Job Corps and Navy improved her life

The young woman was fed up with schools, her neighborhood and her mother.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NAVY AIRMAN NICOLE SIMMS' mother said she was less worried about her daughter on a amphibious assault ship in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War than when Nicole was a teenager growing up on McGuffey Road.
"When you walk down McGuffey, you're at war. But, you have no buddies to back you up [like she does in the Navy]," said Simms' mother, Karen Baskin, of 2618 McGuffey Road, Youngstown.
Simms, 21, who joined the Navy in November 2002, said she was not into bad trouble, like drugs, when she attended Youngstown East High School in 1994-96.
But, she admitted she was fed up with the local schools and the neighborhood, and was seriously feuding with her mother.
"I'm an adventurous person. I would have gone down a different path if I would have stayed here. There were no decent jobs. I knew sitting on my butt in Youngstown wasn't going to get it done. I felt trapped," she said.
So, at 16, she moved to Columbus to live with her father, Angelo Simms. She quit Columbus Northland High School in her senior year, at 18, however, and worked various jobs before seeing an ad on television for the Department of Labor's Job Corps that got her attention. She enrolled at the corps' Dayton Center at 20.
Job Corps is a residential, education and job training program for at-risk youths age 16-24.
And, "it gets you out of the neighborhood," said Simms, a move she felt was important for her.
She said at least four of her friends from Youngstown, "people who came to my house and that I played with at McGuffey Centre, and even one guy I dated," have been killed.
New skills
Simms says the Job Corps, and now the Navy, have given her job skills -- nurse's aide and receptionist at Job Corps and a high school degree through Northland -- as well as good self-esteem and a new perspective.
After graduation, Simms said Job Corps would have helped her find a place to live and a job in Youngstown, if she wanted. But, a Navy recruiter came to the center one day, and Simms was hooked.
Since joining the Navy, Simms said she has learned to appreciate other people who have been in other wars.
Before, she said she was not even aware of the extent of the military tradition in her own family.
Her stepfather, Rayford Baskin, served in the Army in the Vietnam War. Her brothers, Steven and Cornelius Baskin, are in the Air Force and Army, respectively, and a stepbrother David Parker is scheduled to join the Navy in October.
Simms' grandfathers, George Burnett and Clifton Baskin Sr., both of Youngstown, served in the Navy and Army, respectively; and a deceased great uncle, Samuel Hollins of New Castle, Pa., was a Navy veteran.
Baskin, formerly Karen Lemon of New Castle, commended Job Corps and the Navy for the structure, discipline, purpose and maturity they have given her daughter.
"We can sit down and talk like mother and daughter. She has God in her life. She has respect for her country, and her elders and me. I'm very, very proud of her," said Baskin, a claims certification analyst for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio.
"I hope other parents see this article so they can know there are opportunities. I believe Job Corps and the Navy saved my child's life," Baskin said.
For herself, Simms sees a future with open doors.
Since joining the Navy in November 2002, Simms has completed boot camp and aviation training, gone to war in the Persian Gulf and seen a good part of the world.
Immediately after aviation training, Simms was assigned to the USS Bon Homme Richard, an amphibious assault ship with a crew of 2,000.
Duties on ship
Aboard ship, she is part of a team that launches and parks jet planes and helicopters. Her specific jobs can include making sure ordnance is secure, fuel tanks are full, tire pressure is correct, and she is even qualified to operate the tractors that move the planes around the deck of the ship.
Home on leave last week, she admitted she was "really scared" when she first came aboard the Bon Homme Richard.
"But, I have a lot of good team members and people who know what they are doing. I put my trust in them," she said.
Additionally, Simms has traveled extensively, one of the things that attracted her to the Navy.
"I've seen Italy, Sicily, Australia and Hawaii as well as the Persian Gulf, and I was able to support my country when it needed me. I highly support the war against terrorism," she said.
Simms' long-term plans include re-enlisting after her four-year tour and making the Navy a career, possibly becoming a nurse.
Her immediate plans, after visiting family and friends in the Youngstown, New Castle and Columbus areas for a week, are to report back to the Bon Homme Richard, at its home port in San Diego, and begin to explore what that area has to offer.
"Right now, it's really good. I'm single with no kids. I have security and health care and college benefits, and I expect to be promoted to petty officer 3rd class in September. I feel good," Simms said.
alcorn@vindy.com