William “Alan” Wile 901225486 is taking BUS 5480 Strategic Management this semester at Southern Maryland. He is a Hampton Roads student who lives in Norfolk and connects to SMHEC via Zoom. He is retired Navy and continues his government career as a civilian in the U.S. Maritime Administration https://www.maritime.dot.gov/ under the U.S. Department of Transportation.

On Monday, March 4, 2019 Alan participated in an Executive Order signing ceremony at the White House. He was selected to participate because of his background. This is how he explained it:

“The executive order (EO) is called Military to Merchant … and it eases the transition for active duty seafarers to civilian life and get reciprocity on their qualifications to sail for the merchant marine for great coin. I retired after a 20 year career as a Navy boat driver with quals all over the place but, I had to start virtually from scratch, at my expense ($15K+), to get the paper I needed to sail civilian. This EO repairs that injustice.”

The Executive Order is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-supporting-transition-active-duty-service-members-military-veterans-merchant-marine/<https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-supporting-transition-active-duty-service-members-military-veterans-merchant-marine/?utm_source=link>

The official photo provided by the White House is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/47230434652, also see Maritime Administration’s Facebook post https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2232453280326154&id=1484343948470428

Alan is standing 4th from the left, and behind and just to the left of Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation. Flanking the President on the opposite side of the desk is Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Labor. Others in the picture are various officials in the Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Coast Guard, and White House staff.

According to Alan, this was indeed the opportunity of a lifetime. We are very proud of him as a student and a patriot.

Dr. Bob Schaller
Florida Institute of Technology
Associate Professor and Director, Southern Maryland USMSM, 44219 Airport Road, California MD 20619 schaller@fit.edu<mailto:schaller@fit.edu> 301-737-2500 x219 (w), 240-577-1697 (c) fit.edu/education-centers/locations/southern-maryland<https://www.fit.edu/education-centers/locations/southern-maryland>