LINCOLN — Zack Hogeland is one of the most focused young people you’re likely to meet.The Lincoln High School senior always had an interest in the military, and when he made the decision in ninth grade to attend a service academy after high school, the only difficult part of the decision was deciding which one to attend.
“For about a year I was looking into West Point (the U.S. Military Academy),” Hogeland said. “Then I realized I think I would do best in a situation — in a position — that is more technical. Something in which I would be able to use what I think and what I excel at, which is math and science. I was thinking Air Force or Navy after that.”
He sought guidance from his parents, studied his options and decided the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., would be the academy best suited to what he wanted to do.
“I knew the Naval Academy would give me the opportunity to excel in a technical environment and to excel at what I always wanted to do, to be down in the front and not to be a guy who sits back and watches things happen,” Hogeland said.
Many applications, letters of recommendation, reports, interviews and health and fitness tests later, Hogeland was selected as one of only 1,400 students nationwide to be accepted into the Naval Academy.
“It’s going to be the hardest physical and academic challenge I’ve ever had, and probably the largest I’ll ever have,” Hogeland said. “It’s a bit of a daunting task to look at that and know it, but it’s a challenge I’m looking forward to.”
Hogeland will not know what area he will be specializing in until he begins his studies at the academy, but currently he is interested in being a part of an underwater demolition team, being a Navy SEAL or serving in some reconnaissance capacity.
He is in tremendous physical shape already and believes he’ll be ahead of the game when he begins training in the summer. He is a member of Lincoln’s state championship track team, in which he participated on top of all his physical and mental preparations for the Naval Academy.
He is not sure what the academy will throw at him in academics, but he’s ready to tackle that part of it, as well.
“The way I look at it is, they can’t kill me, and they can’t eat me,” Hogeland joked.
Hogeland will be only the third student in the history of Lincoln High School to attend a service academy, and the first to attend the Naval Academy. He is quick to point out how much help he received from the community, school, church and family to get into Annapolis.
Hogeland starts the next phase of his life when he reports to Annapolis on June 30. He will spend four years in the academy and will serve a five-year commitment to the Navy after that. He estimates he’ll only get eight or nine weeks of leave while in the academy.
The Naval Academy experience sometimes will be difficult and exasperating, but it also will allow Hogeland to have a life that is exciting and rewarding while he serves his country.
Hogeland seems to be just the kind of person who can excel in that environment, so anchors aweigh, my boy, anchors aweigh.
