Kenneth Hendrix, 29, joined the U.S. Navy in 2005 after two years as a photographic technician and assistant in Los Angeles. In Norfolk, Va., at Hendrix’s first duty station, the Navy Public Affairs Support Element – East, where he was assigned to three nuclear–powered aircraft carriers: USS George Washington (CVN 73), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69); two guided-missile destroyers: USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) and USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81); the littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS1); and the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA 4) in support of Hurricane Ike Relief.
Born in Lemoore, Calif. on the Naval Air Station, Hendrix grew up in Fresno, Calif. Hendrix earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2003. Hendrix’s photographs have won the individual category for digital darkroom in the 2006 Walter L. Richardson Photographer of the Competition and an honorary mention in the sports – still division category for “Ice Burn” in the 2006 Military Photographer of the Year Competition. Hendrix also placed third in the 2006 Navy Chief of Information Merit Award for outstand new writer. Hendrix’s hard work and dedication to photography, journalism and public communications in the Navy paved the way for him to be selected as the NPASE-East and Navy CHINFO Chief 2008 Junior Sailor of the Year. In the fall of 2008, Hendrix was selected to attend Syracuse University in The Newhouse School through the military photojournalism course in of the fall of 2009.