By Meagan Ellsworth, mellsworth@hcnonline.com
Published 8:10 pm, Saturday, June 10, 2017
Among the seven students nominated by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, and appointed to prestigious service academies, is a female graduate with a mission to be a Navy SEAL.
Brady's office hosted the annual send-off breakfast at the Black Walnut Café in The Woodlands Saturday morning to honor, encourage and connect the students and their families as they prepare to enter the service academies. Students submitted resumes and conducted interviews to prove they were a caliber candidate to become the nation's next generation of military academy appointees.
"These young men and women are stepping forward in a time of great uncertainty where national security and service is at a premium," Brady said. "Their willingness to step forward to become leaders … at this point in America's history says a great deal."
The Woodlands College Park High School's Meleah Caron is on a mission to be a Navy SEAL.
"I've wanted to go into the Navy SEALs since I was itty bitty, like way too young to want to be a Navy SEAL," she said. "… No one told me when I was 8 that I couldn't be a Navy SEAL. I just went around telling people that's what I was going to do. I didn't find out until I was in middle school that I wasn't even allowed to."
"I didn't know what I was going to do," she said. "Up until that moment in my life, the only things I wanted to be was an astronaut, the president or a Navy SEAL."
The door to pursue her childhood dream opened in 2015 when the former Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced the decision to open all combat positions, including Navy SEALs, to women who quality.
When the news broke, she said she received dozens of messages from her friends notifying her that she could go after her goal. Caron began "gunning for it" through ROTC, track, pole vaulting and more to learn and prepare as much as possible.
But she already has faced discouragement and criticism.
"I've been told (by people in school and the community) you shouldn't count on that (becoming a Navy SEAL)," she said. "I've told them 'I will make more plans, but this is what I want to do and what I need to do'"
Determined, she applied for the chance to be nominated by Brady's office who announced her appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. She said she is honored by the nomination, which is the "only way" she would have been appointed to the Academy that she feels will prepare her for the intense process.
"I had a lot of support from my friends and a lot of people tell me I couldn't do it, but I've had enough people say 'if anyone can it's going to be you,'" Caron said. "I think it is going to go well and I think with the help of the Academy it's not going to be a problem."
Retired U.S. Marines Lt. Gen. Steven A. Hummer offered the students and families advice to triumph training and tough times in the weeks ahead. He noted Caron's decision during his speech at the breakfast.
"It's a new opportunity for females going into the Navy," Hummer said after the meeting. "It will be physically, academically, and emotionally challenging because it is for anybody going into SEALs."
Air Force Academy appointee Kyler Wedgeworth, 21, of the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado, already enlisted and went from active duty to academic study with the goal to fly fighter jets. He will be entering his third basic training. As someone who already has endured training, he felt the advice of speakers, including the importance of a support system, was relevant during the breakfast.
"... Their classmates will be their number one driving factor," said Wedgeworth, whose parents live in Conroe. "Getting there is half the fight. They (the classmates) will become their reason for staying there, all the friends and bonds you make, that ends up being their family. Also, having family back home. ..."
This year's distinguished appointments include: United States Military Academy at West Point: Christian Mardaga, The Woodlands Christian Academy; United States Naval Academy at Annapolis: Meleah Caron, The Woodlands College Park High School; Broderick Moore, The Woodlands High School and Francisco Ramos, The Naval Academy Preparatory School; United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs: Joshua Sorensen, The Woodlands High School and Kyler Wedgeworth, The United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School; and The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point: Kyu Hwan Oh, The Woodlands College Park High School.
"Every parent is very proud for their son or daughter," said Kyu Hwan Oh's father Hyogen Oh. "We are especially proud because we are from South Korea, we became a U.S. Citizen, and he made the academy that is hard for everybody. We pray he is successful and we are thankful because for us it is special."
