| Pearce Phinney's journey has just begun. The Prattville Christian Academy senior has earned an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, an honor that will jump start his goal of becoming a U.S. Marine Corps officer and alter the course of his life.
"The military has really been in the back of my mind for pretty much my entire life," said Pearce. He's the son of Col. Todd Phinney, a U.S. Air Force pilot. For Pearce and the rest of the family — his dad, mom Sharen, and older siblings Trevor and Savannah — it's been an international life. The family lived for three years in Germany after a brief stint in Pennsylvania, which followed four years in Italy.
The career path just may be in his bloodline.
"I'm happy that he's found a passion, and he's pursuing his passion," Todd Phinney said of his son. "It could have been the military, education, business. My dad is a retired Army colonel. My mother enlisted in the Air Force to help pay for her education and my brother is a captain in the Navy Reserves. Every immediate member of my family has served the nation."
And now his older brother, Trevor, who is in the ROTC program at the University of Georgia — where older sister, Savannah, is also a student — has earned a pilot slot in the Air Force and will be commissioned in the Air Force in May.
Sharen Phinney said neither Pearce's decision or his appointment come as a surprise.
"Ever since he was just a little guy, he's kind of had that military bearing," she said, adding that his character lines up with the demands of the military. "Two words to describe Pearce would be passionate and persistent. When he makes his mind up to do something, he perseveres through any trials to succeed."
He's earned Eagle Scout status in three different countries, earning his most recent last year in his Prattville troop. AT PCA, he's the Student Government Association president and a member of the varsity basketball, cross-country and soccer teams — experience he'll need at the academy, where athletics, along with academics, are a huge part of life.
These achievements don't happen on their own, Todd Phinney said.
"From a parent's perspective, it really takes a community to raise a good citizen, somebody who is going to work hard and persevere," he said. "There's been a real team effort in Pearce to get him to this point."
That has included extended family, teachers, scout leaders, coaches.
"We're really grateful to this community of people who have really put their DNA stamp on Pearce."
Prattville Christian Academy President and Principal Ron Mitchell called Pearce "extra-driven."
"He is probably in the top five students I've ever seen, as far as his drive," Mitchell said, citing Pearce's leadership roles, his strong academic and athletic performance and his involvement in "just every activity the school offers."
Pearce is the third PCA student in two years to earn a service academy appointment, Mitchell said, following Joseph Flemming, who was appointed to the Naval Academy, and Zachary Willis, appointed to the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Kenneth Levens of Prattville High School also was appointed to the Naval Academy at the time).
Mitchell said the school's strong academic focus and spiritual nature attract outstanding students, and within the small student body, there are plenty of leadership roles to be filled. And Pearce, who said the school's support has been "irreplaceable every step of the way," has pursued them.
"I've always pushed myself to make sure I was the best," he said. "Once I decided on the Naval Academy, it was focusing in on specific areas such as athletics and academics and setting the standard for the bar that I needed to meet."
Earlier this year at the Naval Academy summer seminar, he got a taste of academy life — rigorous days that begin at 5:30 a.m. — and he's been "stepping up his regimen," his mother said, leaving the house by 6:30 a.m. daily to tutor fellow students in math before school begins, changing his body clock for the demands he knows lie ahead.
Pearce also earned a flight scholarship through the Maxwell Air Force Base chapter of the Daedalians, a fraternal order of military aviators, and logged in 15 hours of flight time at the Montgomery Airport with Fox Aviation, including a September solo flight in a Piper.
Because Todd Phinney has served more than 20 years in the Air Force, Pearce was eligible for a presidential nomination and was then offered an appointment. Still, he has applied for approval from Alabama's Rep. Martha Roby, Sen. Jeff Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby — not a necessary step in his case, but, for Pearce, and important one.
"Hopefully those will come through as well, because I would like to go there and say I'm really representing Alabama," he said.
Todd Phinney is proud of his son's dedication.
"He took a very mature approach to this," he said. "There's a host of areas where he pursued it and earned it on his own. Going to a service academy is something that the young man or woman has to want themselves. It can't be mom or dad wanting it, because it's too adverse an environment, the challenges are too great. I think he's ready for the challenge."
Pearce is well aware that the academic, athletic and day-to-day life requirements at the U.S. Naval Academy are notoriously stringent. He sees himself succeeding, and not just for himself, or his family.
"If you're good enough to get in, they're going to help you get through," he said of the academy. "One of the huge mottoes of the Navy is, 'Don't give up the ship.' That means it takes a team to make it through. While I'm up there, it is going to be tough, and there will be times when I am physically and mentally beat down, but it's not just going to be about me. It's going to be about my fellow midshipmen around me.
"I feel like I'm going to form bonds that I couldn't anywhere else and that will last for a lifetime, because you've been through the challenges together, you've helped each other when you've fallen down. I think the teamwork aspect of it is going to be huge. You're going to want to succeed for the people around you, not just for yourself." |