For Clatskanie’s Nikole Young, the path to serving her country has been a winding road, but after years of preparation and effort, Young has been commissioned to join the Navy as a Public Affairs Officer (PAO).
Young held a commissioning ceremony to mark the occasion at the Veterans Memorial in Clatskanie on Aug. 2. She was commissioned by her officer recruiter, Lieutenant Commander Blake Hendrick, among friends and family. To reach this point, Young submitted her application, was selected by the Navy Board, was appointed by Congress, and then commissioned by the President of the United States via the United States Secretary of the Navy.
Long process
Young said that direct commission is a unique program. It is a reserve program for civilians or former enlistees with career work experience from which the Navy can benefit. Young said that typical vocations that enter the Navy through direct commission are doctors, lawyers, or people from the intelligence community. One area of increasing need is for PAOs. Young was among 13 applicants selected out of almost 70 civilian or previously enlisted applicants this year.
PAOs are masters of communication, according to the Navy’s website, and they “defend the Navy’s fleet from misinformation and negative publicity.” For Young, finding a way to serve her country has been something she has explored since 2017. She finished her undergraduate degree in May of 2017, and she applied for an active duty commission in 2018 but was rejected. After not getting in, she said she focused on her career in communications. She now works as a Product Marketer at Portland General Electric. Fast forward to January 2023, when Young learned about the direct commission program, which rekindled her interest.
“I thought that the opportunity to serve my country had come and gone because I wasn’t going to enlist with the career that I have and the financial stability I have, but [this] would be like a reserve, and I would be an officer because I have a master’s degree too in writing,” Young said. “So, I started the application process in January 2023.”
Young missed the May application cut-off in 2023, but after passing her medical physical in the fall, Young turned in her complete application in May of this year. After a bevy of interviews and an extended vetting process, Young finally reached the goal she pursued for so long. Her new official title is ENS.
“I am an officer, and I’m going to be trained to lead units, and I am enlisted as a specialist, or technician, who is in charge of specific tasks that support the mission,” Young said. “That’s why it’s really competitive: it is quite a prestigious thing, and you’re bypassing a lot of hoops that other people had to jump through.”
Young will now take on a “boot camp” which is called Officer Development School. Young will continue working at Portland General Electric while she completes her training for her new position in the Navy and will be able to keep her job while serving in the Navy in a reserve capacity.
Local ties
Now that she has been selected and commissioned, Young said she still feels “skeptical” about whether it will fall into place. Given the long journey to get to this point, Young said she doesn’t count her eggs before they’ve hatched, and even though she’s met with her unit virtually and met her commanding officer, she said she’s still not in any system yet.
Young grew up in Rainier, but she became interested in the Navy because when she and her husband Luke got together, he was just leaving active duty on a submarine in the Navy. Young has lived in Clatskanie since they bought a house, and she’s been involved on a variety of boards and commissions in town. Young said the Navy has had a big role in her life for the past decade, not only because of her husband but because of connections she made while working with Navy veterans at Port Westward through Portland General Electric.
“I tie a lot of my aspirations in the Navy with my husband and with the amazing men I met and worked with at Port Westward. Some of those men are local, and some of them have family on the Clatskanie Veterans Memorial,” Young said.
In addition to that, Young said there are members of her family who have served in the military, and being from the area, when they passed away, their names are on the Veterans Memorial as well. Each year, Young and her husband help clean up the memorial with the American Legion ahead of Memorial Day, so having the ceremony there made sense for Young. She didn’t want family or loved ones to travel for the momentous occasion.
“For all the emotional and symbolic reasons, as well as for logistical reasons, the Clatskanie Veterans Memorial was the best place for me to commission,” Young said.
Unfortunately, Young’s husband could not attend because he is deployed right now. Despite that, family members from her and her husband’s side of the family were there to support her. While her family’s support has been essential, the support of the community has also helped her along the way.
“Without my family and the community that I’m working in and a part of, it would not be possible for me to be a commissioned officer,” Young said.
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