One of the cadets graduating from the today is repaying the service for saving his life when he was six years old.
According to the Huffington Post, Orlando Morel and several other migrants from Haiti were heading to the United States on a small wooden boat when the vessel got lost. Suffering from lack of food and water, Morel and his fellow passengers were rescued by the Coast Guard.
Morel was sent to Cuba after his rescue, and later reunited with his ill mother at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. He was adopted by Louise Jackson, who was serving in the Navy and acting as Morel's mother's translator, after his mother died.
Morel was inspired to serve in the Coast Guard, and will be part of the 131st commencement class today. A period of service is required of all graduates, and Morel will serve aboard a cutter in Florida.
