Sailor Story: Documenting the Work of the U.S. Navy

[Navy for Moms Admin]

Sailor: Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class (MC2) Michael Hinchcliffe, Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Va.
Mom: Katherine Hinchcliffe, Framingham, Mass.

While flipping through the pages of his recruiter’s deployment yearbook more than 10 years ago, Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class (MC2) Michael Hinchcliffe never guessed he would someday become the man behind the camera capturing images of wide-eyed orphans in Montenegro, fellow sailors enjoying a barbeque aboard an aircraft carrier out to sea, and many other Navy moments. His life today is quite a departure from his original plans, which were in his words, “nothing special.”

Today, Hinchcliffe has traveled the world documenting the work of the U.S. Navy. His photos and videos are used across the Navy as training aids and on Navy Web sites, where both personnel and civilians can view them.

Hinchcliffe’s mother, Katherine, remembers her reaction when her son first told her he decided to join the Navy: “No, you’re not!”

Her son convinced a very skeptical Katherine to speak with the recruiter, which she did. She soon believed he made the right decision.

“It took me five minutes to change my mind,” Katherine says. “I watched a few months later as my son and this recruiter walked out my front door the day he left for Boot Camp. The recruiter all decked out in his uniform, Michael in his baggy jeans, T-shirt and baseball hat. It’s a moment I will never forget.”

Hinchcliffe left for Boot Camp on September 11, 1997. Exactly four years later, he was stationed at Navy Recruiting Station Brooksville under Navy Recruiting District Miami. The events of September 11, 2001, reminded him why he chose the Navy.

“We fight so our home front, our families, can stay safe,” he says.

Soon after, Hinchcliffe departed for a series of deployments that took him all over the world. As a mass communications specialist, he performed community relations projects and documented Navy missions in writing and on film. His work took him from Guam, China and Japan to Australia, Italy and Africa.

During missions in Africa aboard USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), Hinchcliffe recalls the sense of duty he felt: “You meet people whose government has forsaken them, and you can give them hope. So few careers allow you to do that. I'm so lucky.”

In Guinea, he helped rebuild schools and other parts of the community and played games with children from the local orphanages, all the while capturing images of the bustling city, the precocious children and Navy Sailors hard at work.

Today, Hinchcliffe, his wife and young daughter call the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Va., home. He provides communications support to the Public Affairs Office at Little Creek, and actively coordinates fund-raising activities for the Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society. He credits the Navy with providing him an education that no other opportunity could offer. Not only has he earned college credit while traveling the globe, he discovered a true knack for the art of photography and a passion for helping others. This, he says, is the best part of being a member of the U.S. Navy.

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