Before she joined the Navy, Lt.j.g. Ellen T. Harper was a professional singer who performed as a high soprano with the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Lyric Opera.

Now she’s the new Food Service Officer at NAS Whidbey Island and she could not be happier.

One reason is because she always wanted to be in the Navy. Another, is because she loves her new command and the squared-away approach they take in the galley and elsewhere. And finally, she reported here when the galley she is in charge of is one step away from winning the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Award for outstanding large ashore general mess. So reporting aboard what could potentially be the best galley in the Continental United States is a pretty good thing.

Harper, who took over Oct. 1, 2010, agrees, and credits the chiefs, enlisted personnel, civilians and Lt. Grant Knorr, the former Food Service Officer, with Admiral Nimitz Hall’s success.

“They love what they do,” Harper said. “My team and Lt. Knorr got us to the Ney finals by working hard and by caring about the product they provide our base three times a day, every single day of the year.”

She singles out her team of Navy culinary specialists: Culinary Specialist Master Chief Noel Beltran, Culinary Specialist (CS) Senior Chief Sammy Beauchamp, CSC Penelope Lancaster, CSC Vicente Mayoral, CS1 Matthew McFarlane and CS1 Kenneth Adkins for making the NAS Whidbey Island galley one of the best.

Besides the galley, Harper administers the Barracks and military Post Office, and assist in the administration of the FISC (Fleet Industrial Supply Center) warehouse and Fuels Depot. Her boss and mentor is Cmdr. John S. Duenas, Senior Supply Officer for the air station.

Harper comes to the Navy as a sixth-generation San Diego native with no members of her family in the military. A neighbor, retired Lt. Cmdr. Chris Halter was in the Supply Corps and told her about his experiences and encouraged her to join.

“I wanted to be in the Supply Corps from early on and Lt. Cmdr. Chris Halter was my first mentor and he convinced me it was viable,” she said.

Her parents thought she should think about it a little more. She had talent for singing so she did, first performing at 4 years old and getting her first classical vocal scholarship at 15.

College was at University of California, Irvine and she got her bachelor’s degree in classical vocal performance.

Harper chose San Diego State for her Master’s Degree in Linguistics but still needs a couple classes.

After school she sang, auditioned and concentrated on performing. There was the San Diego Symphony, Master Chorale and the San Diego Lyric Opera. She played a costume character at Disneyland.

But there wasn’t enough work singing full time, lot of auditions and physical demands like no late nights, loud talking, and no drinking coffee, she said with a smile as she sips from a cup of Starbucks, courtesy of the galley.

After a job contracting with a high-tech research and development firm and numerous performance gigs, Harper still wanted to be a part of something bigger.

So she joined the Navy, and hasn’t looked back. She went to Officers’ Candidate School, Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga., where she sang with the Athens Symphony, and then to the USS Ford (FFG-54).

“The finest frigate in the fleet,” Harper said.

Now it’s NAS Whidbey Island where the cooks in the galley compete in regional cooking and cake decorating competitions, do apprenticeships in gourmet food preparation at Frasers Gourmet Hideaway in Oak Harbor, and are scheduled to receive mixologist classes in bartending.

“I couldn’t have been luckier to find people who care so much and are so good at what they do,” Harper said.

Plus she still gets to sing. Every Sunday she’s a cantor at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.

And she has eight little ones to care for.  On the weekends, Harper is a kennel tech volunteer and foster-mom for animals in need, and is currently letting a cat and seven kittens stay at her house until they’re old enough to adopt. She does this with NOAH Northwest Organization for Animal Health, a partner of WAIF (Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation).