Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Booth, Pensacola native, was recently named the Commander, 7th Fleet 2024 Shore Sailor of the Year.
Booth is a Navy musician assigned to the 7th Fleet Band, stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. The award distinguishes Booth from dozens of competitive peers across the United States Navy’s largest numbered forward-deployed fleet. As a part of the selection, Booth traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, to compete for U.S. Pacific Fleet Sailor of the Year, where he advanced to the next round of competition.
Booth was recognized for his leadership as the leading petty officer of two deployed musical units on board the USS Blue Ridge, which serves as the Navy’s command and control center for the U.S. 7th Fleet. At shore in Yokosuka, Booth led the band’s largest musical unit and was responsible for all production, rehearsal and performance logistics for the Navy’s only band in the 124-million square mile area of operation.
Booth, a J.M. Tate High School graduate, served four years in the Marine Corps and four years in the U.S. Army before joining the Navy. During that time, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in trombone performance from the University of West Florida and a Master of Music from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Booth joined the Navy in 2009 as a trombone instrumentalist and earned the enlisted classification code as an audio engineer through the Naval School of Music’s sound reinforcement course.