One Navy Chief’s Journey Overcoming Odds and Achieving Dreams by U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician 1st Class Jason Melander
August 10, 2021
Many Sailors who join the Navy face
challenges and hardships that are exclusive to the military, such as
deployments, being away from loved ones, and moving to new locations
every few years.
But,
Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) (CTI) Jennifer Cardenas,
who is attached to Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC)
Monterey Detachment Goodfellow, faced several other unique
challenges.
Cardenas was born and raised in Puerto Rico
and joined the Navy shortly after 9/11. Around that time, she was
already talking to a Navy chief recruiter, but the direct attack on
American soil is what helped pull the trigger in the decision to
serve her country.
Being from Puerto Rico, Cardenas did not
know English, and only spoke Spanish, but her recruiter said they
would help her learn English in boot camp.
While in basic training, she soon learned
that the Navy wasn’t going to teach her English, but instead they
only taught her basic Navy terminology. To overcome the language
barrier she faced, she used a little Spanish to English dictionary
and studied it whenever she could. She would also listen for
commands and follow suit with the other recruits, even if she did
not know what the recruit division commanders had ordered.
During her challenging time at basic training, Cardenas received
continued support back home from her recruiter, who acted as a
mentor for her for years to come. While in boot camp, Cardenas would
use the little phone time she got to talk with her recruiter and get
advice, which ultimately helped her finish and head off to Defense
Language Institute (DLI) for language training.
While there,
she was subject to unkind treatment from a few members of her
leadership due to her struggles speaking and understanding English.
She was threatened with being discharged for failure to adapt or
being dropped from DLI and being sent to the fleet as an
undesignated Sailor.
Cardenas’ dream from the start of her
naval career was to become a CTI chief petty officer, so despite her
difficulties, she requested a Captain’s Mast to explain that she
deserved a fair chance just like every other Sailor who met the
minimum requirements, nothing more and nothing less. The commander
made a deal to allow her to pursue Tagalog, a language spoken in the
Philippines, but if after two months she was falling behind, she
would be dropped from the course.
Cardenas took the chance
given to her and began the grueling journey of not only learning
English, but Tagalog, too. Whenever she was not in class, she would
have her English-Spanish dictionary, as well as her English-Tagalog
dictionary, to help her. She ended up cutting out Spanish from her
life entirely, such as listening to Spanish songs and TV shows, in
order to fully immerse herself in learning the new languages. This
proved especially hard because it made her lonely and homesick. Her
hard work finally paid off, however, as she graduated second in her
class after 64 long weeks.
Shortly after graduating from DLI,
she arrived at her first duty station in Hawaii, where she was
recognized for her hard work with a Navy and Marine Corps
Achievement Medal and Joint Commendation Medal as a junior E-5.
From Hawaii, Cardenas transferred to Advanced Language Response
Team out of Fort Meade, Maryland, and attended school to learn
Hausa, a language spoken primarily in Northern Nigeria.
Unfortunately, joint assignments were cancelled before she could
really use her language skills. Instead, she was deployed to Iraq in
2009 as a National Security Agency analyst. While in Iraq, she was
meritoriously promoted to first class petty officer.
From
there, she transferred back to DLI in Monterey, California, to serve
as a military language instructor for Spanish. Ever since she met
her chief recruiter in Puerto Rico, she dreamed of becoming a chief.
She loved what chiefs stood for and wanted to be like her recruiter
and other chiefs that had mentored and helped her along the way. Her
motivation to be a chief drove her to do outstanding work at DLI and
she was recognized as Instructor of the Year.
After her
instructor tour, Cardenas qualified as aircrew, where she flew
missions in South America. It was there that Cardenas promoted to
chief petty officer after 13 years of naval service.
Cardenas attributed her promotion to those that helped her, stating,
“I had awesome mentors and friends who helped me improve myself.”
Due to her language barrier, those mentors helped her write
evaluations and emails in a way that was understandable. Her mentors
would not sugarcoat her flaws either – they offered direct, truthful
feedback, which might seem harsh or blunt to some, but only helped
Cardenas become a stronger, more confident leader.
When
asked what the best advice she could give to someone facing these
incredibly tough challenges, she said, “Be humble and don’t forget
where you came from. Always work hard and help those around you.”
Despite the odds against her and the challenges a non-native
English speaker faces in, not only the Navy, but in America, she
conquered them and achieved her dream of making chief.
After
making chief, Cardenas did a tour in Key West before finally
arriving to IWTC Monterey Detachment Goodfellow to serve as a
Spanish instructor once again.
IWTC Monterey Detachment
Goodfellow is aligned under IWTC Monterey. As part of the CIWT
domain, they provide a continuum of foreign language training to
Navy personnel, which prepares them to conduct information warfare
across the full spectrum of military operations.
With four
schoolhouse commands, a detachment, and training sites throughout
the United States and Japan, CIWT trains approximately 26,000
students every year, delivering trained information warfare
professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more
than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence
specialists, information systems technicians, electronics
technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.
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