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Son of Tinker employees accepted to USNA

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. Armstrong
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE --  The pressure David Hoang is under might make some people crack. But, to the 18-year-old Oklahoma City native who began his Plebe Summer at the Naval Academy Tuesday, challenges are just a part of life. 
   "My dad has always said, 'In order to turn iron into steel, you got to put it through the fire,'" David said. "I've always seen challenges as ways of growth."
   The son of 76th Software Maintenance Group employees Peter and Kim Hoang, David's mindset for success and subsequent challenges began long before his decision to attend the academy. A student of martial arts and piano, David is also a tennis player who spent his high school career at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics in Oklahoma City.
   "We've put a lot of investment in him and we're proud of him," said Mrs. Hoang, a native Vietnamese, who escaped the country in the late 1970s. "We've shaped him for our country (the United States). He will be a role model for his younger cousins and a leader for his family."
   David is the oldest of three children and the first in his family to be born in the United States.
   Like his wife, Peter also escaped from Vietnam in the late 1970s. Peter, a former Vietnamese army officer, escaped as a "boatperson" after spending three years imprisoned in a Vietcong concentration camp. Peter met his wife in the United States in December 1986 and they married in May 1988.
   David said he grew up listening to his father's war, prisoner-of-war and escape stories, and knew he wanted to attend a military academy for his college education. Although he had considered the Navy, David said he didn't have his mind made up until after he spoke with Professor Jack Gleason. Professor Gleason is a retired Navy lieutenant commander, and the dean of students at OSSM.
   "He told me about the benefits and explained to me what the academy was about," David said. "I kind of realized it was a good fit for me. The principles of community service and being a well-rounded person appealed to me very much."   
   In November 2007, the academy granted David a letter of assurance, meaning if he passed his tests, he would be admitted into the academy. Yet, David said the application process and its tests weren't easy. It included a physical, a fitness test, interviews and a nomination from a local senator, among other requirements. U.S. Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma nominated David.
   "He struck me as a quiet, unassuming young man," said retired Army Col. I.F. Bonifay Jr., who is a graduate of the Naval Academy and sat on Senator Coburn's Naval Academy candidate screening committee. "His obvious academic skills are a very good starting gate on the whole-person concept that the Naval Academy will build and demands of all its Midshipmen during the course of their four years."
   In May, David received his official acceptance.
   "I was really happy and kind of relieved," said David. "It was pretty rigorous. I had to train for the fitness exam. So, I wasn't just overworked, I was exhausted."
   David said of the 10,000 hopefuls who start the application process, only 3,000 of them will obtain congressional nominations. Furthermore, the academy only has a total of 1,200 Midshipmen.
   But there is no time for rest. On Tuesday, David began Plebe Summer, a seven-week intensive program designed to turn incoming freshmen into Midshipmen, the Navy's definition of a cadet.
  "[I expect it to be] challenging in every way possible and it will challenge me as a whole person," David said. "They say that Plebe Summer is 60 percent psychological."
   Following David's Plebe Summer, is his first year, in which he will be expected to adapt to a rigorous schedule of athletics, academics and military training.
   David said when he graduates, he'd like to become a doctor, preferably studying research. Yet, there are only 25 slots open for prospective doctors.
   Despite the obvious challenges, the Hoang family said David will not give up. 
    "When we enter something we make sure it's a one-way street," said Peter. "We don't back out, period."