Big Lake Native Working At Stennis Space Center
UNDATED (WJON News) - A graduate of Big Lake School is working at the U.S. Navy’s Stennis Space Center.
Ensign Austin Abbott, a 2013 Big Lake High School graduate, is part of Naval Oceanography working to create forecasts and warnings for sea and air navigation. Abbott earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota in 2017 and a Master’s Degree from Old Dominion in 2021.
Now stationed at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Abbott is assigned to the Fleet Survey Team, using a network of oceanographic and meteorological data to help the U.S. Navy navigate worldwide.
Rear Adm. Ron Piret, commanding officer of Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, explains what the Fleet Survey Team is tasked with.
We pride ourselves in our ability to characterize the battle space and then predict changes in the environment over time. Every ship that sails, every aircraft that takes flight, every submarine that dives beneath the surface of the ocean has to go to sea with the information that Naval Oceanography provides.
Abbott says his Big Lake education helped prepare him for this assignment.
Big Lake taught me to appreciate a small community. The oceanography community is very small within a large Navy.
To read more about Abbott’s role in the U.S. Navy, click here.