[B]WASHINGTON, D.C.[\/B]\u2014Midshipman Jun Vicente Mihara Chong graduated last week from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, earning the rank of Ensign and a bachelor\u2019s degree in Chemistry. President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address.<\/p>\n
Chong accumulated an outstanding record at the Academy. He was on the Dean\u2019s List, Commandant\u2019s List, or Superintendent\u2019s List in every semester beginning with his Plebe year. Because of this exceptional record, Chong has been assigned to the prestigious Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida for training as a Naval Aviator.<\/p>\n
Chong\u2019s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Vicente T. Chong, were present at the ceremony as were his younger brother and his aunt Dolores from Washington State.<\/p>\n
CNMI Rep. Gregorio \u201cKilili\u201d C. Sablan also attended the graduation with members of his staff. \u201cEnsign Chong is a source of pride for all of us from the Northern Mariana Islands,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a wonderful moment when Jun Chong\u2019s name was called, and we watched him go on stage to shake President Obama\u2019s hand and receive his diploma.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnsign Chong embodies that \u2018Yes We Can\u2019 attitude that all our young citizens should emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chong was widely recognized for his leadership skills at the academy. He served as a company drill sergeant, plebe summer company executive officer, squad leader, and drill officer. His natural charisma and energy were a great motivator to his classmates and a significant factor in the achievements of Fourth Company, of which he was a member, over the past four years. <\/p>\n
Chong is not the only academy student from the Marianas. Jake Tenorio, grandson of \u201cPinko\u201d Tenorio and nephew of former Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio, is a member of the class of 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnsign Chong was nominated to the Academy by Resident Representative Pete Tenorio,\u201d said Kilili. \u201cIt was certainly apparent today what a good choice he made in selecting Jun Chong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kilili, as the CNMI congressman, takes on the responsibility of making nominations to the U.S. military academies. The next open slot is at the Air Force Academy. Nominations will be made in January 2010.<\/p>\n
Sablan has also introduced legislation in the U.S. Congress that would increase the number of persons from the CNMI who may attend the academies.[B][I] (PR)[\/I][\/B]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Midshipman Jun Vicente Mihara Chong graduated last week from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, earning the rank of Ensign and a bachelor\u2019s degree in Chemistry. President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}