A sailor from Upper Marlboro is helping keep a Norfolk-based Navy destroyer running from the kitchen, according to a hometown release from the Navy Office of Community Outreach.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Itie serves as a culinary specialist aboard USS Mahan (DDG 72), the Navy said. The release lists the sailor as Fnu Itie, a military designation used when a first name is unknown or a person has only one name. It says Itie graduated from Bilingual Grammar School Molyko Buea in 2016 and joined the Navy about three and a half years ago.
The release gives a short account of why. “I wanted to live a different life from my friends,” Itie said. “I wanted to excel at life, and I knew that I had to move away to get to a better place and become more independent from my family and be on my own.” Growing up, Itie added, “taught me to overcome challenges,” and “learning to navigate has allowed me to succeed at everything life challenges you with.”
The rating has a long shipboard tradition. According to the Navy’s recruiting site, culinary specialists run Navy messes and dining facilities, preparing menus and meals for sailors at sea and ashore and managing food inventories and orders. On a ship with a crew the Navy puts at more than 300, that means feeding a community that works around the clock. The release says the sailors aboard Mahan hold jobs ranging from maintaining engines to handling weaponry, all aimed at keeping the ship mission-ready.
Mahan is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer built by Bath Iron Works and commissioned Feb. 14, 1998, in Tampa, Florida. It is the fourth Navy ship named for Alfred Thayer Mahan, the naval officer and writer whose work on sea power shaped how the Navy thought about its role. The ship’s motto is “Built to Fight.” The release describes destroyers as multi-mission ships that can operate alone or as part of a larger group, equipped with Tomahawk missiles, torpedoes, guns and a Phalanx close-in weapons system.
Mahan has spent much of the past year at sea. Navy imagery published by Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet shows the destroyer arriving at Naval Station Norfolk on May 16 after an 11-month deployment with the U.S. 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Fleets as part of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, and the Navy’s homecoming announcement lists Mahan among the destroyers that came home with the carrier. The Navy release about Itie does not say whether the sailor was aboard for that deployment.
Itie’s own account leans on a different kind of milestone. “I am proud that because of the Navy I was able to get my citizenship,” Itie said, adding, “I am honored that I have been awarded the opportunity to explore different parts of the world.” Of the job itself, Itie said, “My service is all about commitment and hard work. Once you decide you’re committed, you will accomplish your goals.”
The release also credits family. “I would like to thank my father, Denis, who has played a very big role in my life,” Itie said, adding that “his service in the National Guard in the U.S. inspired me to join the Navy.”
The profile lands in a year when the Navy is leaning hard on its history. Navy officials say the service is marking its contribution to the nation’s defense as the country celebrates 250 years of independence, and the Navy’s own 250th birthday was observed in October 2025. The release repeats a Navy talking point that about 90 percent of global commerce travels by sea and that internet access depends on the security of undersea fiber-optic cables, which Navy officials say ties national prosperity to recruiting and keeping talented people from across the country.
The Chronicle has followed other sailors with ties to the region, including another Upper Marlboro native serving aboard the USS Tennessee, a Great Mills native who also worked as a culinary specialist before his cruiser was decommissioned, and a Waldorf native aboard the Navy’s newest warship.
For Itie, the release suggests the next chapter is still being written: the Navy says there are “many opportunities to achieve accomplishments” during military service, and Mahan, back in Norfolk after a long deployment, is where that work continues.
