Those stories carried a common thread — they all started out just like the students — in high school, unsure of their futures. One came quite literally out of SHS. All told the students they can succeed, if they work at it.

“I very much sat in your shoes,” Susan Mainwaring said.

A civilian employee of the U.S. Navy who serves as Director, Team Ships Strategic Operations, Mainwaring graduated from Salem High School in 2006. She coordinated the visit to have her boss, Rear Admiral Tom Anderson, Program Executive Officer, Ships, and Command Master Chief Chad Lunsford, who rose through the enlisted ranks, along with herself, highlight what they do, how they got there and answer questions.

While in Salem, they also took a tour of Hunt Valve, a longtime manufacturer of valves used in U.S. Navy ships all over the globe. The visit came on the heels of a trip to Pittsburgh, where the admiral met with city officials, businesses, organizations and even took in a Pittsburgh Steelers game, while promoting one of the newest ships being built, which will be named the USS Pittsburgh.

Rear Admiral Tom Anderson of the U.S. Navy answers questions from Salem High School students during a recent career presentation. Anderson’s job is to acquire ships for the U.S. Navy. During his trip to Salem, he also toured the Salem Hunt Valve plant which manufactures valves used on those ships. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

Anderson said he had a great visit with the management and employees of Hunt Valve. His job is to acquire ships for the Navy and he said it’s important to thank the people who provide the parts for those ships.

He visits with those suppliers like Hunt Valve to “see what they do, to thank them for what they do and to give them some perspective on the importance of what they do.”

He said Hunt Valve manufactures many different types of valves that are used on many different Navy ships around the globe.

“Everywhere the Navy is, Hunt Valve is,” Anderson said.

He thanked the company for continuing to provide excellent, high-quality products, even managing to do it in a COVID environment to keep the products coming and keep employees safe.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tom Anderson presents one of his military coins to Ed Fisher, Hunt Valve’s longest-tenured employee, during a recent visit at the Salem plant. Fisher has been with the company just under 44 years. (Photo provided by Susan Mainwaring, Director, Team Ships Strategic Operations)

Anderson also met and thanked Ed Fisher, Hunt Valve’s longest -enured employee, who’s just shy of 44 years with the company.

According to Mainwaring, “Ed started with Hunt Valve two days after he graduated from high school and has been with them ever since. He’s worn almost every hat possible within Hunt beginning as a machinist and now running Hunt’s entire machine shop. Ed’s contributions can be tied back to thousands of valves in service across the Navy fleet.”

Anderson presented Ed with one of his military coins, which Mainwaring said are presented to show appreciation for an individual’s hard work and demonstrated excellence.

The rear admiral also told the students about the visit to Hunt Valve, describing it as “an awesome experience.”

He, Lunsford and Mainwaring all delivered to the students that message of hard work and excellence paying off, how keeping positive can help through the rough times, of doing what you’re doing at a high level and that “a job worth doing is a job worth doing well.”

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tom Anderson, Program Executive Officer, Ships, poses with the workforce at Hunt Valve in Salem, which produces valves used in ships throughout the Navy fleet. Hunt Valve is a longtime Salem company. (Photo provided by Susan Mainwaring, Director, Team Ships Strategic Operations)

“Be confident in yourself,” Mainwaring told her fellow Quakers.

When she was in Salem schools, she met her future husband, fellow SHS grad Bryan Wright, who was a kicker at that school up north, Michigan, while she went to Ohio State. She did a number of internships in Washington, including with Sen. John Glenn, the late fellow Ohioan and famous astronaut, and she fell in love with D.C. She described her job with the Navy as a communicator, talking with members of Congress, the public, the press, all for Team Ships Strategic Operations.

She credited her A.P. government class taught by George Spack and her speech class with preparing her to succeed. She, Anderson and Lunsford all talked about the importance of being able to communicate with others.

Neither Anderson nor Lunsford considered themselves to be top students in high school. Anderson said his father was a huge fan of the movie “Top Gun” and urged him to join the Navy, bringing home a Navy ROTC application for him, saying that was a way for him to go to college. He was commissioned in the Navy in 1991 and the kid from New Jersey got to see the world at age 21. At the end of five years, he realized his passion for everything mechanical on a ship and decided to stay in the Navy, saying it’s been a great career for him.

Lunsford said he barely graduated high school and six months after graduation spoke to recruiters and picked the Navy. He enlisted in 1992 and said the Navy gave him the structure he needed to succeed and now he holds the highest enlisted rank and also earned a PhD.

From left, Rear Admiral Tom Anderson, Salem High School 2006 graduate Susan Mainwaring, Director, Team Ships Strategic Operations, and Command Master Chief Chad Lunsford pose for a picture in the Salem High School auditorium after talking with students about their careers with the U.S. Navy. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

“There’s a ton of opportunity out there,” he said.

He advised students the greatest advice he ever got was “either do it or don’t do it.” If college is your thing, go do it. If going to learn a trade is your thing, go do it. He advised “put energy where you’re going to succeed.”

He said the Navy taught him “there’s more than just me in this world.”

Anderson also said he learned structure from the Navy, an appreciation for how great a place to live the United States really is and he learned about service above self.

Mainwaring said that’s the biggest takeaway for her, “being able to contribute to something that’s so much bigger than yourself.”

mgreier@salemnews.net