The U.S. Navy is highlighting a Lawrence County native serving aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most powerful aircraft carriers in the world.
Airman Apprentice Issac Smith, a Moulton native who earned his GED in 2023, joined the Navy a year ago and now serves as an aviation ordnanceman aboard the Roosevelt, a 1,092-foot carrier homeported in San Diego with more than 5,000 sailors aboard.
Smith told the Navy’s Office of Community Outreach his path to the Navy was anything but straight.
“I kept failing in the civilian world,” Smith said. “I’d fall down in life, then get back up, but I kept falling. One day, I decided I was tired of failing, so I enlisted in the world’s greatest Navy. I joined the Navy to do something different. I wanted to learn a skill or a trade I could fall back on in the civilian world, something that I could have the necessary qualifications for.”
His background as a lineman in North Alabama turned out to be better preparation than he expected.
“I’d say my lineman job helped by preparing me to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice and teaching me to work through hard tasks, even if they seem impossible,” Smith said. “In the Navy, we often have to leave for long periods. If I didn’t have that job in my background, I wouldn’t be used to that now. That background mentally and physically prepared me for the work that comes with this job.”
Smith graduated as an honor graduate from boot camp, finishing at the top of a training group of more than 1,000 sailors in academics, physical fitness and military bearing.
“I’m most proud of being an honor graduate at boot camp,” Smith said. “I beat over 1,000 sailors in my training group in academics, physical fitness and military bearing. It’s the first time I’ve ever been recognized for being good at something.”
For Smith, the Navy has meant more than a career change.
“For me, serving in the Navy proves that everyone who doubted me in life was wrong,” Smith said. “I became something by myself, and I acquired everything on my own.”
He also credited his wife for keeping him grounded along the way.
“She’s pushed me to become a better man since the day we met,” Smith said.
The Navy’s Office of Community Outreach profiled Smith this spring in a full feature story. Read the complete piece here.
