PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Petty Officer 1st Class Edgar Gomez, a native of San Diego, California, serves aboard USS William P. Lawrence, a U.S. Navy warship operating out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around the Hawaiian Is¬lands.
Gomez graduated from Helix High School in 2008.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in San Diego.
“The most important lesson I learned is to stay humble,” said Gomez. “No matter how high you get in the ranks in the Navy, you have to always remember where you came from. Anything you ask your junior sailors to do has to be something you are willing to do yourself.”
Gomez joined the Navy nine years ago. Today, Gomez serves as an electrician’s mate.
“I joined the Navy because I was tired of having random jobs and I wanted a career,” said Gomez. “I wasn’t sure where to start, but I tagged along with my brother to the recruiter’s office and so far it has been very good to me.”
As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel will participate in RIMPAC 2024. This exercise provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring safety at sea and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2024 marks the 29th exercise in a series that began in 1971.
The theme of RIMPAC 2024 is “Partners: Integrated and Prepared.” The participating nations and forces exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security op¬erations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program in¬cludes, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as amphibious, counter-piracy, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal and diving and salvage operations.
Gomez plays an important role in the exercise.
“I love the diversity of RIMPAC,” said Gomez. “The diversity of all the sailors from around the world is amazing. It’s my job to control the electric plant while we are underway.”
Gomez serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation’s prosperity and security.
“Serving means I am part of something bigger than myself,” said Gomez. “With all of the uncertainty going on in the world, it has brought out my dislike for bullies and I want to make sure the world is a free place to live your life as you want. I want the next generation to have things better than I did.”
Gomez is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.
“I want to thank my wife, Karla, for being so supportive and pushing me to do better and not doubt myself,” said Gomez. “This benefits me and my sailors. I also want to thank my children, Dahlila and Sebastian, for understanding my absence and I want them to know that what I’m doing will make it better for them in the end. I cannot forget my parents, Oscar and Maria, and my brothers, Cesar, who served in the Navy, and Adrian, who just started boot camp. They have all supported me and I owe what I have now to them.”
“I hope to get promoted to chief petty officer or apply for a commission,” said Gomez. “My overall goal is I want everybody who served with me to say Gomez was one of the good ones and always tried to help.”
Hosted by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2024 will be led by Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, Vice Adm. John Wade, who will serve as Combined Task Force (CTF) commander. For the first time in RIMPAC history, a member of the Chilean Navy, Commodore Alberto Guerrero, will serve as deputy commander of the CTF. Rear Adm. Kazushi Yokota of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will serve as vice commander. Other key leaders of the multi-national force will include Commodore Kristjan Monaghan of Canada, who will command the maritime component, and Air Commodore Louise Desjardins of Australia, who will command the air component.
During RIMPAC, a network of capable, adaptive partners train and operate together in order to strengthen their collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2024 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.
By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Osborne
Navy Office of Community Outreach
Reprinted courtesy U.S. Navy.
