Story by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Jessica Vargas, Navy Talent Acquisition Group Pacific Northwest Public Affairs
When Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) 2nd Class Richard Darby walked into Navy Recruiting Station (NRS) Puyallup, Washington in 2017, he had no idea how much his life was going to change or that one day he would be a Navy recruiter assigned to Navy Talent Acquisition Group (NTAG) Pacific Northwest working out from the very same station he joined from.
Darby began his Navy career a little later in life. Many people join the military between the ages 17-25, he joined at the age of 28. After high school, he took some college classes and worked various jobs from fast food to working as a merchant mariner. However, he struggled and always felt there was something missing.
“I worked at McDonald’s for seven years and used that money to pay for school in the beginning. But I wasn’t very motivated and skipped most classes to play video games,” Darby said. “I lacked discipline and spent a lot of money to fail a bunch of classes.”
He says that joining the military had always been something he wanted to do.
“I was 12 years old when September 11th happened and that has always had a big impact on me,” Darby said. “Because of that, I had always thought about the military and serving my country, but I was overweight and out of shape which prevented me from joining.”
As Darby got older he grew frustrated by trying to find a meaningful career so he decided to finally make a change. He lost 50 pounds and got in shape.
“After losing all that weight, I walked into the Puyallup recruiting office and joined the Navy,” Darby said.
He initially wanted to be a nuclear engineer because of his love of math and science but his age disqualified him.
“So I became a linguist,” Darby said. “I was always great at math and science and bad at English and grammar. I decided to challenge myself by learning another language.”
Darby attended the Defense Language School in Monterey, California to learn Korean for a year and a half.
“The beginning was a struggle and I was intimidated,” Darby said. “The school was very tough but I accepted the challenge, pushed through and ended up graduating at the top of my class. After completing school, I was stationed in Korea where I put my Korean language skills to the test. It was amazing!”
When it came time to change duty assignments he jumped on the opportunity to recruit near his hometown of Buckley, Washington.
“I love people, like to talk, and this is my hometown,” he said. “So coming home made sense. I came to recruiting duty during a challenging environment, but I accept the challenge. Accepting challenges has proven to be successful so far. There are people out there who want to serve but might be in the same situation that I once was. Finding them and helping them join the Navy makes it all worth it.”
Darby says that the Navy has given him that sense of purpose that he was missing when he was younger.
“The Navy gave me a sense of responsibility to hold myself to a higher standard than when I was younger,” says Darby. “I now represent something greater than myself. I represent years of tradition and honor, and I am extremely proud to serve.”
He says his next challenge is to hike Mount Rainier, and one day make it on to the Navy’s Goats & Glory eSports team.
Navy Talent Acquisition Group Pacific Northwest’s area of responsibility includes more than 34 Navy Recruiting Stations and Navy Officer Recruiting Stations throughout Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. Their mission is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
About America’s Navy
With more than 330,000 active-duty Sailors, 290 deployable ships, more than 3,700 aircraft and dozens of bases in the U.S. and across the globe, America’s Navy is the largest, most powerful naval force in the world. The opportunities available in today’s Navy are as boundless as the sea itself. You can learn more about these opportunities at Navy.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
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