Military academy cadets from Boardman share experiences
BOARDMAN — Naval Academy Midshipman Solomon Lu and U.S. Military Academy Cadet Elliot Thomas spent their Thanksgiving vacations home doing more than eating turkey and visiting family and friends.
The Boardman High School graduates and future U.S. military leaders also completed information missions for their respective military schools by sharing their experiences and opportunities with area high school students.
Interviewed together at The Vindicator, they said they had visited several schools, including their alma mater.
“Its not recruiting. I talk about the opportunities and the application process,” said Lu, son of Navy Reserve Capt. David and Joy Lu of Boardman.
Midshipman 2nd Class Lu, 20, a 2007 Boardman graduate, was accepted at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine through Youngstown State University, but chose the Navy path instead.
“I plan to become a Navy doctor, just like my dad,” he said.
His father, an internist whose practice is at the Youngstown Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, is on active duty stationed at the Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany.
Lu said he is seriously considering a career in the Navy, and said if he is not accepted to medical school in the Navy, he will serve in the submarine division for five years and then go to the medical school.
They have minimum five-year military obligations after graduating from their academies.
“I love the academy,” said Thomas, also 20, a son of Melvin and Carolyn Thomas of Boardman, “but, definitely not ‘plebe’ year. You are kind of locked down,” said Thomas.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.