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Petty officer in running for top honor in Pacific

Petty officer in running for top honor in Pacific

Petty Officer First Class Todd Wende reviews files in the Fleet Liason Office at Yokosuka Naval Hospital. He's in competition for the Shore Sailor of the Year award.

Petty Officer First Class Todd Wende reviews files in the Fleet Liason Office at Yokosuka Naval Hospital. He's in competition for the Shore Sailor of the Year award.

JASON CARTER / S&S | BUY THIS PHOTO

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — If you ask Todd Wende who helped him become sailor of the year, he’ll credit everyone except for himself.

The Eastland, Texas, native, a petty officer first class and eight-year Navy veteran, recently was selected from among nine finalists throughout the Commander Naval Forces Japan region to go against other shore sailors for the Pacific Fleet’s top honor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in April. If he makes the cut there, he’ll face the Atlantic Fleet finalist for the title of shore sailor of the year.

The winner gets promoted meritoriously to chief petty officer and becomes special assistant to the master chief petty officer of the Navy in Washington.

As the leading petty officer of the Emergency Department and Directorate for Population Health, Wende also serves as the 7th Fleet’s Operational Forces medical liaison. He coordinates medical needs on the waterfront with the hospital. But being a role model for the sailors he supervises is his most important job in the hospital, he said.

“That’s something I do for them,” he said. “That’s something every sailor should be doing for all sailors around them.”

That attitude has motivated Wende to work on several projects, including being vice president of the hospital’s First Class Petty Officer Association.

Last year, he and a friend started up the DEFY program for the Kanto Plain region. DEFY — Drug Education For Youth — teaches children about hazards of drug abuse.

Children raised overseas are relatively secure from the influence of drugs, Wende said, “but when they go back to the (United) States, they need to know what’s out there. We teach them not only about drugs, but a bit about self-esteem and teamwork.”

Being named the Commander Naval Forces Japan Sailor of the Year was not a goal in itself, Wende said, but a result of the leadership culture he found in the service.

“I’ve been lucky in that I’ve gotten to work for good people,” he said. “They’ve always led me in the right direction.”

His prime example at the hospital is his mentor, Chief Petty Officer Denfield Thomas, whom he says won’t let him slow down. Thomas sometimes can be “abrasive,” Wende admits, even going to the point of giving him extra military instruction for not qualifying as a duty officer.

“He said, ‘I care more about your career than your morale,’” Wende said.

Thomas said Wende is learning the ropes of being a mentor quickly and already is demonstrating a key rule.

“You should never be in the front when your people are shining,” he said. “It was never about Wende. Not once did he say, ‘Yeah, I deserve it.’”

Wende previously served aboard the USS John S. McCain, traveling with the ship from its previous homeport of Pearl Harbor to its current home here. In his nomination package for sailor of the year, Wende stated his goal was to make chief. Thomas said he sees big things for Wende, beyond making chief.

“He could be the next MCPON, and I’ve never said that about a sailor before,” he said.

Taking the lead as the Navy’s senior enlisted sailor wouldn’t be a bad way to end a career, Wende said.

And it goes right along with his philosophy. “For me, it’s always being hungry,” he said. “Don’t settle for not making rank.”