America’s Navy Launches Season 3 of Popular Sailor VS Series

America’s Navy offers more than 150 career paths in leading-edge areas such as nuclear engineering, special warfare, cryptology, and information systems management. There also are enlisted career paths in fields that are not widely associated with the Navy, including music, journalism, culinary arts, linguistics, and K-9 handling.

From a recruiting standpoint, the challenge is that most Centennials are unaware of the full range of career paths available in today’s Navy. In 2019, to help educate Gen Z about the range of opportunities, Navy Recruiting Command and its AOR VMLY&R launched Sailor VS, a video series that pits some of YouTube’s top creators and influencers against similarly skilled Sailors in challenges of speed, skill, and smarts. In the fall of 2020, the team launched Season 2. Combined, the 20 films comprising the first two seasons have generated nearly 24,000,000 views on the America’s Navy YouTube Channel and Navy.com/sailorversus.

Season 3

Season 3 of Sailor VS launched on Thursday, September 7th, with three initial Challenge films, as well as corresponding Career films, Creator films that will be showcased on each Creator’s YouTube channel. 

Aircrewman vs Dangie Bros

The Dangie Bros take turns riding in a Navy MH-60 Sierra helicopter, searching for a “survivor” in the ocean. The first to locate the “survivor” wins a Navy challenge coin. 

CTI Linguist vs Arieh Smith

Two Navy CTIs go head-to-head with influencer Arieh Smith, a popular YouTube polyglot, in a language-based escape room. 

MA Dog Handler vs Darryl Mayes

MA1 Baker and his military working dog (MWD) Chief Fox hunt down contraband hidden by influencer Darryl Mayes. 

“Our ultimate purpose is to inform potential recruits that the Navy provides experiences that you simply can’t get anywhere else,” says Rear Admiral Alexis “Lex” Walker, Commander, Navy Recruiting Command. “The Navy offers boundless opportunities for personal and professional transformation, and our Sailor VScampaign brings that to life in a unique and authentic way.”

“YouTube creators are today’s Gen Z celebrities,” adds Ryan Blum, VMLY&R executive creative director. “And each creator we partner with has a unique channel, millions of followers, and was chosen because his/her channel directly relates to the roles the Navy is seeking to fill. By partnering with these popular personalities, we can authentically show Gen Z the realities of Navy life through the lens of the influencers they know and love.