THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240204
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF '96
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 74 lines
When Tara Alexander Refo enters the Naval Academy next month, she will be the fourth-generation Refo, dating back to a great-grandfather who is linked to the famous Lee family of Virginia, to attend the Annapolis, Md., institution.
First was great-grandfather Miles Permenter Refo, then grandfather John Frances Refo, then uncle Carter Beaumont Refo.
Now comes 17-year-old Tara Refo, a graduating senior at First Colonial High School, an honors student, an athlete (co-captain of the girls' soccer team), amateur pilot and adventurous spirit.
If all goes well - and there's no reason why it shouldn't - Refo will be one of 120 young women and 760 young men to become part of the class of 2000 at the academy next month.
There won't be much time to bask in the glory of her academy appointment, which was confirmed by a Navy Department letter Jan. 29 and announced Thursday at a First Colonial assembly.
She'll have to report for ``plebe summer'' - basically a boot camp and indoctrination period for future midshipmen and women - only a few days after getting her First Colonial sheepskin June 12.
That means getting in shape mentally and physically to handle the rigors of becoming a full-fledged academy underclassman. She must be able to run a mile in under 6 minutes, do 25 to 50 pushups and situps in a set time and endure a lot of guff from drill instructors and upperclassmen. And that's before classes even start in the fall.
While the imminence of the event has yet to register fully with young Refo, her mother, Jill, can only shake her head and mutter, ``I can't believe it's happening already.''
It will mean severing ties to family, home and friends for at least seven years for a career in the Navy.
But Tara Refo has it all mapped out in her head. She's a determined teenager who has had her eyes on the skies and beyond since she was an elementary school girl.
The plan is as follows:
First, complete her Naval Academy studies, while playing women's varsity soccer;
Second, enter the Navy's flight training program at Pensacola, Fla.;
Third, qualify for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space exploration program;
Fourth, blast off into outer space.
It should take about seven years, Refo estimates, to get from her plebe year to NASA and a shot at space exploration.
She got a taste of Navy flying and space flight preparation as a 10th-grader when she attended the Aviation Challenge Course at NASA's Space Academy in Huntsville, Ala., and wrote of her experience in ``Wings of Gold,'' a trade magazine aimed at the Navy aviation market.
One particular paragraph shows the stuff of which young Refo is made:
``This was a practice mission. I wished it was real. Even so, it was challenging and safe. And I loved it! I loved crawling in a marshy river bed with thorns sticking in my legs and with my face caked with mud. But what I loved most was proving to myself I could anything I wanted to. I had shown that the only limits I had were the ones I put on myself.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Tara Refo, 17, a graduating senior at First Colonial High, is an
honors student, a co-captain of the girls' soccer team and an
amateur pilot.
A SALUTE TO THE CLASS OF '96
FIRST COLONIAL HIGH SCHOOL
No. of seniors: 350
Commencement ceremony: 8 p.m., SUnday, June 9 at Virginia Beach
Pavilion
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB