PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles teen who wants to fly fighter planes is awaiting word on whether he has been named the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2015 Military Child of the Year.
Jesse Calvert, 17, was nominated for the Operation Homefront honor, which would pay a $10,000 cash prize, by his father, Lt. Cmdr. Matt Calvert, whose Coast Guard career has hop-scotched the family back and forth across the country.
“I knew my career would be challenging for my children. My life complicates their lives,” his father said.
“Jesse has adapted well and flourished,” he said.
The younger Calvert, a Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet petty officer second class, has lived in Port Angeles with his father and his mother, Ami Calvert, who is a Coast Guard veteran, for two years.
He anticipates receiving his high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Peninsula College in June.
He said Port Angeles has proven to be the best place he has lived so far.
“I snowboard, and it has the lake and the coast. I like the school, and I like the community,” he said.
Operation Homefront will present the award to one outstanding military child from each branch of the armed services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and National Guard — at a special recognition ceremony April 16 in Washington, D.C.
The names of the five recipients are expected to be announced any day now, Jesse Calvert said.
More than 1,000 children and teens were nominated for the five awards.
Jesse Calvert is one of five finalists to represent the Coast Guard, and one of 30 finalists selected from children of active duty members of the five armed forces.
He is one of two Washington state children included in the list of finalists. The other state finalist was identified only as Hailey F., 8, of Bremerton.
Each finalist has been interviewed by Operation Homefront staff, and award recipients will be chosen by a panel of judges including senior retired service members, senior spouses, members of Operation Homefront’s Board of Directors, and other leaders in the military support community.
The senior Calvert said he thought his son was exactly the kind of child the Operation Homefront organization sought for the award.
“He’s a well-rounded kid who has had challenges to overcome,” he said.
Matt Calvert is the supply officer at the Air Station portion of the Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, a trained engineer with years supervising the operations of engine rooms of Coast Guard cutters.
While his father is at home in an engine room, the younger Calvert prefers to soar.
“My father sent me to the airport and said ‘Go get a lesson,’” he said.
Once he had that first lesson, flying became a passion.
“You just get the rush of being in the sky,” he said.
He said he expects to receive his pilot’s license in May, his high school diploma on June 12, and an associate’s degree at Peninsula College on June 13.
Jesse has nominations to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Great Neck, N.Y., and expects to learn by the end of May if he will be accepted to either or both of the schools.
He said his first choice would be to eventually fly fighter planes for the Navy, but said the Coast Guard helicopters at his father’s base also hold a certain attraction.
He has a backup plan if he isn’t accepted to one of the two academies.
He has already been accepted to Central Washington University, where he would study computer science before joining the military as a computer security officer.
As a member of the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Port Angeles High School, Jesse was part of the CyberPatriot team, in which students learn how to defend a computer system from cyber attacks.
The team won the state round of the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program on Dec. 6, beating more than 100 other teams.
Jesse’s last school was in Astoria, Ore., and before that he lived in Virginia, Florida, and other places as his father was transferred every few years to new assignments.
“I feel I was faced with disadvantages, but I’ve turned them into something positive,” he said.
He found something new to learn, some new advantage in each place the family lived.
“My childhood has been so much more like an adventure,” he said.
Every new school meant new friends, often other military children, with whom he still keeps in touch on Facebook and other social media.
Almost anywhere he lands in the U.S., there is probably someone there he knows, he said.
That doesn’t mean life as a military child has been easy.
Being a military child is hard sometimes, especially for adolescents, when their parents aren’t there, Jesse said.
However, he said, having parents in the military also provides a built-in role model.
“You look up to your parents, appreciate what they are doing for you and for your country,” he said. “Not a lot of people have that.”
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
