U.S. Navy Nuclear “Honor Man” title goes to De Pere High School 2025 grad

DE PERE – 2025 De Pere High School graduate Ben Nusbaum achieved the title of Honor Man at the United States Navy Nuclear “A” School.

Nusbaum finished first in his class of 28 students, originally 32 students, and according to a press release, “The Honor Man designation is awarded to the top-performing student in the graduating class and recognizes exceptional academic achievement, leadership, discipline and dedication.”

One year ago, Nusbaum got a call from a recruiter at the Oneida office who told him he qualified for the Navy Nuclear program.

Ten months later, he shipped off to bootcamp to begin his training and his education at the apprentice school.

Mechanic A school is only three months long and during this he worked on running the nuclear reactors that give power to the aircraft carriers and submarines that the Navy uses.

At the end of March, Nusbaum will be classing up for power school which is a six-month course on the physics and how and why the reactors work.

“In A school, you’re more learning the mechanical side of it and the different components, and then the next chunk after Power School will be Prototype and that’s where we’re actually getting to work on a reactor,” Nusbaum said.

In Power School there will be two submarines in which everything but the reactors have been removed, this gives students hands-on experience with the reactors and they can qualify to run a reactor.

Nusbaum had ambitions to work in a trade field for a while, “I always thought I would end up in trades, and then I heard about this nuclear program from the recruiter and it really piqued my interest.”

“The traditional high school setting was not really the best place for someone who learns like him, so it was pretty gratifying when he got to A school and he’s getting near 100% on all these tests that are advanced math and science concepts. Then, when he finished first in his class, with kids from all over the country who, you know, have the same aptitudes and learning strengths — we’re just super proud of him,” Carissa Nusbaum, Ben’s mother, mentioned. “I just think it’s such a great option for kids who aren’t really set on a career, but don’t have an interest in going to a four year college right away. It’s a super good middle ground, because he can get college credits for all these classes he’s taking in his training.”

A School is different compared to a traditional four year college, “It’s all based on GPA. It’s all based on test grades. There’s no homework grades, there’s nothing like that.” explained Nusbaum.

Class starts at 7 a.m. and they leave the school house around 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.
Additionally, they also have between one and four hours of mandatory study to finish work and study for tests.

“All the schooling we do is in the Admiral Rickover schoolhouse. So we can’t bring any of those materials out of the school house once they’re in the school house...You won’t find a single piece of math or any science in this entire room because it’s all got some kind of control tag on it.” Nusbaum said.

When asked how he felt about winning this honor, Nusbaum said, “It’s pretty important to me, just knowing that I did something and I was the best at it out of a group of like 30. But in the long run, I only get a letter of recommendation out of it, so it doesn’t really impact my career that much. It’s still a good mark on my record, showing that I was able to do something, I was able to do it very well.”

After he finishes his training and education, Nusbaum mentioned several areas of work that he would be interested in.

Working in a nuclear reactor, finishing his nuclear technologies degree and teaching were his main ideas.

“Teaching always is on my back burner because I love teaching. I taught a lot of my classmates through A school on how to do things when the instructors weren’t around,” he noted.

Nusbaum discussed the importance of all jobs within the Navy, “A lot of jobs in the Navy you can look at, and you’re gonna say ‘they’re not doing anything’ because they’re not in a combat role. But all these jobs have to happen to make the ship run.”

He claimed that aircraft carriers and submarines aren’t unable to run without the nuclear reactors, and without those, planes, which he said is one of the biggest fighting forces, are gone.

“I would say that the Navy — and this is a little biased — but the Navy is America’s biggest fighting force, plain and simple. Because without us, we’re not getting supplies across the nation. We’re not controlling the waters. We can fight sea, land and air where the Army can’t fight in the sea. So you wouldn’t be having all your supply ships coming back to the U.S. without us protecting those trade routes,” Nusbaum stated.

Nusbaum recently ranked up to the title Petty Officer Third Class E4 and gained the official title Machinist Mate Nuclear 3rd Class.