Gulf War vet to run ROTC program

Dick Benoit

Thursday, July 5, 2001 | 9:25 a.m.

A 33-year career naval officer will head up Centennial High School's Navy Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps beginning this fall.

Capt. Ed Hardeman will retire next month in ceremonies at a Navy and Marine Reserve Center in his hometown of Phoenix. Soon after he will report to Centennial as a mentor for the 250 Centennial Navy Junior ROTC cadets.

Hardeman's Navy career included command of an amphibious warship, the USS Cayuga, during Operation Desert Storm, but much of his career as a senior officer was spent developing innovative mentoring programs.

In March 1988 he was assigned to teach at the Surface Warfare Officers Prospective Commanding Officer-Prospective Executive Officers course, primarily in amphibious warfare. While teaching the course, Hardeman decided to re-established an officer mentoring program he had started a few years earlier.

The program enabled junior officers to meet with more senior officers who mentored them for their next assignments through discussions of their Navy activities, events and experiences.

"Department head school is where I started mentoring," said Hardeman, who then built upon that experience when he taught the prospective commanding officer and executive officer course and then taught at the Naval War College.

Hardeman first enlisted in the Navy but then earned a commission in the 1960s through a milestone program intended to broaden the officer ranks with more minorities. Hardeman, who is black, was a member of the first class of BOOST (Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training).

The program enrolled junior enlisted sailors identified as having the potential to become naval officers.

BOOST is now open to all sailors and Marines Navywide, regardless of ethnicity.

After a year in BOOST, Hardeman was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Educational Program, which placed him in the University of New Mexico as a student and degree candidate. He graduated in 1974.

Employers sponsor bosslift

The Nevada Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has issued an invitation to Reserve and Guard members of all services to nominate bosses and other interested community leaders for a "bosslift" to Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla., leaving Las Vegas July 17 and returning July 19.

Bosslifts are partially funded by the Department of Defense to demonstrate the importance of the Reserve and Guard components. Interested employers and community leaders are asked to contribute a nominal fee for food and lodging services during the orientation trips.

Interested reservists can learn more about the upcoming Nevada bosslift by calling Norma Laub at 871-9856 or John Stephens at 736-7656.

In brief