PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) announced the 2025 NETC Military Instructors of the Year (MIOY) competition winners Dec. 16.

The NETC MIOY award recognizes Navy and Marine Corps instructors who have displayed outstanding instructional and leadership performance and consistently exhibit strong managerial and leadership skills. Awardees were selected from more than 6,400 instructors across the NETC domain for this prestigious distinction.

“Our instructors deliver the foundation of our Navy by shaping every battle-ready Sailor that we deliver to the Fleet,” said Huffman. “The role of a military instructor demands far more than technical expertise. It requires patience, leadership and an unwavering commitment to developing others. The NETC MIOY exemplify these qualities and embody the Navy’s standard of excellence.”

2025 MIOY awardees are:

• JUNIOR ENLISTED – Damage Controlman 2nd Class Crystal Avila, Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois.

• MIDGRADE ENLISTED – Damage Controlman 1st Class Anna C. Dickin, Surface Warfare Schools Command, Engineering Learning Site, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

• SENIOR ENLISTED – Chief Hull Technician Librado Najera III, Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois.

• OFFICER – Lt. Augusta L. Garies, Mariner Skills Training Center Pacific, San Diego, California.

• NAVAL RESERVE OFFICERS TRAINING CORPS (NROTC) – Capt. Phillip S. Haly (USMC), NROTC Unit Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.

Huffman congratulated all the finalists for their roles in shaping the Navy's future force and for their contributions to the mission.

“These instructors and their teammates set the standard for training excellence and play a critical role in strengthening the Fleet, ensuring our Navy remains ready to meet current and future challenges,” said Huffman.

MIOY awardees will be officially recognized at a ceremony at Naval Air Station Pensacola in February 2026.

NETC is the largest shore command in the U.S. Navy and serves as the foundry to the Fleet -- recruiting, delivering world-class training to highly skilled, operational and battle-ready warfighters. NETC's team includes more than 24,000 military and staff personnel around the globe, and on any given day, NETC is training more than 33,000 Sailors at its 251 training sites.

For more information about NETC, visit the command’s DVIDS at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/NETC and follow the command’s social media: Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NETCHQ, Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/netc_hq and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/netchq/.