#VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran Curtis Addleman

Senior Chief Petty Officer Curtis Addleman retired after a 20-year Naval career. He began as a culinary specialist who learned everyone’s favorite dishes aboard the USS Memphis. Later, he became the only Navy instructor for the Advance Culinary Skills Course. Finally, he finished as a senior enlisted leader and helped Veterans achieve their college goals as an Upward Bound program director.

Addleman grew up near Penn State University. However, early on he knew going to college right after high school wasn’t right for him. 

“I wouldn’t have had the structure to set me up for success,” said the guy who got kicked out of his high school biology class for saying he didn’t need it because he was joining the Navy. And that’s exactly what he did, in 2003.

“Had I stayed [in biology class], I would have learned what yeast does before I screwed up a bunch of bread,” he laughed.

That’s also when Addleman became a cook. During a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf in 2006, he served as a galley watch captain working with six other cooks to keep over a hundred crew members fed. Many worked 18-hour shifts, so the only way to know the time of day was by the meal served. The hours were long, but the crew grew close. 

“Guys would poke their head into the small window and say, ‘Give me two over easy with onions,’ and I would say, ‘I got you man,’” he said.  And he still remembers their orders: “You’re only as good as your last meal,” became a code he lived by, as well as “Never rest on your laurels. There’s always room to improve.”

Addleman spent the bulk of his years as a senior enlisted aide to high-ranking leaders. From 2014-2017, he was assigned as the lead instructor to the enlisted aide training course and the only Navy instructor for the advanced culinary skills course. In this role, he learned to remove himself from the spotlight and found a desire to help others get there instead. 

Addleman retired from the Navy in 2023, but the desire to help others has driven him to Upward Bound, where he’s the program director at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. 

Stephan Murphy, the associate dean of undergraduate admissions and the ROTC program director, said Addleman’s “high energy” and “excellent subject matter expertise” enamored him to the team. This program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, helps Veterans receive college prep classes, tutoring and many other forms of educational assistance. 

Addleman expressed that he enjoys directing the program because it helps lower income and first-generation college students, as well as those with a high-risk of academic failure, receive the structure and resources needed to be successful. 

“It helps me feel like I’m paying it forward,” he shared. 

We honor his service.

Writer: Philip Van Slooten

Editors: Daphna Gerber, Ashley Shaut

Researcher: Christopher Rosenquist

Graphic Designer: Saul Leon