn their red rope spend their entire tour polishing those abilities."

Although training may be difficult, the job of grooming the fleet's future Sailors is not a fruitless one.

"When you train future Sailors, you are changing their lives," said Isbell. "You are setting the tone for the rest of their careers. It is a gratifying feeling to see a former recruit who had been successful in the Navy. I pushed 16 years ago and have Sailors who I trained that are now senior chiefs. Just seeing success is reward enough for me."

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes RTC, the Navy's only boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes, the Naval ROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTC) at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, and Navy Junior ROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NSTC, visit www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/, the NSTC Facebook pages www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/ or www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.

Learn more at http://bootcamp.navy.mil or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NavyRecruitTrainingCommand/.

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