Wythe native earns commission

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

For Daitra Pierson, the sky is the limit. Flight school in Pensacola, Fla., will take her to new heights this summer.
“I’ll be temporarily assigned duty at the flight school,” remarked Midshipman Pierson, who will graduate from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on May 23. “I’m undecided right now which avenue I’ll take. I have several choices.”
At next week’s graduation ceremonies, she will be commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy. Pierson also will receive a bachelor’s degree in English.
A few weeks after graduating Fort Chiswell High School in 2004, Pierson learned she had been accepted at the Naval Academy. The late notification resulted in her being two weeks late for Plebe Summer at the academy.
The U.S. Naval Academy prepares young people to become professional officers in the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. Naval academy students are midshipmen on active duty in the U.S. Navy.
They attend the academy for four years – expenses paid by the government – and graduate with bachelor’s degrees and reserve commissions as ensigns in the Navy or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps.
Naval Academy graduates serve at least five years as Navy or Marine Corps officers. Their entrance to the Naval Academy is based on high moral character, academic education and physical fitness.
Approximately 2,000 candidates are found fully qualified each year. Of that number, about 1,500 receive appointments and approximately 1,200 become midshipmen.
Nominees must be recommended by a U.S. senator or a U.S. congressman. U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher recommended Pierson.
“It was very challenging,” Pierson stated last weekend while visiting her family in Wytheville. “I learned a lot about myself each year.”
She is the daughter of Diane Happel of Wytheville and Ross Pierson of Salem. She has a sister, Danielle Pierson, a student at Spiller Elementary School.
She listed leadership experience and general experience as the best part of her training. The worst part, Pierson noted, was overcoming her fears.
“I did things that I never thought I’d be able to do,” she said. “I gained a whole new level of confidence in survival training. Jumping 30 feet off a diving board into the water was an experience.”
Academics were challenging, too. Pierson maintained a 4.0 overall average this past semester.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from,” she said. “You can do anything you set your mind to. You can make a difference.”
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or .