Congratulations to U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman First Class Kyle Szatkowski, who was recently honored as the Elmer A. Sperry Junior Navigator of the Year. The award was established by Sperry Marine, a business unit of Northrop Grumman Corporation, to honor the midshipman who demonstrated outstanding navigation skills and knowledge during the four years of professional development at the Academy. The award honors the company’s founder, Elmer A. Sperry, who invented the first marine gyrocompass in 1913.
Midshipman Szlatkowski was a top student in the seamanship and navigation curricula over the past four years, demonstrating superior performance in the classroom and laboratory, as well as underway in the Academy’s yard patrol craft. He received a Weems and Plath brass gimbal clock in a wooden case with his name inscribed on a brass plate. Those of you who may have read my recent blog on nautical timekeeping (insert link) will recognize the symbolic importance of this award.
Sperry Marine has a longstanding relationship with the navigation training programs at Annapolis. Since 2001, the company has made in-kind donations more than $9 million of navigation software, services and training to the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation. With these donations, Academy students have access to the latest state-of-the-art navigation technology in preparation for their naval careers when joining the fleet.
http://www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com/CustomPages/News/news-and-press-releases_details.aspx?id=252
http://www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com/CustomPages/News/news-and-press-releases_details.aspx?id=252
Nonetheless, it is very gratifying for an old salt like me to play a part in honoring one of the new generation of up-and-coming navigators, and I wish him “fair winds and following seas” as he goes from the classroom to the fleet.
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