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3 Mooney seniors drawn to military academies
By Denise Dick
youngstowN
“Army. Navy. Air Force. Marines: What a great place. It’s a great place to start.”
That was the message of a late 1970s military recruiting commercial, and three seniors at Cardinal Mooney High School seem to agree.
Kyle Okular, 17, of New Middletown, and Chris Culp, 18, of North Lima, have been nominated to West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy, respectively, by former U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson.
A.J. Fox, 18, of Boardman, has been offered a scholarship to play football at the Air Force Academy. He was a kicker/punter for the Cardinals.
Fox, who is being courted by other schools, will decide by Feb. 2 where he will go, and Culp and Okular expect to learn by early June if they’ve been accepted to the military academies.
“I want to serve my country,” said Okular, who hopes to go into intelligence in the service.
He decided early in his high-school career that he wanted to join the military. He would be the first of his family in the service.
Fox’s maternal grandfather served in the military, and for Culp, it’s genera-tional.
“My ninth-great- grandfather was an aide to Gen. George Washington and was in the Revolutionary War,” Culp said.
The family still has the sword that his ancestor carried during that war.
Every generation of Culp’s family has served in the military except for his father.
He wants to continue the tradition.
“I want to serve my country,” Culp said, adding that the military would be his career.
He hopes to go into the Marines from the Naval Academy.
The ability to serve his country also appeals to Fox, but he also likes the academic opportunities afforded at the Air Force Academy — which he calls “second to none.”
Though life for those in the military academies is more regimented and disciplined than for average college students, the young men say they find that attractive.
Fox said initially he found the prospect rather intimidating, but he then visited the school, watched a game and talked to some students and liked what he heard and saw.
If he decided to go to the Air Force Academy, he would pursue a career in the military, he said.