09/29/09 Nautical Gusto

2005 grad and Marine Transportation major, Hedi Marzougui, is working his way through the huge selection of ships owned by his employer Sealift, with an amazing gusto! "They have such a varied fleet, I get to learn new things with every assignment," Marzougui reported. "I particularly enjoyed working aboard their bulk carriers because of all the exotic places we visited such as Egypt, Greece, Turkey, South Africa, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka. I've also worked on a container ship stationed in Dubai which was also a lot of fun," he continued.

Marzougui is currently stationed on a "really cool ship", an Australian built, high speed catamaran called the HSV-2 Swift. Commissioned for the U.S. Navy, it was eventually transferred to U.S. Merchant Flag and is leased back to conduct Navy training missions directed at educating police and coast guards of foreign countries. Hedi is the 4th MMA grad working on board this vessel. Nicholas St. Jean, MMA '03, serves as Chief Mate; Jeff Dixon, MMA '07 is 3rd Mate; and Michael Doneghy, MMA '04, is the 2nd Assistant Engineer.

Here is a young man with a plan! Not only is Hedi sampling all of Sealift's vessels, he is determined to earn his Captain's license before he is thirty. He just got his Chief Mate's license a few months ago. A 2001 graduate of French High School Lycee Gustave Flaubert in Tunisia, this travel loving, kite boarding, soccer and beach volleyball playing man-on-the-go has always wanted to become a sea going captain and "discover the world for a living". He discovered the Academy because his Mom is from Massachusetts. He learned even more by actually graduating. "The regimental part of my education has helped me focus on what I want, to try harder to get it and to be disciplined on the way to reaching those goals. I also believe that the way the Academy functions, the learn-do-learn, has helped with anything I decide to do. Not just sticking us in a classroom but throwing us out there, made us responsible and accountable for the choices we made and will make," Hedi concluded.

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