Leland senior Jimmy Alpi signed up for the United States Army last week, where he will aspire to be an Army diver.
Alpi was always interested in serving ever since middle school where he originally took an interest in the Coast Guard.
“Since then I had an idea that going to the military would be really cool,” he said.
After exploring the Coast Guard and Navy, Alpi decided neither of those branches were in his wheelhouse.
During last fall’s soccer season, Alpi spoke to an Army recruiter in Traverse City.
“He gave me the whole speech about anything you want to do in the real world, you can do it in the Army,” Alpi said. “The opportunity to serve as well and learn skills that will translate well to the real world is awesome,” Alpi said.
Alpi believes the Army is for him because it’s the main branch with more boats than the Navy and more planes than the Air Force.
“If you wanna do anything that just seems like the best place to do it,” he said.
The U.S. Army diver occupation includes underwater welding, construction, reconnaissance, demolition and more. Jimmy’s father, Bob Alpi, was in the military as well. Bob started off in the Coast Guard Reserves then decided to go into the Army infantry, where he was recruited into the Old Guard. This is the oldest activeduty infantry unit in the Army that has been serving the nation since 1784. Bob was in the Old Guard from 1989 to 1993.
“I think (Jimmy’s) decision is great and fits him to a tee,” Bob said about his son. “(What Jimmy is trying to do) its very difficult, and they try to wash out anybody that isn’t up to performing the task ... When he gets to advance training we will find out who has what it takes. Its all about mental toughness .... Don’t try to eat the elephant in one bite.”
Alpi has proven he’s mentally tough by excelling as a foursport athlete at Leland with soccer, basketball, cross country, and track.
Being a diver was the fourth occupation on Jimmy’s top-five jobs list in the Army.
Alpi originally wanted to be an A-15 Whiskey surveillance drone pilot, Apache helicopter mechanic, or helicopter pilot. When Alpi says he is going to be a diver, people are surprised the opportunity is there in the Army.
“I thought it was a very unique job. I would like to be an underwater welder, which is an insanely hard position to get into the first place,” Alpi said. “Just to be able to get the training for that in the Army and not have to pay to do any of it … I think its one of the hardest jobs in the Army. The training rate is a 50% fail rate. I like the challenge,” Alpi said.
If things go well for Alpi, he would certainly attempt to complete a special forces combat diver school.
“If it’s an option in my future to be in a support role for the Rangers or Green Berets or Delta Force doing special forces,” Alpi said.
Alpi applied to four colleges and got into all of them thanks to his excellence in the classroom including Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan University, and Oakland University.
Alpi will ship out on July 16 to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri for 10 weeks of basic training before going to the first phase of diving school in Missouri. After that, he will go to the U.S. Army Naval Dive School in Panama City, Florida.
“If anyone else is remotely interested (in the armed forces) that they should try it out because I think that the GI Bill benefits and the overall experience are going things that everyone should experience at some point,” Alpi said. “One of my concerns if I went to college or university was going to be paying for it. If I end up with an underwater welding certification and I don’t end up going to a college university, I can give my GI Bill to a spouse or kids. Also, the opportunity to serve something a lot bigger than myself is important. It’s something that leaves lasting impacts. That’s something I want to do,” Alpi said.
