About Me
Hailing from the great state of New Hampshire, I began my career as an English teacher in China and the Boston area. In 2014, having long wanted to join the military and to go out to sea aboard warships, I stumbled into a US Navy recruiting office and, some months later, began my training at the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island.
After commissioning I was assigned to the destroyer USS Carney, one of a handful of warships stationed in Spain, where I spent most of my two-year tour sailing across Europe from the English Channel to the eastern Mediterranean. I served as the ship’s communications officer and earned my qualification as a surface warfare officer, or SWO.
After my first tour, I was assigned as the navigator of the littoral combat ship USS Coronado in San Diego. I sailed Coronado in the waters off Southern California and brought her to dry dock in Portland, Oregon.
I completed my active duty service with the rank of lieutenant in 2020 and, while also serving in the Navy Reserve, attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. I am currently an assistant principal at a charter school and live with my wife in Nashville, Tennessee.
NAVY VETERAN
His new book recounts his wild deployments aboard a US Navy destroyer and how his experience paralleled the tragedies of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain.
Author AND ADVOCATE
Thibaut writes articles and narrative nonfiction about the Navy that have been featured in numerous publications and is an advocate for sailors and veterans.
Q&A
Why did you start writing The Wardroom?
In the beginning I set out to record my many anecdotes of life at sea. As I confronted the 2017 tragedies of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain, however, I quickly realized that a bigger story needed to be told.
The book is subtitled “an officer’s tour at sea and the crisis of the US Navy.” What is the crisis you’re highlighting in your story?
The crisis of the Surface Navy is ultimately one of culture—a culture of institutional thinking, toxic leadership, and declining training standards.
What books did you draw inspiration from?
I was drawn to military narratives before I joined the Navy, especially accounts of the War on Terror like Evan Wright’s Generation Kill and Sebastian Junger’s War.
How did your experience on the USS Carney parallel the story of the USS Fitzgerald and John S. McCain?
My first tour ended exactly as these incidents occurred, and I experienced the same training on the same class of ship as the officers on the Fitz and the McCain.
Why hasn’t more attention been paid to the 2017 collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain in the media?
Accidents in the military are not uncommon, and I think Americans overwhelmingly trust the military to “fix” its problems. In this case this hasn’t happened, which is why I wanted to bring renewed attention to the 2017 collisions.
Since 2017 the Navy has seen other high profile controversies, like the COVID outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the destruction of the USS Bonhomme Richard by fire. What parallels do you see between these incidents and the 2017 collisions?
In my opinion, these events point to the Surface Navy’s broken culture, particularly its ships’ unrelenting deployment schedules, its crushing bureaucracy, and the poor training sailors receive.
What is your advice for Young People who want to join the navy?
The military is an incredible opportunity for any young American. The camaraderie alone is unparalleled. My advice is to look closely at what jobs or specializations interest you the most, be it an engineer on a submarine or the pilot of an F-35 jet fighter. Whatever you choose to do, it will be a challenging but rewarding experience.
For more insight into what it’s like being a surface warfare officer, I recommend reading my book The Wardroom.
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