Sailors assigned to USS Higgins (DDG 76) transport a girl to the medical evacuation holding area at Killick Haitian Navy Coast Guard Base. The girl was given a teddy bear by the ship's crew. Higgins was on her way home from a scheduled deployment when she was diverted to assist relief operations in Haiti. U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Martine Curaron.

‘‘In Haiti we got to directly see the impact of our presence and the immensity of America’s power,” said Lt. j.g. Michael Vallianos (USNA 2006). ‘‘While most of us usually associate this ‘power’ with the ability to destroy, deter or persuade, it has been awe-inspiring to watch our power to save lives. It’s a very unique feeling.”

The San Diego-based ship was returning from a six-month deployment that took her around the world, from the South Pacific to the Middle East, through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal on her final leg home. Along the way, the ship conducted special operations, visited multiple countries, and conducted exercises with other nation’s navies intended to deter proliferation of ballistic missile threats.

‘‘It has only been seven and a half months since I was walked across the stage in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to receive my diploma,” said Ensign Patrick Shannon (USNA 2009). ‘‘There is no other warfare community where this is possible.”

Higgins was the first U.S. Navy ship to arrive off the coast of Haiti, serving as an at-sea refueling station for helicopters conducting medical evacuations. The command also sent teams to Haiti Coast Guard Station Killick for relief operations, providing stretcher bearers, general supervision, basic medical support and assistance in restructuring the camp to increase the number of medical evacuations (MEDIVAC) possible from 20-30 per day to 100.

Lt. Chris Cummins (USNA 2001) acted as officer-in-charge for two of these teams.

‘‘It was great to be a part of this operation. Very few times in my career have the results been as tangible as this,” said Cummins. ‘‘This job is challenging and exciting. There will never be a day where you aren’t faced with a new challenge.”

Shannon spent a day as a stretcher bearer, moving critically wounded patients to helicopters where they would be taken to USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) for medical care.

‘‘There are very few jobs where you can take a step back and know at the end of the day that you played a role in saving someone’s life,” he said. ‘‘That was the case every day that we were in Haiti. Every stretcher we carried was another person who was going to get the medical care they needed to live to see the next day.”

To the midshipmen still at the academy awaiting graduation, all of the academy grads on board Higgins unanimously passed on the same message: get ready.

‘‘Life quickly changes as soon as you receive your diploma and take the oath. Your responsibilities will grow and so do the challenges of leadership,” said Lt. Alan Thompson (USNA 2002). ‘‘I certainly feel that all the training and experiences at the academy have prepared me for this deployment.”

They also make it plain through their words and actions that there’s nothing else they would rather be doing.

‘‘The SWO (surface warfare officer) community is a great place. When I was a mid, I was told that SWOs ‘eat their young.’ That is not true,” said Cummins, who heads the weapons department on board Higgins. ‘‘The SWO community welcomes its new members and often puts them right into leadership roles. As a department head, I have four first-tour division officers. They all get a lot of great experience and from what I can see, their tours have been very rewarding.”

According to Shannon, despite the fact that everyone on board was ready to get home after being away for six months, no one complained.

‘‘Everybody misses their families and everybody misses their homes, but when you take that oath, when you put your uniform on each morning, this is the job you’ve signed up for,” he said. ‘‘Higgins was the first ship to enter Port-au-Prince harbor. We passed Haitian people in sailboats waving and smiling because they knew help had arrived, they knew that the United States was there to stand by them in their time of need. That’s something to be proud of.”