By Javier Chagoya

Lt. Joseph Hake, left, pictured in the Glasgow Hall courtyard with Dr. Daniel Nussbaum of the Operations Research Department, is in rare company on the NPS campus. When the Fall quarter began, Hake was the only LDO out of the incoming class of 155 fellow students, and is one of just two LDO students onboard out of a population of 720 resident Naval officers.

An LDO is an officer promoted from the Navy enlisted ranks with no interruption in their active duty status. Hake is a cryptologist by trade and now serves as an Information Warfare Officer. Starting out as an E-1 himself, Hake believes that it's important to encourage and support Sailors to climb the ladder of success in the Navy's ranks and beyond.

"I enjoy helping others to advance in their careers while in the Navy … I helped mentor one of my chiefs back at [the National Security Agency], who is now a student at NPS," said Hake. "She submitted a request to attend NPS' Master of Science in Applied Cyber Operations (MACO) and was promptly accepted."