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Pfc. Nathaniel Okyere-Bour learned early that following a dream
requires sacrifice.
When the New Jersey Army National Guard
Soldier was 3, his mother sent him to Ghana to live with her family
while she followed her dream of becoming a nurse. She brought him
back to New Jersey after she'd completed bachelors and masters
degrees and landed a job as an intensive-care nurse at a prestigious
Manhattan hospital.
The example led Okyere-Bour to set lofty
goals as he grew up in a small Jersey City apartment. He achieved
the first by gaining admittance to Jersey City's McNair Academic
High School. As graduation from the elite magnet school approached,
the target shifted to top colleges, including Duke University and
the University of Chicago. He got in. But the money wasn't there.
So Okyere-Bour enlisted in the New Jersey Army National Guard in
2013 with the aim of using a tuition waiver to attend Rutgers
University. But something happened at basic training at Fort
Jackson, S.C. Okyere-Bour got a new goal.
“The battalion
commander spoke to us. He talked about how he went to West Point and
what it meant to him,” Okyere-Bour recalled recently. “I thought,
‘That's what I want.''”
On June 29, Okyere-Bour will join the
U.S. Military Academy Class of 2019. He will be among 25 Army
National Guard Soldiers accepted directly to West Point this year.
Eleven others will attend West Point's preparatory academy.
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New Jersey Army National Guard Pfc. Nathaniel Okyere-Bour stands at the Morristown Armory with his acceptance letter from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., March 27, 2015. Okyere-Bour is a wheeled-vehicle maintenance specialist from the 250th Brigade Support Battalion, and is currently a student at Rutgers University. He was one of 25 Army National Guard Soldiers to be accepted into West Point this year. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Matt Hecht)
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Pfc. Nathaniel Okyere-Bour learned early that following a
dream requires sacrifice.
When the New Jersey Army
National Guard Soldier was 3, his mother sent him to Ghana
to live with her family while she followed her dream of
becoming a nurse. She brought him back to New Jersey after
she'd completed bachelors and masters degrees and landed a
job as an intensive-care nurse at a prestigious Manhattan
hospital.
The example led Okyere-Bour to set lofty
goals as he grew up in a small Jersey City apartment. He
achieved the first by gaining admittance to Jersey City's
McNair Academic High School. As graduation from the elite
magnet school approached, the target shifted to top
colleges, including Duke University and the University of
Chicago. He got in. But the money wasn't there.
So
Okyere-Bour enlisted in the New Jersey Army National Guard
in 2013 with the aim of using a tuition waiver to attend
Rutgers University. But something happened at basic training
at Fort Jackson, S.C. Okyere-Bour got a new goal.
“The battalion commander spoke to us. He talked about how he
went to West Point and what it meant to him,” Okyere-Bour
recalled recently. “I thought, ‘That's what I want.''”
On June 29, Okyere-Bour will join the U.S. Military
Academy Class of 2019. He will be among 25 Army National
Guard Soldiers accepted directly to West Point this year.
Eleven others will attend West Point's preparatory academy.
In the end, Okyere-Bour's New Jersey National Guard
leaders helped pave the road from Fort Jackson to West
Point.
When Okyere-Bour joined F Company of the
250th Brigade Support Battalion as a wheeled vehicle
mechanic two years ago, the unit's leaders say he caught
their attention with stellar performance – and his
insistence that he had what it took to get into West Point.
They ultimately agreed. All of the officers and
non-commissioned officers in Okyere-Bour's chain of command
wrote letters of recommendation.
“How could we not?
He's one of those Soldiers who does everything right the
first time and does it when you ask and never, ever asks
‘Why?,'” said Sgt. 1st Class Dennis Mahon, his platoon
sergeant. “We knew it would be a hell of an achievement if
he did it, and we were pulling for him. Who knows, he may be
a general some day.”
Sgt. James Diana, his squad
leader, said the unit made accommodations to allow
Okyere-Bour to make up drill time that he missed during the
arduous application process.
“We knew that if he got
in, it would reflect well on all of us, our unit and the
Guard,” Diana said. “West Point isn't going to be easy. But
I know he can do it.”
It turned out that the person
who taught Okyere-Bour to dream big, his mother, Elizabeth,
at first didn't realize the magnitude of her son's
achievement.
“I grew up in Ghana,” she said with a
laugh. “I didn't know anything about West Point.”
But
it became clear when and she told a co-worker at Mount Sinai
Hospital about the acceptance letter.
“He was like
‘What?' The next thing I knew there was a crowd of
intensive-care nurses jumping up and down,” Kathleen
Okyere-Bour said. “Then I understood what my son had done.
It was a very big deal.”
Okyere-Bour says he hasn't
decided what he'll study at West Point. He's not sure what
branch he'll request either, although he said the officers
in the field artillery unit his company supports have
assured him there's only one branch to pick, and its acronym
is ‘FA.'
In the meantime, Okyere-Bour will finish
out his first year at Rutgers. Although the credits will not
transfer to West Point, he said the classes will prepare him
for the academic rigors that await.
“I'm just
excited to get there and start,” Okyere-Bour said. “And I
know that if it took that much work just to get in, what's
coming isn't going to be easy.”
Okyere said he's
ready.
“I realized I love the Army when I was at
basic training,” Okyere-Bour said. “I want to do everything
I can for the Army and I think the best thing I can do is
become a leader. I believe I can make it.”
He'll have
a lot of Soldiers in New Jersey pulling for him.
When
Mahon, the platoon sergeant, announced at a recent drill
that Okyere-Bour had made it into West Point, the formation
applauded for more than a minute.
“Private Okyere
worked very hard to achieve something most people just can't
do,” Mahon told them. “We should be proud of him – and
remind ourselves that only through hard work do we achieve
what we want.”
By U.S. Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Matt Hecht
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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