Navy Ensign Joseph W. Gursky, Jr, grandson of Patricia Clossen of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., recently graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy.
Gursky successfully completed four years of intensive academic, physical and professional military training, resulting in a bachelor of science degree. The mission of the United States Naval Academy is to develop its Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically, in order to prepare combat leaders of character for the Navy and Marine Corps.
Considered one of the top institutions in the country, the U.S. Naval Academy was founded in 1845. Of its 60,000 alumni, Naval Academy graduates include 4,000 admirals and generals, one president, 200 members of Congress, three governors, 73 Medal of Honor winners, one Nobel Prize winner and 40 astronauts.
The Naval Academy currently has more than 4,000 students who comprise the Brigade of Midshipmen, and who come from every state in the union. Each year, nearly 15,000 young men and women apply, but less than 1,300 are accepted.
Gursky is a 2004 graduate of Taconic Hills High School of Craryville, N. Y.
