SAN DIEGO, Ca. — A Navy Chief Petty Officer faces punishment for uncommon and uncharacteristic behavior. Shocking subordinates, peers, and seniors alike, Chief Eduard Valencia-Marasigan was reported for excessive transparency, dignified comportment, and an unusually high standard of mentorship as it concerns naval officers, his peers, and most tellingly, junior sailors. 

Valencia-Marasigan, a Chief Boatswain’s Mate, checked in aboard USS Essex in November 2023, and has served with quiet dignity until he was discovered conducting thoughtful career development boards with sailors in his division, showing appropriate concern for their health and welfare, and expressing ideas for future individual development outside of naval service, going so far as providing physical brochures for education programs and tuition assistance for Naval personnel. All witnesses to the event agreed that Valencia-Marasigan gave this information willingly to all sailors.

One sailor present was an especially young and impressionable Seaman Recruit Hawa Abdi, who as of this reporting, is only eighteen years old. “I was really shocked by Chief Val,” said Abdi. “First, he told us that our time was valuable and gave us early liberty for painting the foc’sle so quickly, and then here he is telling me, specifically, that I could apply to Annapolis if I wanted to!”