Charter graduate honored by Merchant Marine Academy

Former Coeur d’Alene resident and 2016 Coeur d’Alene Charter graduate Robert J. Gaines has been named valedictorian of the United States Merchant Marine Academy Class of 2020.

The USMMA is one of our nation’s five federal service academies. In addition to that honor he has also received six academic and service awards from various organizations that support the USMMA and the maritime industry.

Gaines was originally nominated to the Merchant Marine Academy, as well as other service academies by Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, as well as Congressmen Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson.

During his four years at USMMA, he spent a full year at sea working on and learning the operation of commercial cargo ships as well as Military Sealift Command vessels, and in the process visited seven countries.

Gaines also completed an internship at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., completed USMC Leatherneck training, was the Regimental Academics Officer, an academy victim advocate and was president of the O’Gara Academic Honors Society, among other extra-curricular activities.

He is also one of only three midshipmen in his class to complete a Kings Point Scholar Project: an in-depth research project around a chosen topic, similar to a thesis titled, Senior Military Leadership in the Modern Age: Mitigating Battlespace Complexity Through Mission Command.

He is the first class valedictorian to also complete a KP Scholar project.

On June 20, Gaines graduated from the academy located at Kings Point, N.Y., with a bachelor of science in Marine Transportation, a U.S. Coast Guard Third Mate’s License-Unlimited Tonnage, and will be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. He has been selected for USMC Aviation and aspires to pilot F-35 fighter aircraft.