Neuqua Valley graduate helps implement new Navy robotics program

Chris Rambert is the first of his kind — the Navy’s first robotics warfare specialist.

Rambert, a Naperville native and a 2000 Neuqua Valley High School graduate, is working to ensure there will be many more after him.

It’s a skill set that deals with technology such as submersibles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones, surface vessels, and ground robotics.

Based in Millington, Tennessee, with the unit, Master Chief Rambert has headed into the next phase. Previously a Navy aviation training center, it’s convenient for its central location but also insulated enough that “we just don’t get a lot of visitors,” he said.

“First you’ve got to find the people, you’ve got to hire the people, and then you’ve got to train the people to get them out and do their jobs,” said Rambert, who was pinned robotics warfare specialist in February. “That’s really what I’m looking at right now. Technology is shifting, and in order to shift with technology you’ve also got to shift your workforce to be able to match what technology is doing.”

Rambert said robotics offers a prime opportunity for active service members looking to switch their career paths as well as for future STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) recruits seeking jobs.

The 42-year-old is the former. He is a veteran with seven deployments overseas under Special Operations assignments, to destinations including the Persian Gulf, Iraq and the South Pacific Ocean.

Since joining the Navy in 2001 Rambert also has worked as an electrician servicing helicopters and as a recruit division commander — “like the drill instructor equivalent to the Navy,” he said — at the Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County.

Rambert was surprised when he was approached by Navy human resources to work in the robotics program since his previous experience didn’t align with that path.

Once fully immersed in establishing the robotics warfare rating, Rambert “absolutely loved it,” he said.

Rambert said he and others in the program are encouraged by what university and high school students learn in STEM courses and their interest in the field.

“There is a professional career path out there that has, I wouldn’t say unlimited potential, but it’s got definitely an opportunity for growth and stepping into something that anybody can do,” Rambert said. “It’s just putting your mind to it.”