Robert J. Lemus

Tell our readers about your eight years in the United States Navy.

I enlisted in the US Navy in 2001, and I served from 2002 to 2010 as a nuclear reactor operator. I was stationed on the submarine USS Miami, out of Groton, Connecticut. I did two deployments on the Miami, one six-month tour to the Persian Gulf, and a nine-month tour to the North Atlantic. I also spent two years as an instructor at a training facility in upstate NY. If any of my professors thinks teaching law students is tough, try teaching a 19-year-old how to operate a nuclear reactor!

What lessons learned in your military service have helped you in this first semester of law school under challenging conditions?

Surviving on a submarine is a constant challenge. We make our own electricity, we make our own water, we even make our own air. If we stop even for a day, we all die. The good news is, we don’t each have to do all that for ourselves. We have a whole boat full of shipmates, each doing our part to survive together.

Similarly, law school is a special challenge. However, we all have classmates, professors, and tons of other resources to make it possible. None of us need to do everything alone, we are all members of an incredible team that we can’t succeed without.

What's your desert island book?

Maybe Call of the Wild? Perhaps I am overthinking the theme, but the story of a domesticated dog adapting to nature would definitely resonate with the version of me that is trapped on a desert island. Plus, I just like pups.

What are you most looking forward to doing post-pandemic? 

Traveling! My wife and I did an awesome Central American cruise for our tenth wedding anniversary last year, and we can’t wait for our next adventure. Much of our pandemic has been spent fantasizing about where we might go and what we might do once the world is back to normal.