Want to know what good leadership looks like? I was a poor kid from the farm in the big city of Yokosuka. And I was still using a bank in my hometown, long before the internet made it easier to do so. I needed help, and I didn’t even know it.
FC1 Handley, my first LPO on USS MOBILE BAY, said, “Come with me.” After work that day we walked across Yokosuka Naval Base to the Navy Federal Credit Union. Without really giving me much of an option, he helped me get signed up.
There are so many ways in which FC1 Handley mentored me. But helping me understand how to change a bank so I could better manage my finances was such a huge one at the time. I’ll forever be grateful to him, and because of him, I’m still a member at NFCU.
Why is this important? Because, at the time, NFCU was only overseas. We didn’t teach Sailors in bootcamp how to sign up for direct deposit. My first checks in the Navy were on real paper. Things modern Sailors take for granted (getting set up with a national bank and getting money direct to their accounts) weren’t readily available to us.
This isn’t just a, “We walked uphill both ways in the snow” type of talk. It’s about how a mentor helped a bumkin kid who didn’t know what he was doing. Instead of demeaning me, or judging me, or making me feel stupid, FC1 Handley led me. He took action to get me where I needed to go.
So as I reflect on 25 years of NFCU membership, I think about what I owe those early mentors. FC1 Handley, and FC1 Helchin after him, who guided me when I didn’t want to be guided…when I didn’t know how to be guided. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.
So thank, FC1, wherever you are. You were my first Navy example of consistent leadership.
