Mom And Daughter Serve On Same Navy Ship Together
Racquel McCray decided that when she turned 18 she was going to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the Navy.
According to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” McCray got the rare chance to actually be to see her mother in action after being assigned to her ship, the USS Gerald R. Ford. After joining the Navy in May, Racquel chose to pursue the same logistics specialty as her mother, Tonya McCray, realized she could have the opportunity to watch her in action, and reached out to her chain of command to be assigned to her mother’s ship.
Speaking with GMA, Tonya says she never pushed her daughter into joining the military. Racquel says her parents were her inspiration for it though.
"I chose to join because I watched my parents for my entire life," Racquel told the program. "They both served, so watching them every day go to work made me actually want to follow in their footsteps, with how successful they were and what they were able to provide for my sister and I."
Tonya says that when Racquel first discussed joining the Navy, she "didn't believe her or take her seriously," but when she realized her daughter was taking steps toward it, she warmed up to the idea.
"I was a proud mother," she recalled. "It took a while for her to get everything situated to come in, but that was my baby and I was so proud."
Racquel realized she wanted to work alongside her mother after she shared some pictures with her and talked about the experience.
“She told me that was why she wanted to join the military – to be able to participate in things like that," Tonya explained. "I talked to my chain of command, she talked to her chain of command and we thought it could be used as a training opportunity."
Mother and daughter worked together for four weeks, and according to Tonya, she really enjoyed getting to share her profession with her daughter, describing the experience as "great."
"I was able to share what I did with my daughter every day,” she said. “She saw what respect that someone of my pay grade gets on a day to day, how they look up to me, and it just felt great to be able to share that experience with her, and also, just to see her hard work.”
"It was a great experience for me, even though it only lasted four weeks," Racquel added. "I would have liked for it to be a little bit longer, but it was really nice to be able to see the benefits of all of [my mom's] hard work, how people looked up to her and respected her."
