Samantha Blea: CMC to the Naval Academy

If you looked up the definition of “hard worker” in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Samantha Blea.

The Rifle native earned her associate of arts at Colorado Mountain College while still a teenager. By taking dual credit class, she graduated from both CMC and Rifle High School in 2007. From there, she went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the United States Naval Academy.

“I took online classes through CMC,” says Blea. “It was really convenient to be able to work at my own pace while staying on top of the syllabus for each class and it allowed me to do my high school work at the same time.”

Blea’s first post in the Navy was aboard the USS Ford in Everett, Washington. In a 2015 Post Independent newspaper article, Blea explained she then was stationed in San Diego and worked as an electronics material officer.

The Navy told the paper, she was part of a “53-person crew that rotated between the USS Independence and USS Coronado.”

“I am now on my second ship and have traveled around the world to eight different countries,” Blea told the Post Independent. “I’ve worked with electronics warfare and weapons systems and will be shifting toward information professional including cyber and network security.”

Working aboard some of the Navy’s newest ships, Blea says she knows she and her crewmates are “building a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes.”