WHY BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR?
By Michael O'Donnell, LT, USN

The best reason I can cite to be an English major is simply because you want to be an English major.  I believe it is incredibly important for Midshipmen to choose a major that they think they will enjoy.  For the most part, I chose to be an English major because my English classes in high school and plebe year were always my favorite classes.  Many mids have misconceptions about choosing a major based on that major’s “usefulness” in the fleet.  The overall education that the Academy provides greatly prepares midshipmen for their duties as junior officers, but few majors are directly “useful” in the fleet, and mids should not expect them to be.  While I’m happy that I majored in English because of how much I enjoyed all of my English courses as a mid, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it turned out to be one of the few majors that directly translated to being “useful” to me during my sea tour.

My English major served me well as a midshipman.  Classes were difficult, but fun.  English classes provided a great balance for the engineering and professional development courses that all mids must take.  My English courses forced me to improve my abilities to critically analyze situations, speak in front of groups, formulate well-founded arguments and interact with others.

I also found my English major to be incredibly useful after being commissioned as a Naval Officer.  Although I was surprised at how much writing each junior officer in my squadron was required to do, I felt comfortable completing the writing expected of me.  I wrote on a nearly daily basis, including evaluations of my sailors, awards recommendations for my best performers, after action reports, lessons learned, NATOPS change recommendations or some other tasks.

In addition to being comfortable with the large amounts of writing I had to accomplish as a junior officer, my background as an English major helped prepare me for my flight duties.  Because of my years of active participation in class discussions and oral presentations, I was comfortable leading graded flight briefs during flight school and actual mission briefs during my time with my squadron.  When I became more senior among the junior officers, my responsibilities included orally debriefing the more junior crewmen and submitting a written transcript of debrief items.  I enjoyed critically evaluating their performance during any given mission, and I was able to clearly relate and support my feedback and recommendations.  I found my background as a midshipman who often participated in dynamic class discussions helped me more easily adapt to crew coordination and interacting with the four other aviators in the plane during missions.

My English background proved to be particularly useful after a late night flight during one of our work-up deployments.  Immediately upon landing on the carrier’s flight deck and during a hot-spin evolution, in which an off-going flight crew briefs the oncoming crew onboard the plane while the engines are still on-line and one of the propellers is turning, my department head, who was part of the on-coming crew, told me that he needed me to prepare an Air Wing-wide brief on flight procedures during Emissions Control (EMCON) to be aired on ship’s TV the next morning.  As I had often done as a mid, I pulled an all-nighter to meet the deadline.  The techniques I learned as a mid pulling all-nighters to complete English papers helped me sift through the incredibly dry chapters in the Air Wing manuals concerning EMCON, organize my notes, and prepare a Power Point brief.  Thanks to all the oral presentations in my English classes, I had long ago dispelled any reservations about addressing a large audience, and I videotaped my brief to be aired repeatedly over ship’s TV throughout the remainder of our work-up deployment cycle.

During my first full deployment, we flew combat missions into Kosovo nearly every day for several months.  We all faced a harrowing schedule of flying twice a day, standing watch, and performing our numerous collateral duties.  I found that I was able to devote more time and energy specifically to my flying duties than most of my peers because I was often able to complete my collateral duties more quickly.

In hindsight, I am grateful that I resisted the urge to choose what seemed like a more “useful” major, and instead chose the major I knew I would most enjoy.  For any mid who thinks that he or she would enjoy majoring in English, I strongly recommend doing so.
 

LT Michael O'Donnell, USN
USNA Class of 96
E-2C Hawkeye NFO