Boatload of DV grads to become midshipmen – or women

Twelve Arizona high school seniors are slated to head to Annapolis, Md., this fall to attend the United States Naval Academy, and three of them walked away with a diploma Thursday night from Ahwatukee Foothills's own Desert Vista High School.

"To have three from one school in one year, that's just incredible," said Steve Wieneke, a retired Navy commander, who now serves as a UNSA admissions liaison.

And it very well could have been one more.

A Navy guy through and through, Wieneke teases Desert Vista senior Jeffre Wood about his choice to accept an appointment to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., instead of heading to Annapolis.

"He said it was a very, very tough decision ... and from then on, basically we were engaged in battle," Wieneke said with a laugh, adding that nearly 12,000 apply every year for Naval Academy appointments, with less than 10 percent earning admission annually.

"But add Wood's USNA offer to those of fellow DV graduates Patrick Hu, Emily Elledge and Michael Vahsen, and that's one heck of an accomplishment for a single high school in a single year," Wieneke contends.

"Here is the biggest difference between these four and most everyone else going to college. They wouldn't have it any other way," Wieneke said, comparing Hu, Elledge and Vahsen to the traditional college-bound teen. "They want the greatest challenge. The type of kid who gets through this process is the type of kids who relish that challenge."

In Vahsen's case, that challenge is living up to the reputation his family name has held both on the academy campus and throughout Navy lore.

A submarine training facility and even a baseball locker room are named after his grandfather, a legend of sorts on the USNA campus and former assistant athletic director at the academy.

Vahsen's father and uncle are Navy guys as well, and his grandmother, who still makes her home in Annapolis, serves as a sponsor mom to potential midshipmen.

"I've wanted to go to the academy since before I was a freshman," Vahsen said. "I only applied to two colleges, and one was just a backup. This is where I'm supposed to be."

In order to earn an appointment, prospective students must be a U.S. citizen, interview with a commissioned officer and U.S. congressman, pass a physical fitness test and extensive medical exam, and qualify for "top-secret security clearance," Wieneke said.

"That's a better way of saying you better have not gotten in trouble with the cops. You have to have a crystal-clear background," he added, noting that academic requirements are sky high as well, ranking right next to schools like Stanford and Princeton.

For Hu, admittance to the academy is the ultimate honor for a first-generation Chinese-American.

"A dream come true," said Hu, whose father grew up during the communist revolution of the 1970s and 1980s in China.

"I think my dad is pretty proud of me," he said. "He's going to go with me (to Annapolis) on induction day."

Of the 1,200 admitted students each year, a little more than 250 - or about 20 percent - are female, just like Elledge.

"Emily was an interesting case," Wieneke said. "I guess it's more interesting because she's a female. She has very little, or even no immediate military ties in her family, and certainly not with the Navy. And it's even more interesting because she's a female.

"It was overnight for her. She woke up one day... and all of a sudden said, ‘I think the Navy is the coolest institution in the world.' She was hooked," Wieneke added.

Much to the chagrin of Wieneke's inter-academy competitive nature, Wood chose the mountains of Colorado over the Maryland waterfront for his first foray into military life.

But he knows how to play right back with Wieneke.

"The answer I always give him... let's be honest with ourselves. I can live in wonderful places in the United States or outside of the United States, or I can live on a ship with 500 other guys," Wood said jokingly.

"Both the Air Force or the Navy would have been incredible opportunities. I would have been honored to serve in either," he added, all jokes aside. "But I've just been drawn to the Air Force for as long as I can remember."

While Wood said his calling took him to the Air Force instead, he and his classmates agree that students who end up earning admittance to a service academy aren't like the traditional college student.

"There's something different about us, sure," Vahsen said.

Wood admits the draw doesn't even have to be tangible.

"For a lot of us, serving is just what we were meant to do."

See the rest of AFN's complete graduation coverage:

Graduation Night:

DV and MP weather the rain during graduation

Wet weather won't keep Mountain Pointe grads down

Desert Vista's '08 class record-breaking

Class Lists:

Mountain Pointe

Desert Vista

Features:

Identical triplets set to walk in Mountain Pointe grad ceremony

Boatload of DV grads to become midshipmen - or women

Sports:

Carman, Hood MP's scholar-athletes of the year

Shepard, Kline DV's scholar-athletes of the year

Ellenberger, Sangston Horizon Honors' student-athletes of the year