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Navy Recruiting Office In Denver Gets Top Honor

DENVER (CBS4)- Colorado may be landlocked, but the U.S. Navy is very active in our mountain state.

The Navy Recruiting Office in Denver has been honored as the National District of the Year.

"In a fiscal year, if we ship say, eighty people to boot camp, they look at how many of those eighty remained in the program," said U.S. Navy Coordinator of the Year Chief Shawn Forbes.

Last year, the Navy Recruiting District in Denver shipped out about 70 future sailors with a nearly zero percent dropout rate.

"It just says we're doing things right here. It says my command is fully supportive of what we do. The amount of kids we put in- the percentages of them tend to do better and succeed," said Forbes.

Forbes was recently named Navy Special Warfare Special Ops Air Rescue Coordinator of the Year.

"I think there has been a spike especially with the movies and recent current events. But we've got six states to deal with here and Colorado and Utah are fairly athletic states," said Forbes.

He said it takes more than athletic ability to make a good sailor.

"Honor, courage, commitment. But really, it's maturity," said Forbes.

Once accepted to the warrior challenge, recruits train for several more months in specialty programs- SEAL, E.O.D. Special Boat Unit, Navy Diver and Aviation Air Rescue.

"I'm getting to select guys that are going to be alongside of me or working for me in a year or two, so it's been nice to be the gate keeper of that door definitely," said Forbes.

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