Trygve Hammer, a Velva resident, has announced that he will seek the nomination for Public Service Commissioner at the State Democratic Convention to be held in Minot on March 25-27.
“In my life, from my youth, I had a passion for service,” he said. “I believe that right now our state needs dedicated public servants who fight for them, especially in our rural communities."
Upon graduation from Velva High School in 1985, Hammer enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served as a Nuclear Power Machinist Mate. The next year he was nominated by the Secretary of the Navy and appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Hammer completed flight training at Naval Air Training Command in Pensacola, Florida and was designated a Naval Aviator in September of 1992. He completed two fleet tours as a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter pilot, a deployment as a forward air controller with Third Battalion, Third Marines, and assignment as a company officer and leadership instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. He left active duty for the Marine Corps Reserves in June 2001.
In the Marine Corps Reserve, Hammer completed a combat deployment to Iraq in 2003 as an infantry weapons platoon commander and battalion forward air controller for Third Battalion, Twenty-third Marines. Other assignments included duty as assistant Marine attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy, and as a trainer for general-level staffs deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq at the MAGTF Staff Training Program in Quantico, VA. When not engaged in Marine Corps Reserve duties, Hammer was an airline pilot, a defense contractor, and a security consultant. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2010 and returned to Velva in 2016. He taught 7-12 science at TGU Granville for three years and is now employed as a substitute teacher with several school districts around Velva.
Hammer also has experience working on an oil rig for 6 months as a floor hand.
