“We are they”: From Sailor to Dahlgren Division specialist, a mission of service that continues

"We are they": From Sailor to Dahlgren Division specialist, a mission of service that continues

By Morgan Tabor, NSWCDD Corporate Communications

The Navy gave Rulx "Ro" Rosemond more than a job. It gave him a sense of urgency that never left, the kind that comes from staring at a glowing radar screen, deep at sea, knowing every blip represented lives depending on him.

"If I didn't fix it, it wasn't going to get fixed," he said. "If the system didn't work, people could die."

That was the weight he carried as an Aegis fire controlman aboard USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) and USS Laboon (DDG 58), both Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. As an Aegis computer technician, he was responsible for the systems that linked radar, missile control and command decisions into one heartbeat of combat power.

"We controlled the fires," he explained. "If those computers didn't work, the weapons couldn't work. It was that simple, and that serious."

That responsibility became even more real on September 11, 2001. At just 22 years old, Rosemond, stationed in Japan, watched the attacks unfold on television. Within hours, his ship was underway into a world forever changed.

"We were moving into a war zone, and they asked me to turn on a piece of equipment I'd never even seen before and was not familiar with," he recalled. "I had two choices: admit defeat and let down my shipmates or figure it out."

Those moments forged something in him, a conviction that has been carried from the deckplates to the labs of Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Today, as an NSWCDD technical specialist and project lead for data links and sensors, Rosemond is no longer the Sailor at the console. He's the one helping to shape how those systems will perform for the next generation.

His work ensures deployed ships receive the clearest possible battlespace picture, connecting off-board sensors and communication nodes into the Navy's combat systems.

"Our work keeps Sailors' radar screens clearer, gives them more battlespace and buys them more time to react," he said. "That clarity can be the difference between survival and loss."

The path between those two worlds was never broken. After eight years in uniform, Rosemond joined the contracting world, where for 15 years he built simulations to support the same Aegis combat systems he once operated at sea. In 2019, he returned to Dahlgren as a government employee, continuing a straight-line career dedicated to one mission: strengthening the fleet.

His Navy background informs every decision he makes at NSWCDD. "I've been that young Sailor staring at a screen in the middle of the ocean, waiting for the system to perform," he said. "That perspective drives everything I do."

And yet, he never lost the Sailor's lens. He often reminds colleagues, "We are they."

"When Sailors ask, 'Why didn't they make this easier? Why didn't they fix this?'" he said. "We are they. We are the ones responsible for making sure the system works, for making sure it's reliable, user-friendly and ready. Having been in their shoes, I know what's at stake."

It's a mantra he lives by, whether he's briefing the nation's top labs on real-world interoperability analysis or mentoring young analysts who may not yet realize they are the world's experts in their field.

"Sometimes it's a 25-year-old analyst who doesn't see it yet," he said. "But if you're the one in the chair, you are the expert.

"The Sailor gets out what you put in. You are they. When a system in a warzone performs as expected and lives are saved, you are they."

Rosemond's story is not just about technology. It's about continuity of service. From building a school in East Timor with fellow Sailors while assigned to the Curtis Wilbur to standing strong with his shipmates through the chaos of 9/11, to now ensuring that today's Sailors can trust the screens in front of them, his mission has never changed.

"I may not wear the uniform anymore, but I still serve," he said. "Everything I do at Dahlgren is still about giving Sailors the tools they need to fight and win."

In that way, Rosemond embodies something timeless about the Navy: service does not end when the uniform comes off. For him, it simply shifted into another form, one that still carries the urgency of a Sailor on watch, the perspective of a veteran and the pride of someone who knows the mission is bigger than himself.

"My career has been a straight line from Aegis school in 1998 to where I am now," Rosemond said. "There's nowhere else I could be. This is service. This is impact. This is still the Navy."