Although he was a junior enlisted sailor, Navy Seaman Aashis Luitel was put in charge of running the ship’s store aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. He was then moved up to manage the ship’s service storerooms -- a position usually held by sailors two ranks above him.
“I love dealing with all of this,” said Luitel, a ship’s serviceman. After every [replenishment at sea], I have to take all the stock, and if anything is lost or anything happens, I’m accountable for that. That’s a lot of responsibility.”
The weight of this responsibility provides a value; this value defines the meaning; this meaning drives his purpose, he said. “That’s what makes me feel, ‘Okay, I want to work here.’”
“I want to be the example, an exemplary or model sailor,” Luitel said. “I believe in hard work. I love being trained for new assignments, which makes it easier to understand the things that are expected of me. I do my best to be the best and display the highest accuracy possible when it comes to quality and completion of work.”
All the items sold in the ship’s stores and vending machines have to be inventoried and restocked. Luitel does just that. He maintains an inventory for five storerooms containing the stock for the ship’s stores and vending machines.
Impressive Work
During the last supply management certification, the inspector was impressed by Luitel’s work.
“He said to me, ‘I’m proud of you,’” Luitel said. “He said this was the first time he had seen work like this on a big deck. Then he posted it on his Facebook ... That makes me feel good.”
Many times he would work to ensure all the items in the storerooms were accounted for.
“So far, I’m 100 percent on that,” Luitel said.
In addition to keeping up with his divisional responsibilities, Luitel managed to qualify for the enlisted surface warfare specialist and enlisted aviation warfare specialist pins during his first deployment.
“When I came aboard [Bonhomme Richard] for the first time, I saw people having a hard time with warfare pins,” Luitel said. “I tried -- I got both pins within one float -- a short spring float.”
Mentoring
One of his most memorable moments on Bonhomme Richard was a conversation he had with his leading petty officer, Petty Officer 1st Class Johnny Kendrick, a ship’s serviceman.
“When I talk to him, I don’t feel like he’s a first class petty officer. I feel like he’s a master chief,” Luitel said. “I feel like he knows everything. When I have to talk about financial issues or I have to talk about education issues, I talk to him and it’s great. One of the most memorable times, although it was bad, was a great suggestion from him.”
During the last float, Luitel was assigned to take charge of the aft store, which meant more time spent working and more responsibilities. He had just registered for five college classes, and, he said, he was worrying about what to do, so he spoke to Kendrick.
“He gave me a very good solution. He said, drop the classes. So I dropped all five classes. I talked to my college and they did not charge me anything. [Kendrick] helped me on that. He sent an email to the college and the college didn’t fine me. Because of that, I got in an expedited program at a university in New York. If I stayed at the university in Florida, I would still be working on my bachelor’s degree. Now, I am working to get my master’s degree.”