AANHPI Heritage Month Spotlight: HM1 Adirachel Sauvou

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Alejandra Ramirez Alarcon

Naval Medical Research Command

The Navy’s Sailors come to the U.S. from every corner of our country and all over the world, and each brings with them a rich personal history.

For Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Adirachel Sauvou shared her perspective on diversity, and her career to date with the Navy.

Originally from Fiji, a small island nation in the South Pacific, Sauvou joined the Navy out of the San Francisco Bay Area nine years ago when her family immigrated to the U.S. Sauvou currently serves as the leading petty officer in the Administration Department at Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC), where she leads administrative clerks in command pay and personnel processing for all command military personnel.

The Republic of Fiji, made up of 330 islands, lies two thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Natives to the island are referred to as Itaukei or Fijian. The current population of the islands number just under a million, and inhabit 110 of the islands on a permanent basis.

Sauvou began her career in 2014 as a hospitalman recruit at the Naval Branch Health Clinic Belle Chasse, Louisiana. In 2018, she joined the Mother Infant Care Center aboard Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, where she assisted with labor and delivery as a junior corpsman. In 2019, she served aboard USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) where she earned her Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist device. Her ship would later deploy to 5th Fleet areas of responsibility to take part in maritime security operations, for which they were awarded a Navy Unit Commendation Medal.

While aboard the Vella Gulf, Sauvou was meritoriously promoted to hospital corpsman 2nd class.

For Sauvou, Fiji is an excellent place to live and return to; communal, and always welcoming. She remarked that the communal culture aboard the ship reminded her of the sense of community back in Fiji.

“To preserve the harmony in our community, and similarly of a ship, the different groups of people must work together for the same mission,” Sauvou said, “especially since not everyone on the ship is a corpsman, our different skills and perspectives were critical to moving the ship forward.”

“The work tempo on a ship is always on the go, and the work schedule is from 0600-1800, sometimes past that,” Sauvou added. “I like the fact that there was always a mission, and everyone was geared toward going forward, and were all in it together.”

Sauvou advanced to hospital corpsman 1st class in 2022, while with NMRC. She has been critical to ensuring her corpsmen in the administration department are maintaining their skills, and participates in training for events like the NMRC Clinical Trial Center’s recent ongoing influenza study, sharing experience with new and upcoming corpsman who are learning the skills necessary to be successful shipboard corpsmen.

Sauvou expressed the importance of AANHPI Heritage Month, which celebrates different people and cultures who come together and wear the same uniform for the same cause, making the military a unique organization.

“Because I am from the islands, our community is much smaller and is still developing; I appreciate the fact that I can see life that is not familiar to me,” she said. “I like the unity that I have found in the Navy.”

Sauvou believes that diversity has strengthened NMRC’s capabilities.

“All the scientists and personnel here bring their cultural background and experiences along with their skills and knowledge,” Sauvou explained. “At NMRC we share ideas and stories, learn from each other, and embrace it to help us grow not only as individual, but as a team.”

Throughout Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage month NMRC aims to recognize the contributions of our sailors, scientists and civilian personnel with roots in countries and cultures with diverse heritage.