{"id":4945,"date":"2026-01-05T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=4945"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:01:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:01:56","slug":"a-call-to-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2026\/01\/a-call-to-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"A Call to Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decorated Navy SEAL Jonathan Bertera \u201904 draws on 20 years of\u00a0experience to teach ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the crisp September morning in 2001 when two hijacked jetliners crashed headlong into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, Jonathan Bertera was in the first month of his sophomore year at Seton Hall. From atop Xavier Hall, the tallest dorm on campus, known for its views of the New York City skyline, he watched smoke and flames engulf the upper floors of the towers before they cascaded to the ground. His experience on 9\/11 would play a role in Bertera\u2019s decision, shortly after graduating with a degree in political science, to\u00a0enlist in the Navy with a dream to become a member of the elite SEALs special operations forces.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of it was to prove something to myself,\u201d he says. \u201cPart of it was curiosity. I\u00a0definitely know\u00a0I had this desire for service, and doing something that might be difficult for other folks.\u00a0I think it\u00a0was a combination of all those things. I was just\u00a0kind of looking\u00a0for that next experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A two-time captain of the Seton Hall swim team, Bertera did indeed make it in the SEALs, rising to the rank of command master chief, the senior enlisted leader of a Navy command.\u00a0His 20-year career has taken him on nine overseas deployments, each lasting at least\u00a0<\/span>six months, including three assignments in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Along the way, he earned a Purple Heart, a Defense Meritorious Service\u00a0Medal\u00a0and a Meritorious Service Medal.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2024 he also earned an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia, although his 22-month master\u2019s program was interrupted by an overseas deployment. Earlier this year, shortly after returning home from the last of his five deployments in Somalia and reuniting with his wife and\u00a0<\/span>three young children, Bertera took on a new assignment: teaching ethics courses to midshipmen at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI found a tremendous amount of fulfillment coming up here,\u201d he says of this newest phase of his Navy career. He is one of only six SEALs teaching at the academy. \u201cAnd I\u2019m the only SEAL master chief,\u201d he says. \u201cThe\u00a0SEALs, they\u00a0walk around\u00a0campus\u00a0and they look like space aliens. I walk around campus and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0a purple-headed space alien.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bertera\u2019s career as a SEAL \u2014 part of the Sea, Air and Land\u00a0force\u00a0\u2014 began with a two-month boot camp at the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School in Great Lakes, Illinois. Later, in San Diego, he embarked on the mentally and physically rigorous six-month program known as BUD\/S, for Basic Underwater Demolition\/SEAL training. Bertera\u2019s class consisted of 187 aspiring SEALs. Only 13 graduated.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re constantly wet, you\u2019re constantly covered in sand,\u201d Bertera\u00a0recalls of\u00a0this training. \u201cThe chafing on your body from the sand and the water … your body is completely torn up. I got a ton of photos of me, and I look like an alien because\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0just so swollen and chewed up.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bertera\u2019s first deployment was in 2008, to Iraq. He would spend the next 16 years ferrying between\u00a0additional\u00a0training at home and more deployments to the most dangerous corners of the globe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey all had very different feelings,\u201d he says. \u201cIraq was much more in the urban environment. Afghanistan, more mountainous, open spaces. Iraq, you knew where you were being shot at from. Afghanistan, sometimes you never even saw the guys shooting at you, it was from such long distances.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two decades later, Bertera looks back on his decision to pursue a military career with no small sense of wonder. \u201cHonestly,\u201d he says, \u201cat that point in my life I was\u00a0<\/span>like,\u00a0Hey,\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0give this a try\u00a0and\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0see what happens.<\/em> And that\u2019s\u00a0kind of also\u00a0how\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0done my whole career. I never went in with the intention of,\u00a0Hey,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to do 20 years<\/em>. It was always,\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0just see how this is going<\/em>. And every time\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0come up for a re-enlistment,\u00a0<\/span>I do a re-evaluation: Am I still having fun? Do I still feel like\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0providing value? Next thing you know, it was 20 years later.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Hann in a freelance writer and editor in New Jersey.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decorated Navy SEAL Jonathan Bertera \u201904 draws on 20 years of\u00a0experience to teach ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy.\u00a0 On the crisp September morning in 2001 when two hijacked jetliners crashed headlong into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, Jonathan Bertera was in the first month of his sophomore year…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingA Call to Serve<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":5820,"featured_media":4961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,351,317,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-articles-2025-2029","category-profile","category-scholarship","category-university-life","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5820"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4946,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions\/4946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}