SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Rear Adm. Michael Wosje with the U.S. Navy lives in Virginia, where he is assigned to the Pentagon. Wednesday, however, he was visiting O’Gorman High School in Sioux Falls and speaking in front of students. Just a few years ago, he was in their shoes.
“I graduated from O’Gorman in 1989, went to the University of Notre Dame on a ROTC scholarship, and then from there I was influenced by a little bit of a movie when I was in high school called ‘Top Gun’ and decided to pursue flying jets in the Navy and just really developed a passion for it and still been doing it as recent as a few months ago,” Wosje said.
Walking the beat in Sturgis
Wosje has spent time as an instructor at the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, otherwise known as TOPGUN: the focus of that iconic movie. For Wosje, O’Gorman fueled a rise that now has him in the position of director of U.S. Navy Air Warfare.
“My education here at O’Gorman set up a very strong foundation that allowed me to go to Notre Dame, I think, and flourish, and at Notre Dame at the basilica there, there’s a sign etched in stone that says ‘God, Country, Notre Dame,’” Wosje said. “I include family in that ‘Notre Dame,’ and I think those things just built logically to me joining the Naval service.”…