CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The 10th annual Academy Breakfast was held at the Pacific Views Event Center here, June 15 to recognize seven high school graduates who have been nominated to attend United States military academies.
Of the seven students chosen this year, three students and their families attended the breakfast buffet where Congressman Darrell Issa, the U.S. representative for California's 49th congressional district, publicly recognized their accomplishment.
“What separates those who succeed and those who don’t, is not aptitude. It’s attitude,” said Issa, who was commissioned into the Army after graduating from Sienna Heights University in Adrian, Michigan.
The students were also given the opportunity to express their gratitude and expectations for the future.
“I am just so blessed to have gotten this nomination from Darrell Issa,”said Skye Hubbard, a graduate from Elsinore High School in Wildomar, Calif., nominated to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“I really pursued West Point with more ambition than normal,” Hubbard said. “People never expected much of me and I decided to fight to get what I wanted.”
Brig. Gen. Vincent A. Coglianese, the base commanding general and regional authority for five Marine Corps installations in the southwestern United States, Lt. Col. Sinclair Smith, the housing officer here, and Capt. David Van Dyne, the deputy operations officer here and MCI-West G4 logistics deputy, spoke about their experiences as students at the academies, and what it takes to flourish as a leader.
“There were endless qualifications for about 1,000 slots out of an entire nation. You were the best of the best that applied,” Issa said to the future cadets. “Now the problem is, so is everyone else you’re going to serve with.”
The students have been accepted into the following academies:
• Skye Hubbard, U.S. Military Academy at West Point
• Karena Gonzalez, U.S. Military Academy at West Point
• Madison Daugherty, U.S. Military Academy at West Point
• Luas Kramer, U.S. Naval Academy
• Shay Martin, U.S. Naval Academy
• James Radosevich, U.S. Air Force Academy
• JonFranco Shattuck, U.S. Air Force Academy
For more information on academy nominations, visit issa.house.gov
Contact Cpl. Sarah Wolff-Diaz at sarah.wolff@usmc.mil.