Western High School student Natalya Williams, 15, tries navagating a boat during the “Strike Group” mobile event showcasing careers in the Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. “I am no good at it,” Williams said. about manuvering a boat. “I got really stressed.” (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Western High School students wait to try an interactive game that simulates driving a Naval boat and welding underwater during the “Strike Group” mobile event showcasing careers in the Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Western High School student Nathan Nunez, 14, gets instructions from Aaron Antonio, left, before taking part in an interactive game that simulates the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. He was at the “Strike Group” mobile event that showcased careers in the Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Western High School students wait to try an interactive game that simulates driving a Naval boat and welding underwater during the “Strike Group” mobile event showcasing careers in the Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jesus Barrera, 16, a sophomore at Western High School in Anaheim, does pull-ups as Navy recruiter Roger Parker looks on during the Strike Group’ recruitment event on ..Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Pull-ups are only required for joining Naval Special Forces, Parker said. Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Allen Barahoma, 15, a sophomore at Western High School in Anahiem, gets his photo taken during the U.S. Navy’s ‘Strike Group’ recruitment event on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Students answered a questionaire and then had an AI-generated photo of themelves in a specific job projected on a screen. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Show Caption1 of 6Western High School student Natalya Williams, 15, tries navagating a boat during the “Strike Group” mobile event showcasing careers in the Navy on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. “I am no good at it,” Williams said. about manuvering a boat. “I got really stressed.” (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
ExpandA high-tech simulator where students can experience what a Navy job might be like is touring Southern California high school campuses and showing some cool opportunities recruiters say the service branch offers.
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, students at Western High School in Anaheim got some sense of what they could experience in the Navy through Strike Team, a virtual reality program in which they could “navigate” a Navy ship through obstacles and then jump into the water on a diving mission.
“I think the simulator was pretty cool,” said Dave Meraz, 17, a senior who has already enlisted in the Army and heads to boot camp this summer. He expects to become a combat engineer. “It felt very real to drive the boat – minus it crashing.”
The simulator is a good tool to get the Navy more exposure, especially in an area that doesn’t have a huge Navy footprint, said Chief Kashaunna Minus, who oversees recruiting in Orange County.
In San Diego, for example, she said recruiters can take interested high school students out to Coronado, where the Navy SEALs train, or to tour a Navy ship.
But Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties are further away, so taking the simulator to the students is a way of giving a virtual reality-like taste of the Navy lifestyle.
Aside from the hands-on program that’s visiting schools – it goes to Fountain Valley High School and Liberty High School in Temecula next – students can also speak with Navy recruiters one-on-one and see AI-generated images of themselves as “operators.”
While the Navy is recruiting for all jobs, Minus said the service is especially focused on finding students, including water polo players and surfers with strong academic scores, to take an interest in becoming part of the elite Navy SEALS or nuclear engineering careers.
Minus said becoming a Navy SEAL is naturally popular because the operators are often portrayed in the movies, but the job also comes with special perks and bonus opportunities. The same is true for nuclear engineering jobs, she said.
“We’re targeting these because not everyone can qualify,” she said. “We need to make sure that our fleet is manned and ready in these elite programs.”
Recruiting among all service branches has been a priority, especially with a smaller pool of applicants after the impacts of the pandemic and because required fitness and academic scores aren’t being met by as many modern-day students.
But last year, military branches began to see improvement in meeting recruiting goals – for the first time in several years, most hit or exceeded goals in fiscal year 2024. Now, all are focused on getting the word out about the varied job opportunities.
In all, 225,000 new servicemembers joined the Armed Forces last fiscal year, an increase of 25,000 from 2023. There was also a 35% increase in military contracts signed by recruits who are going to delay their start until fiscal year 2025 – that’s a 10% increase from the previous year.
The Navy brought in 40,978 recruits against a goal of 40,600. They will keep their goal the same this year.
In Orange County, Minus said the Navy is looking to bring more awareness to the service branch, especially as the Army continues to outnumber recruiting efforts.
In Orange County last year, the Navy recruited 234 new sailors; 21 people applied as special warfare operators and 23 wanted jobs as nuclear engineers. In Riverside County, the service brought in 326, with 28 choosing nuclear engineering and 12 opting for special warfare jobs. In San Bernardino County, the overall numbers were 326 future sailors, with 30 opting for nuclear engineering and 10 for special warfare challenges.
Daniel Gastelum has run the JROTC Army recruiting program at Western High since 2011. While the program is Army-based, it’s open to all students, including those interested in another service branch and those who take it because it’s something different and counts as physical education and visual and performing arts credits.
Gastelum, who had an Army career, said more students are signing up for the JROTC class, adding that he is seeing many students who are supportive of the Trump administration and appreciate a strong national defense.
“The service branches offer an option to going into fast food or college,” he said. “If you join, you can travel and get your food paid for.”
He said students who go through JROTC for three years before joining the service will also earn a higher rank initially, which translates into hundreds of dollars more pay.
On Tuesday, Gastelum said students and teachers were excited about the Navy’s presentation at the school.
“A lot of students see the technology and the virtual reality,” he said. “They see systems that look like video games.”
He believes at least 50% of the students he speaks to about joining are influenced by combat videos they’ve played.
Though he’s still seeing more students signing up for the Marines and Army at his school, Gastelum said he’s seeing more female students interested in the Navy.
Among those is Mariana Hernandez, 18, who will start her service with the Navy this summer.
What drew her to the Navy, she said, is a chance to travel the world. While she’s had uncles in the Marines and the Army, she said she likes the idea of joining the medical corps in the Navy.
“I will be taking care of sailors or Marines,” she said. “I’d like to go to nursing school; they have a really good program for that.”
She’s most excited about traveling to Japan, she said, because it is “something I wouldn’t be able to go to on my own.”
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