By Ashley Craig, Navy Office of Community Outreach
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Chief Petty Officer Thamous Calais, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, serves the U.S. Navy assigned to Maritime Expeditionary Security Group (MESG) 2, part of the Navy’s expeditionary force.
Calais graduated from Northside High School in 1999. Additionally, Calais is working toward a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Southern New Hampshire University.
The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Lafayette.
“Learning how to prioritize things in my life helped me structure how I want my life to go and what I want to do,” Calais said. “It’s helped me see a lot of different avenues and ways I could progress and how I could excel in life and in the workforce. Coming out of high school, I went to college, but that didn’t really work out, so I started looking into the military.”
Calais joined the Navy 23 years ago. Today, Calais serves as a boatswain’s mate.
“I joined the Navy because I wanted to see the world,” Calais said. “I had a bunch of relatives who had been in the military, mostly in the Army. I wanted to try to do something different.”
