NORFOLK, Va. — High honors for a local Navy leader.
The commanding officer of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story has been named Stars and Stripes newspaper's "Navy 2022 Black Engineer of the Year."
Captain Michael Witherspoon said he hopes his example serves as an inspiration for young people considering a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
And, he said, he's just proud he gets to be in the Navy.
"We all want to be part of something that's bigger than ourselves," Witherspoon told 13News Now. "And so this, putting on the uniform every day, it satisfies my craving for that."
Witherspoon graduated Magna Cum Laude from Norfolk State University in 2003. He enlisted in the Navy in 1986 as a machinist mate fireman recruit.
In 1995 he was commissioned through the Officers Candidate School as part of the Navy's first "Seaman-to-Admiral" program.