From midshipman to officer

A sea of white Navy uniforms filled the Navy Marine Stadium in Annapolis, Md., in preparation for graduation of the Class of 2014 Naval Academy.

Midshipmen were there to watch their upper classmate's graduation and commission. Saratoga High School graduate Wyatt Hill was among those receiving their commissions.

The weather, which is usually raining and cold on commissioning day, was warm and the sky was a clear blue as the stadium filled with guests, parents and friends of the graduating class.

After four years at the Naval Academy, Hill, a 2010 graduate was about to become an officer along with 1,067 classmates.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was the guest speaker, and as a former Army enlisted soldier and Vietnam veteran, he had advice for the newly sworn in officers:

1. Connect with the people you lead on a personal level.

2. Try to understand perspectives that are different than yours.

3. Be humble, stay humble.

The graduates were called up by company and one-by-one to receive their diplomas. Hill was the 12th name called from the 13th company.

After the ceremony 1,068 hats were thrown into the air as the new officers celebrated their completion of the hardest four years of their lives. On induction day, 1,247 candidates were inducted into the academy on June 30, 2010. Seven of the 1,068 graduating did not receive their commission.

Hill's parents, Jane and Howard, viewed their son's graduation from an area reserved for parents of the graduates and special guests.

The stands held more than 30,000 people who attended the graduation.

Mike Langley, a retired Senior Chief of the Navy and a family friend, was the first person to salute Hill. Langley was the person who had advised Hill to apply to the Naval Academy.

Wyatt said it is really difficult to identify what the hardest part of the Naval Academy is, because there is the shock of being away from your family for the first time for a long time. He was inducted on July 1, 2010 and did not see his family until Dec. 22 of that year.

Adapting to the type of people at the academy and the people around the area was difficult, because he learned some people will do anything to make themselves stand out.

Coming from a small town in Wyoming, he found the stigma of attending the academy and the competition it instilled in its attendees to be very fierce.

In his freshman year, Hill tried out for track and didn't make it. In retrospect, it was the best thing that ever happened to him because he joined the trap and skeet team.

"I became a part of the trap and skeet team my freshman year and told myself I was going to become the captain of the team."

Not only did he become the captain of the trap and skeet team, he took his team to the ACUI (Association of College Unions International) Collegiate Clay Target Competition.

"It was one of the most fulfilling tasks I have accomplished so far," Hill said. He said had to jump through a lot of hoops to get his team in the competition.

The thoughts going through Hill's mind as he was receiving his diploma was wishing his grandmother could be there. She passed away five years ago and a ruby from one of her rings is in his Navy ring.

"It was surreal and eye opening and amazing," Hill said.

As Hill went forward to receive his diploma, the Secretary of Defense was congratulating all of the graduates. As Hill shook Secretary Hagel's hand he was impressed with the fact that such a high-ranking official was there to shake his hand just like he shook everyone else's.

"It shows that he has a vested interested in the smallest unit of the military," Hill said.

The fact that Hagel is the first enlisted man to serve as Secretary of Defense reminded Hill that people can live the "American Dream" and do anything they want "as long as you put your mind to it".

Hill had several family members who attended the graduation besides his parents; his brother Marshal, who attends Saratoga High School; his grandparents, cousin, and aunt and uncle from Illinois and Arizona and his aunt and uncle, and cousins from California. His girlfriend, who lives in Kansas, also was at the graduation.

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Hill said. "Everybody that's here has always been here for me. There were a lot of people who wanted to make it, but couldn't. Family is the most important thing to me and having them here has been great."

Hill's degree is in Operations Research, which is a math major. Another name for it, Hill said, is operations analysis.

Hill uses math to analyze and making things more efficient. "It is a world application math," Hill said, and is used in logistics, and networking issues such as placing factories and distribution factories.

"It's used to make the world more efficient," Hill said.

Hill found going into the academy, he was behind in math, but when he arrived at the academy he discovered the opportunity to take this major and improve his math skills. He found he enjoyed the applicable side of math compared to the theoretical side of math. "It was nice to see the real side of math," Hill said.

"We saw real world math and what we were working with and solving problems." Hill said his class is the first to graduate with the major.

After graduating, Hill is home for one month before going back to Annapolis, where he will be assigned temporarily until Aug. 8.

His temporary assignment is weapons detail, teaching the incoming "plebes" how to to shoot the M-16 and Beretta M-11. This is his third year supervising the incoming inductees.

In August, Hill heads to Pensacola, Fl. for naval flight training school. Hill hopes to fly P-8s, which is an antisubmarine platform that has two Naval Flight Officers and three enlisted Aviation Warfare Operators.

When asked after struggling with math in high school, did he ever see himself as a math major in college? "Not in a million years," was Hill's reply. "I am really glad I did it."