Scholarship Recipient Michelle Blessinger’s Rx For a Successful Career: RN

JANUARY 26, 2012 - The death of a parent is a terrible loss, as Michelle Blessinger, the daughter of Air Force Staff Sgt. John Blessinger, knows from experience.

Michelle's dad was one of 14 men aboard Spirit 03, an AC-130H Spectre gunship, when it was shot down in the Battle of Khafji in Saudi Arabia in January of 1991. There were no survivors.

Following that tragedy, the young girl became a member of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation "family” and eligible for a SOWF scholarship, when she was ready.

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Today, Michelle (right, with her boyfriend) is a student at Pierce College in Lakewood, WA, studying to be a nurse. She hopes to land a job as a full-time registered nurse in a hospital trauma unit.

College, she says, "has helped me understand how much I am going to have to work for what I want, as well as, how much I want to achieve my goals.”

Michelle appreciates the support the SOWF has given not only to her, but her boyfriend, a special operator who was injured while serving in Afghanistan.