thedrifter
03-10-08, 09:44 AM
Sister is 4th sibling to attend an academy
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 10, 2008 6:08:32 EDT
LA VALLE, Wis. — Joanna Voss is scheduled to begin classes this fall at the Air Force Academy, becoming the fourth member of her family to attend a major U.S. military academy.
The 18-year-old Reedsburg Area High School senior from La Valle has not decided on a career yet, but knows she wants to be a pilot and possibly an astronaut or a mission control specialist.
Her brother Jameson is an Air Force Academy graduate, brother Jordon a Naval Academy graduate and brother Jon is attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Recommendations from members of Congress, which are required for applicants to the academies, have come for the siblings from both political parties, and while other family members have served in the military, none of the others has attended an academy.
Air Force Academy public affairs officer John Van Winkle said each military institution keeps its owns statistics on siblings within its ranks, but not on siblings who attend the academies generally.
Fifty-six members of the 950-member class of 2008 at the Air Force Academy are siblings of students there, be said.
“I don’t want people to think I’m going there because of them,” Joanna said of her siblings.
Money was part of the reason the siblings have sought to get into the military academies, according to their mother, June Halsell of Hatch, N.M., who said “when they got to college age there were no resources to pay for a good education.”
Joanna also said she was attracted by the changes she saw in her brother Jameson at his 2006 graduation from the Air Force Academy.
“When you see that transformation, you want to experience that transformation, too,” she said.
Randy Voss recalls his eldest son watching something on television about military operations during the first Gulf War and seeing a battleship taking part in some complicated operations.
“He asked me at the time, ‘Well, how was that possible?’?” Randy said.
The elder Voss told his son there was a school where people learned such things and “that theme came back a couple of times” over the years until the two made a trip to Annapolis, Md., home of the Naval Academy, when Jordon was a sophomore in high school.
Jordon, 27, now a reconnaissance pilot serving his fourth tour in Iraq, just remembers hearing about the academy, most likely from his father, and that once he started looking into it, “every single thing I found out about it and every experience I had just affirmed its appeal to me. I liked the idea of being part of something bigger than myself.”
Jameson, 24, has gone on to medical school at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md.
Jon, 21, is scheduled to graduate from West Point in 2009 and plans to serve in the infantry.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 10, 2008 6:08:32 EDT
LA VALLE, Wis. — Joanna Voss is scheduled to begin classes this fall at the Air Force Academy, becoming the fourth member of her family to attend a major U.S. military academy.
The 18-year-old Reedsburg Area High School senior from La Valle has not decided on a career yet, but knows she wants to be a pilot and possibly an astronaut or a mission control specialist.
Her brother Jameson is an Air Force Academy graduate, brother Jordon a Naval Academy graduate and brother Jon is attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Recommendations from members of Congress, which are required for applicants to the academies, have come for the siblings from both political parties, and while other family members have served in the military, none of the others has attended an academy.
Air Force Academy public affairs officer John Van Winkle said each military institution keeps its owns statistics on siblings within its ranks, but not on siblings who attend the academies generally.
Fifty-six members of the 950-member class of 2008 at the Air Force Academy are siblings of students there, be said.
“I don’t want people to think I’m going there because of them,” Joanna said of her siblings.
Money was part of the reason the siblings have sought to get into the military academies, according to their mother, June Halsell of Hatch, N.M., who said “when they got to college age there were no resources to pay for a good education.”
Joanna also said she was attracted by the changes she saw in her brother Jameson at his 2006 graduation from the Air Force Academy.
“When you see that transformation, you want to experience that transformation, too,” she said.
Randy Voss recalls his eldest son watching something on television about military operations during the first Gulf War and seeing a battleship taking part in some complicated operations.
“He asked me at the time, ‘Well, how was that possible?’?” Randy said.
The elder Voss told his son there was a school where people learned such things and “that theme came back a couple of times” over the years until the two made a trip to Annapolis, Md., home of the Naval Academy, when Jordon was a sophomore in high school.
Jordon, 27, now a reconnaissance pilot serving his fourth tour in Iraq, just remembers hearing about the academy, most likely from his father, and that once he started looking into it, “every single thing I found out about it and every experience I had just affirmed its appeal to me. I liked the idea of being part of something bigger than myself.”
Jameson, 24, has gone on to medical school at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md.
Jon, 21, is scheduled to graduate from West Point in 2009 and plans to serve in the infantry.
Ellie