• BJ LEWIS and TARA BOZICK - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
• Originally published July 19, 2008 at 8:43 p.m., updated July 19, 2008 at 8:43 p.m.

Four years ago when three Victoria men headed off to military academies, they knew they were in for a new adventure.

Now they have graduated and are heading off to new phases of their military careers. They are taking with them some relief, faith and pride in their country.

Garrett Rybak and Mark McCollough graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, while Patrick Vrazel graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Garrett Rybak

Faith was the rock Garrett Rybak held onto to make it through basic training and his years at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“I am a really religious person. I feel like there was a reason I was at the academy; I was led there,” Rybak said.

The 22-year-old did not even know there was an academy until he heard about it from fellow graduate, Mark McCollough, during his junior year at Memorial High School.

“Mark was a year ahead of me and talked to me about it,” Rybak said. “I played football in high school and got recruited by the academy to play there. That sparked my interest.”

After graduating from Memorial High School in 2004 and getting to the academy campus his first year and seeing what took place, Rybak thought serving in the military was a noble profession and a neat thing to do. Playing football and having a chance to get a great education was just a bonus for him, he said.

Like his fellow grads, Rybak said basic training was one of the more difficult parts of his academy education.

“Freshman year, you don’t have any privileges, you’re kind of stuck there on campus,” he said. “A lot of support from family really helped.”

Sophomore year was the hardest academic year for Rybak. His junior year of school was difficult and he had more military responsibility. Senior year, he got to take classes in his major and had still more more military responsibilities.

“Each year is difficult in a different way,” he said.

Rybak has taken two trips since graduation, one for work and the other to Brazil for leisure.

The work trip was a mission trip to Africa for two weeks to a village in Kenya, an eye-opening experience, Rybak said.

“I went to Kenya with 15 to 20 other people. We did a lot of work projects, dug trenches for people, helped farmers, helped in medical clinics,” he said. “We did whatever we could, whatever they needed help with.”

One project was to build a hut for a widowed woman so she could have a place for herself and her children to sleep separate from the cooking area, unlike what she had before.

“The goal in my eyes was to show Christ through our actions,” Rybak said.

Rybak will report to Whiting Field Naval Air Station near Pensacola, Fla., at the end of the month, where he will begin pilot training.

Mark McCollough

Four years of classes and training were capped off with an unbelievable graduation ceremony, Mark McCollough said. The “coolest part” was President Bush delivering the keynote address, he said.

“And actually going up and accepting the diploma and getting to shake his hand and talk to him was pretty surreal, almost like a dream,” McCollough said. “He’s a real personable guy, he shook hands with I don’t know how many graduates. It was pretty awesome.”

Along with graduation comes a certain future for McCollough and his newly minted fellow officers.

“In a day where so many graduates get out and have a hard time looking for a job, I have a guaranteed job.”

McCollough will start in August as a logistics officer at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

He admitted that a track through the academy was not his first intention after high school.

“It was more a financial thing. But they instill a lot of pride for your country,” he said. “I got to see a lot of things our service men and women are doing for our country that a lot of civilians don’t get to see. I felt proud. Proud to be an American and I felt like I owe it to our country to go and serve and do what I can.”

The academics were hard, he said.

“We take a lot of courses a lot of other kids who go to universities don’t,” he said. “We have a big engineering program and take more required classes, astronomical engineering, aeronautical, electrical, those were the more difficult classes.”

Other difficulties were being away from home, shorter breaks than his university friends and sometimes seeing the things his other friends were getting to do versus the kind of lifestyle he had, McCollough said.

“I’m glad I did it. And I am actually seeing the benefits of going through the academy,” he said.

McCollough is taking in downtime and getting settled in his apartment at Peterson.

“I am here right now getting my apartment ready and all the extra stuff I will need to start my career,” he said.

Patrick Vrazel

His grandfather’s service as a captain in the Navy was an influential piece of Patrick Vrazel’s decision to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.

At first Vrazel did not think about making it a career, he said. School was free and he thought he would play football as he did for St. Joseph High School.

The summer between his junior and senior year in high school, the 22-year-old attended a week-long summer seminar at the Academy that changed his mind.

“I liked the military part of it and the physical stuff.”

Vrazel applied to the Academy, though he didn’t think he was going to get in and had a back up plan of attending college at Texas A&M University.

“It surprised me when I got it,” he said. “It was the best school I got into.”

Finding the prospect of life underwater in a submarine boring, Vrazel opted for the path of a pilot. He grew up watching “Top Gun,” he said.

“It just seems like something really neat to do that not many people get to experience,” Vrzael said about being a pilot.

The academy was a lot of work he found, but he learned something about himself.

“How to persevere and not give up,” he said. “Things are gonna be hard, but put that stuff behind you and keep going.”

His mother, Patty Vrazel, said Vrazel never complained about being at the academy.

His father, Doug Vrazel, was confident in his son’s chances to succeed.

Vrazel’s next step is going to Pensacola, Fla. for flight school. Pensacola is where his grandfather, Capt. Michael Vuksta, a retired doctor, lives. Vuksta served 49 years of active and reserve service and served in three wars.

Vuksta and his wife, Dorothy Vuksta, flew from Florida for the ceremony.

Vrazel received his first official officer salute from his grandfather.

The ceremony was a relief for him and the graduates, he said. Tossing their caps in the air was a sign he had had completed one phase of his career and was beginning the next.

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