Brandon Tseng

Like we had a letter of rec from SEAL team two, uh, commanding officer.

Um, actually, uh,

Master Chief Jay Manti.

I don't know if he was at SEAL Team 2 when you were there at the time.

So, yeah, CMC.

But then, yeah, so you put in the applications, you go in for an interview.

I was competitive.

I did not get a spot right out of the Naval Academy.

Most soul-crushing day of my life up to that point, right?

You take your 10-year-old dream and, like, throw it in the trash.

I remember, like...

you know, they do, they tell everybody what they're doing, right?

You go into this room with your 40 classmates and they say, you're gonna be a pilot.

You're gonna be, they give you an envelope, right?

And you open it up.

Open mine up, you're gonna be a surface warfare officer.

Was crushed, devastated, went back to my room, skipped my afternoon classes.

I think I cried in the shower for like half an hour.

Um, and I was like, all right.

Um, you know, after I was done feeling sorry for myself, um, which was like get a day to feel sorry for yourself.