Hundreds of Marines frequent the ‘Reveille Café’ on a daily basis, but one morning, a face stood out to Kowalewski. To her surprise, one of her old high school friends was standing on the other side of the counter. Although she had enlisted in the Navy, and Cpl. Joseph Coulter in the Marine Corps, both of their careers took them from New Lenox, Illinois to the same ship in the middle of the ocean. They immediately sprang into conversation about friends and family back home.
“Being on deployment and working hard, sometimes you forget where you come from, being in the hustle of the mission,” said Kowalewski. “Having someone from your same home town can ground you to your roots from where you came from and where you are now. It is very relaxing to talk about stories and friends from back home to someone who has the same friends as you.”
That spirit of kinship and camaraderie goes beyond a shared hometown, however. Since arriving on board, Coulter has observed that Sailors and Marines from all walks of life have forged bonds just as strong.
“Being on USS Portland makes me feel part of a bigger team than just my individual unit,” said Coulter. “Being able to see the cohesion between the Marines and Sailors work so close together to achieve a higher mission makes me proud to be aboard Portland.”
Since then, both Marine and Sailor have done well to represent their hometown of New Lenox.
ET3 Kowalewski-Silva reported onboard USS Portland in August 2020, said Senior Chief Information Systems Technician Rodney Shinn, Kowalewski’s leading chief petty officer. “Since reporting, she has been one of our most valuable Electronics Technicians; she's responsible for millions of dollars worth of mission essential radar and navigation systems that only she maintains the skill to manage. It's a lot of responsibility for a young Sailor in today's Navy, but not only does she go above and beyond technically, she does it with a smile on her face, some ‘pep’ in her step, and motivates and encourages her Shipmates around her to be the best.”
Petty Officer Kowalewski-Silva graduated from Providence Catholic high school in 2018 and has served in the U.S. Navy for three years. Cpl. Coulter graduated from Lincoln Way West high school in 2017 and has served in the U.S. Marine Corps for three-and-a-half years.
Portland and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points.