Laura Rose is a hull technician, third class, aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Gulf of Oman. The job, she says, has taught her patience, maturity, and interpersonal skills, qualities that she will bring back to a career in plumbing when she returns to the states in three years. In the meantime, she hopes to hone her welding skills onboard.
Goddard woman plumbs, welds, fights fires in Navy
BY BILL WILSON
The Wichita EagleGoddard native Laura Rose spent part of Labor Day thinking about how her life has changed in the past few years.
Rose, 23, a 2004 Goddard High School graduate, is a U.S. Navy petty officer specializing in plumbing, welding and firefighting on board the USS Ronald Reagan in the Gulf of Oman just off the coast of Pakistan.
In 2012, Rose plans to bring those skills back to the Wichita area to launch the career she didn’t expect as a plumber.
“I didn’t even think I’d be anywhere close to this,” Rose said Monday from the ship. “This definitely wasn’t on my list of things to do eight years ago.”
But two tours on the aircraft carrier backstopping American troops in Afghanistan have provided Rose with a career, in the U.S. Navy and when she returns home.
