Hazel Dell — Michael Madrid, a 21-year-old midshipman first class in his final year at the U.S. Naval Academy, faced some huge choices recently: surface warfare or aviation? And what’s for dinner?
Madrid, who will graduate near the top of his class this spring, chose surface warfare and the USS Mustin, a guided missile destroyer whose home port is Yokosuka, Japan. “I want to be forward deployed and get a lot of experience up front, and I think there’s going to be a lot of action out in the Pacific,” he said.
And to help with the second question, he and a colleague developed a free iPhone app called “Next Meal.” It lets midshipmen like Madrid know the next three meals on the menu, from main courses to beverages. It’s an idea he’s been nursing for years, he said, and he was glad when his friend Anson Liu took it on and did the programming.
