CARMEL NATIVE SERVES U.S. NAVY IN JAPAN

Petty Officer Second Class Damien Ortiz, a native of Carmel, New York, serves in the U.S. Navy as a member of a helicopter squadron forward deployed to Japan.

Ortiz attended Carmel High School, graduated in 2014 andjoined the Navy eight years ago. Today, he serves as an aviation electrician”™s mate with Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 77.

“I went to a trade school in high school called Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), which helped me in wanting to be an electrician as a career,” said Ortiz. 

Members of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 77 fly and maintain helicopters for the U.S. Navy and are able to perform many different missions, some of which include search and rescue, air assaults, medical evacuations, supply transport and hunting submarines. 

As a member of the Navy, Ortiz is part of a world-class organization focused on maintaining maritime dominance, strengthening partnerships, increasing competitive warfighting capabilities and sustaining combat-ready forces in support of the National Defense Strategy.

“Most of the recent maritime events are based, where our adversaries are claiming areas of the world, which need Navy involvement and someone has to correct it,” said Ortiz. 

Ortiz serves in Japan as part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces. These naval forces operate with allies and partners to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Service members in this region are part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which has the largest area of responsibility in the world.  

“Being in the Navy to me is being able to experience new places, meet new people and see places you thought you would never go,” Ortiz said.