Chief Petty Officer Ryan Goodell, US Navy

Chief Petty Officer Ryan Goodell vividly remembers his local firefighters in New Hampshire standing on the side of the highway with their helmets out, collecting donations to fund the members they were sending to New York to aid in the recovery efforts from 9/11. He wanted to help, but was still a child. Ten years and ten days later, he shipped off to bootcamp.

A Cryptologic Technician Collection (CTR), Ryan has deployed three times and earned his Enlisted Surface Warfare Qualification and the title of Blue Nose. He is currently serving as the senior enlisted leader in the NSA at Joint Staff. His commitment to national security and mentoring sailors is without question, but his most transformative mission has been his own journey to authenticity.
“As I navigated my late teens and early twenties, I came out to my friends as a lesbian,” Ryan recalls. “But I never felt that I fit into that category; I was just me and I liked women. It was not until a friend of a friend was caught transitioning while on a deployment that I finally had a description for how I felt. I once again came out to my friends, and every single one told me that they were not surprised in the least! This was in late 2014, so while I felt better having figured out my truth, there was nothing I could do to act upon it if I wanted to continue my military career.”

For years, Ryan put the Navy’s needs before his own, deploying to the Mediterranean and North Atlantic and excelling in his role. But the tradeoff was that he was destroying his mental health. He said, “I was a rock star at work, earning the number one E-5 Early Promote evaluation at the command, but at home I was a disaster.” In 2017 everything changed after President Trump announced a reinstated ban on transgender service. That night, he came out to his mother and, with the guidance of a trusted Chief, began planning his next steps.

Despite the policy chaos that followed—the ban, the grandfather clause, and the eventual reinstatement of open service—Ryan pressed forward. He publicly came out in 2018 and started his transition in 2019. Since then, he has become a mentor for fellow service members and their families navigating gender identity, often being the first openly transgender person his shipmates have met. In 2023, he was selected for Chief Petty Officer, a milestone that gives him a greater platform to lead and advocate for others. “I will always go where I am needed,” he says, committed to leaving the Navy better than he found it. "I have not yet begun to fight."

You can read more of Ryan's story in 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦

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