The Filipinos and Fil-Ams of USMA Class 2008 pose with their sponsor, at left, Col. Bryan Goda. The graduates are Daniel Asis, Anthony Bulaclac Jr., Kimberly Jung, Christy Achanzar and Mario Feliciano.
WEST POINT, New York – The US Military Academy (USMA) Class of 2008 will be memorable for Filipinos and Fil-Ams alike. They will be a tough act to follow in terms of distinction and the honors they’ve reaped in the four years they spent in West Point.
Christy Isis Achanzar is the first Filipina to join the “Long Gray Line”. The Davao lass took the Philippine Military Academy entrance exams almost on a whim. She passed and while already in Baguio, tried another test, this time for the USMA. The rest, they say, is history.
Mario Mokhtarian Feliciano is the first son of a Filipino migrant worker to hurdle West Point. He was born in Iran and grew up in Kuwait where he learned to speak near-perfect English. As a child, he’d cry when told not to play with other children because he hadn’t finished his homework yet, but when he did decide to part with his books, liked to play with miniature soldier figures.
Christine Limsiaco of Houston, Texas is already the second West Pointer in the family. Her elder sister Marissa, USMA Class 2005, has just finished her first tour with the 1st Cavalry Division, spending 15 months in Iraq. Asked if she had any advice for her sister, Marissa smiled and assured, “She’ll be fine, he’ll be good. We’re going to be together.” Christine is deploying to Fort Hood, home of the 1st Cavalry.
Anthony Bulaclac Jr. of Victorville, California joined the Golden Key, an international honor society that recognizes scholastic achievement – members must rank in the top 15 percent of their class. He is going to the Army flight school in Fort Rucker, Alabama. Given a choice, he says, he’d like to fly Apache attack helicopters.
Competition getting tougher
Over 1,200 cadets, including 17 foreign students, started with Class 2008 four years ago. When diplomas were handed out last Saturday, less than a thousand cadets marched up the stage at Michie Stadium.
Established in 1802, West Point is one of the few schools where present-day students study the words and works of some of her alumni – from Civil War Gen. Ulysses Grant to Douglas MacArthur to David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq.
The Philippines has been sending its most talented sons – and most recently, the first woman – to West Point since 1914. It has bred one Philippine president, several Cabinet secretaries, numerous Armed Forces chiefs of staff, multinational executives and even one accused coup plotter.
Mario Feliciano, the first son of an OFW who graduated from the US Military Academy, pulls out a Philippine flag in a show of pride and patriotism on the parade grounds of Michie Stadium in West Point.
Feliciano finished 87 in a class of 972 and reached the rank of Regimental Sergeant-Major, the highest rank a foreign student can attain. More interestingly, he was one of the candidates for the post of First Captain, who serves as Corps Commander. He led one of the Corps’ four regiments in the summer of his senior year at West Point.
Achanzar also received an award in electrical engineering.
But Feliciano and Achanzar are the last Filipinos to graduate from West Point, at least for the next four years. When the Philippines still hosted US bases, it was assured of a slot at West Point. Today, the slots are apportioned based on competitive exams administered throughout Southeast Asia. Thus, the number of cadets eventually joining West Point can be a barometer of the comparative quality of cadets entering military academies in the region.
Mother’s appeal
Feliciano and Achanzar share one more thing in common – the influence of deeply religious parents.
Achanzar’s father Ermine, who works with the Dept. of Environment & Natural Resources in Davao City, usually keeps to himself. Her mother, Asuncion, also exudes a quiet strength that she attributes to her deep faith. “I wouldn’t like this interview if all we talk about is Christy being the first Filipina to graduate from West Point,” she cautioned as we prepped her interview with ABS-CBN’s “Balitang America.”
“We have to mention that God is the center and source of my daughter’s success,” she stressed.
Rosauro Feliciano was a Navy Reserve officer who saw action in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi until 1974 when he decided to work in the Middle East as an electronics technology instructor in Tehran, Iran where he would meet his future wife and Mario’s mother, Nahid, one of his students. When Islamic fundamentalists deposed the Shah, they moved to Kuwait.
He said Mario nurtured dreams of being a soldier too, which he first told them while he was still in high school. They asked an American neighbor about West Point but were told that was next to impossible. So they made a plan. “They told us we needed a sponsor, his mother said, ‘God will be your sponsor’,” the elder Feliciano explained.
“First God, second his knowledge and third our prayers,” Nahid said of how her son got into West Point. Often quoting from the Bible, she believes Mario is destined for bigger things.
She said she wanted to appeal the government. “I hope the government of the Philippines values his achievements. As a mother, I know that the knowledge that Mario has is really a gift from God. We need to use that in a way that others also learn something good. Government should make use of this knowledge, but in a right way,” Nahid declared.
Col. Rolando Tenefrancia, Philippine Army attaché in Washington D.C. said Feliciano and Achanzar are required to report to Camp Aguinaldo after 30 days. They will make a full circle in their budding military careers when they return to PMA for re-orientation before posting to field units. Achanzar will be deployed with the Light Armor Regiment; Feliciano is joining the Infantry.
Feliciano has been invited to speak before the Engineering Management Honor Society in Las Vegas, Nevada in September. They were impressed enough by his thesis in engineering management to extend the invitation to the new graduate.
Filipinos and Fil-Ams, tied by a common heritage, part ways, at least for the meantime. They will do what soldiers do, but they know their paths will likely cross again.
Filed under: Uncategorized
