Posted on 07/03/2013 4:47:33 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
There are brothers in arms and bands of brothers, and now there are Noah, Sumner and Cole Ogrydziak, three Texas brothers who began their cadet training together at West Point this week.
For one of the few times in its long history, the U.S. Military Academy accepted three siblings into the same class. Eighteen-year-old twins Sumner and Cole and their 19-year-old brother Noah, of Nederland in southeast Texas, have each signed on for four years of academics and military training. If all three make it through the rigorous program, they will simultaneously toss their caps into the air as newly commissioned second lieutenants in the Army in 2017.
"It helps knowing that your brothers are here, even though we're going to be separated all across campus in different companies, but I'm sure we'll see each other and it will help keep morale a little bit higher," Sumner said after a bus dropped the brothers off early Monday along with some 1,200 new arrivals.
Within hours of their arrival, the brothers swapped their running sneakers for black dress shoes and were issued gray T-shirts. Close-talking junior and senior cadets drilled them on how to toe a line (figuratively and literally) and marched them under rainy skies in short gray lines. Over the next six weeks, they will take part in West Point's cadet basic training, a rigorous civilian-to-military shakedown sometimes called "Beast Barracks."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Whooo-ah!
Thumbs up!
June 4, 2013 Bound for West Point Brothers accepted to prestigious school
Erinn Callahan The Port Arthur News
NEDERLAND — The Ogrydziak family never got much mileage out of their television.
“We’d kick them out the door,” said Randal Ogrydziak of his four sons — Vaughn, 22; Noah, 18; and 17-year-old fraternal twins Cole and Sumner. “If they ever said they were bored at home, I’d give them a ton of chores to do.”
That proactive lifestyle stems from an impressive military pedigree. Randal met his wife, Kris, in Milwaukee, Wisc., when both were serving in the United States Coast Guard. Kris left after 10 years to raise her sons, but Randal is currently serving as deputy sector commander for Corpus Christi. Kris and her sons live in Nederland, where they relocated from Hawaii in 2003.
Their parenting style paid off. Last year, Noah applied to the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point, located in West Point, N.Y.
“He was signed up to go to Lamar,” Cole said. “He thought he didn't get in at all.”
In May, word finally came. While Noah had not been accepted into West Point, he had been offered a spot at the academy’s preparatory school.
“His dad started crying,” Kris said.
This May, not long after he received the Raymond M. Coolidge Award for highest academic ranking, Noah learned that he had been admitted into the academy. Around the same time, both Cole and Sumner were also admitted via presidential appointment — available to children whose parents are either retired veterans or active members of the military.
“Cole got in first, and then Sumner,” Kris said. “It was a little nail-biting.”
Not so for those familiar with the Ogrydziak boys. On Friday, June 7, Cole will graduate as salutatorian of the Nederland High School Class of 2013, with his twin not far behind him in the ranking. His senior year, Cole advanced to the Regional UIL competition for science — the first student to do so for the school in quite some time.
“They were very inquisitive — they always wanted to know why, not just learn the formulas,” said Catherine Baker, who taught the three brothers both pre-calculus and AP Calculus at Nederland High School. “They had a good sense of humor, they were fun to have in class, and they never backed down from a challenge.”
Even amid all their academic accomplishments, the boys still managed to weave athletics into their schedule. Noah played varsity tennis. Cole was the place kicker for Nederland’s football team for two seasons. In addition to playing football with his brother, Sumner participated in the shot put on the track team. He has already made contact with the track and field coach at West Point.
As if that didn’t keep them occupied enough, all three were Eagle Scouts, along with older brother Vaughn — a Lamar University chemical engineering student currently interning with BASF in New Jersey.
“Basically, after my sports, I just stayed here and studied until I went to sleep,” Noah said. “I didn’t go out much.”
That will change little at West Point. All three boys have a clearly defined plan for their lives.
“I want to study medicine,” Cole said.
“I'm hoping to make my job in the signal corps working with computers and IT,” Noah said. “And I'm looking forward to the military training. You learn how to survive on your own, and you learn some cool weaponry.”
Sumner plans to major in engineering, he said. He hasn’t narrowed it down further than that.
The boys report to basic training on July 1. In the interim, they are soaking up all the rest and relaxation they can — and trying to avoid treacherous situations.
“The other night my friends were like, 'Let's go climb up on top of the school.' I was like, 'No, let's not,'” Sumner said. “If you're injured and not able to perform, they'll just drop you.”
Kris Ogrydziak isn’t the slightest bit apprehensive about sending three of their four children to West Point.
Well, maybe a little.
“I say I feel OK about it, but it'll be kind of strange not having any of you guys here,” Kris said. “But it’s nice they’re all going together. That’s comforting.”
As for Randal, he is the epitome of a proud father.
“My wife and I motivated them, but they had to have the initiative to go after it also,” he said. “I am extremely proud of their accomplishments and them going on to serve their country and being leaders. This generation is what’s going to take us to the future.”
Good to see promising virtue from a sector of the youth of America! God Speed!
Wholesome kids preparing to serve in Obama’s new PC army. It’s good that there are still wholesome kids in the USA, but is it still good to turn them over to the government? I wonder.
No doubt, but the military follows the policies of the administration that commands it, at least here in the USA. So the Obama administration gets to decide what “defending America” means, including the values the military will uphold. Every so often, somebody here notes how problematic that has become—but not in this case. Why not?
NECK BACK SMACK! oh, that was the old Corps.....
Two things:
This is very truly amazing. I’m very proud for them, I know their father must be the proudest dad in all of Texas, and I think these young men’s parents deserve a round of applause to raise sons like these for America’s benefit.
Second point is that these boys better be thanking their divine creator every day at West Point that they didn’t instead go to USMC boot camp together. Oh dear God, the misery and abuse would never end.
I can just imagine it:
(Gravelly D.I. frog voice scream at 0445): “WHERE MY FRICKIN’ THREE STOOGES AT, HUH?! SHOW YO’SELFS STOOGES!”
(Ogrydziak boys, running up to report): “Hellooo... Hellooo... HELLOOOO!”
(Gravelly D.I. frog scream): “SHUT YO’ STUPID STOOGEY MOUTHS! NOW SLAP EACH OTHER AND POKE YO’ EYES OUT, STOOGES! HARDER MOE! TWIST MOE’S NOSE, CURLY! KICK HIS SHINS, LARRY! NOW SLAP CURLY UPSIDE HIS HEAD! TEAR SOMMA LARRY’S HAIR OUT! YOU BETTER KILL EACH OTHER, STOOGES! *HURRY* UP!”
They’d make them Stooge fight ten times a day, every single day until graduation. Believe me. Thousand times better they’re going to West Point for four years to become US Army officers instead of 13 weeks of Marine boot camp. Good for them.
“It’s good that there are still wholesome kids in the USA, but is it still good to turn them over to the government? I wonder.”
I hear you; I would be terrified to have kids in the service with a lib administration. They can’t be sent anywhere for anything, and the media will praise the Dear Leader regardless of the morality or soundness of it.
Best of luck to these three; I don’t know what they’re thinking, but I hope they come through it all right.
And I DO NOT enjoy saying that...
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